Although the message of the Fifth Commandment is clearly a message which is important for children to hear and heed, it is not a message just for children. Everyone who reads this has parents, and everyone who hears has a duty to honor them in the way the Bible describes. “Honor your father and your …
Trailer Committee
A few days ago, I mentioned Guy Waters’ book on the New Perspective on Paul, and did not heap scorn upon it. Rather, I commended it, all but the last eight pages, which really were unfortunate. When I wrote that review, I did not know that Guy Waters was on the committee for Mississippi Valley …
Horton and Wilson
Yesterday I had a very productive conversation with Michael Horton, arranged by the good folks at St. Anne’s Pub, an audio journal. The proceedings were of course taped, and will be available from them in a week or so. While you are there, please check out the other things being done by that most valuable …
Lift Up Your Heads/Psalm 24
The psalter contains all of human experience. In Psalm 22 we saw faith in agony and conflict. In Psalm 23, we saw pastoral peace and trust. Here in the 24th Psalm, we see the majesty of triumph. “The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he …
Grace to God
God of our Fathers, we lift up grace, blessing, and praise to You. We know that we can offer nothing to You that is not being offered back to You, and yet You summon us to this, and delight in us as we offer as gifts to You that which we received as gifts from …
Calendar and Story
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 …