This is the first Lord’s Day of Advent, the beginning of the church calendar year. One of the most important things we can learn in our celebration of this is the foundational truth that calendars are not silent—calendars always tell a story. Now just because a calendar tells a different story from ours does not …
The Empty Chair
In their celebration of Passover, the Jews keep an empty chair for Elijah, the forerunner of the Messiah. As Christians, we confess that both Elijah and the Messiah have come, and we mark that coming in faith by our participation here, at this table. And so, in a very real sense, this table has no …
If the Federal Vision Were a Beer
My friend Cal Beisner sent me a copy of a new P & R book, which I just finished reading this morning. The book was entitled Justification and the New Perspectives on Paul, so guess what it was about. Overall I would rate it as a very fine book, one that I highly recommend, but …
Thanks Be to God
Here it is, Thanksgiving 2004. We need to start taking this holiday as one that is fundamentally apologetic in nature. I am using “apologetic” in the sense of “defending and articulating the faith,” and not in the “so sorry” sense. In the first chapter of Romans, St. Paul argues that the heart of unbelief naturally …
Shadowlands
God of all deliverance and salvation, our lives are a mist and shadow, and then we pass away. All flesh is grass, and we wither and die. And yet, in Your great wisdom, according to Your Word, which does not wither and die, You have set eternity in our hearts. You have made us in …
The Architecture of Time
Next Lord’s Day marks the beginning of the Christian calendar, being the first Sunday of Advent. There are four Sundays in Advent prior to Christmas, and next Lord’s Day, in place of parables, there will be a series of exhortations related to the season. General exhortations linked to the church year will continue after Christmas …
To Step Into Them
Gracious God and Father, we thank You for all the blessings that You have poured out upon us this last week, and we look forward in faith to what You will allow us to do in this coming week. We thank You that the good works which we will do were prepared by You, before …
Foundations of Marriage II
Introduction: We have already considered how discontent is a universal corrosive, and how those who are discontent cannot learn to live biblically in the married state. But discontent is not the only sin in the world, and we have to consider a few other reasons why many professing Christians might not be able to learn …
Foundations of Marriage I
Introduction: Marriage is instituted by God, and rightly understood it is one of the most glorious pictures of the gospel given to man. And of course, abused as it often is, it presents a potent false gospel as well. That false gospel either seduces people into a sentimental mess, or it presents a caricature that …
Auburn Avenue Hubbub (AAH) Cool Quote #12
From Death of Death by John Owen “[Christ’s] own exaltation, indeed, and power over all flesh, and his appointment to be Judge of the quick and the dead, was a consequent of his deep humiliation and suffering; but that it was the effect and product of it, procured meritoriously by it, that it was the …