“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11) Growing Dominion, Part 7 One of the great legacies of the Reformation is the idea of calling. Prior to the Reformation it was assumed that serving God in a serious way meant going into a monastery, or some kind of spiritual equivalent. The resurgence …
Suspensions From the Supper
INTRODUCTION The purpose of this message is to explain and defend a certain practice required by our church constitution, and to do so in the only manner acceptable to us, which is through an appeal to the Scriptures. In recent months, we have had a small flurry of suspensions from the Lord’s Supper, which has …
Auburn Avenue Hubbub (AAH) Cool Quote #6
“Almighty God, Heavenly Father, we give you eternal praise and thanks, that you have granted and bestowed upon this child your fellowship, that you have born him again to yourself through your holy baptism, that he has been incorporated into Your beloved Son, our only Savior, and is now your child and heir.” Strasbourg Psalter …
No Level Playing Field/Psalm 7
The psalm is by David. The occasion of it was a slander by a particular man named Cush, a man from the same tribe that David’s adversary Saul was from. The psalm is a shiggaion, a “wandering,” which probably refers to a very intense, dithyrambic poem (cf. Hab. 3:1). In his zeal for vindication, David …
Put Them Down
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. You are coming before God on the day when He made all things new. You are coming to Him on the day when He inaugurated the new creation. You are coming to Him on the day when the sabbath …
Work and Jobs
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11) Growing Dominion, Part 6 Dominion is a frame of mind and heart. It is not marked by work only — because slaves also have to work. The difference is this slaves work at a job; Christians are summoned to a calling. When jobs diminish, …
Psalms and Culture War
Our worship here is the center of all our endeavors in the surrounding community. We look to God here, now, for His own sake. But at the same time, the right worship of God should inform, drive, and inspire all our efforts at local culture building. Our problem has been that because our worship has …
Transactions of Grace/Psalm 6
We come now to one of many penitential psalms — psalms expressing grief and sorrow over sin, with a cry for God to extend His mercy and grace. “O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger . . .” (Ps. 6:1-10). Again, this is a psalm of David. We are not given the occasion for …
God is No Miser
The Table of the Lord is a rich table, one that is filled with all good things. We who have been invited to that Table are not filled with all good things. The point, one that Scripture makes over and over again, is to bring about a transfer. What God has, He gives to us. …
Anabaptists in Puritan Face Paint
When was the first appearance of the strict regulative principle? And what does this tell us about certain deep affinities between certain streams of the Reformed faith and the streams of other communions? I have before charged that some of the pietists in the Reformed world are completely at odds with their own heritage. And …