When the question of “trading insults” comes up, one of the first things we should see is how the false assumption of neutrality has crept into our thinking. An insult is not simple invective, detached from questions of truth. When two football teams play, we require a level playing field, a penalty for one team …
Kindness and Truth Together
One of the ways that we avoid biblical balance in speaking is by assuming some kind of distance between truth and kindness. But Scripture says, “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart” (Prov. 3:3). Merciful kindness and truth go together. They are …
Everlasting Triune Language Events
We are gathered here now to worship the God who reveals Himself. Moreover, we are worshiping the God who reveals Himself by speaking and by writing, and by becoming a human being who can rightfully be called the Word. Those who seek to undermine our confidence in the ability of words to communicate truth are, …
Let It Go
Understanding Scripture is not just a question of understanding a particular passage, but also of understanding its place in all Scripture, and the balance we are called to have in the face of what might appear to be conflicting instructions. In Matthew 18, Jesus teaches us how to confront sin in our midst (and the …
Arrogance Out of Moscow
As I mentioned in a previous post, we are currently in Portland for the ninth meeting of presbytery of the CREC. God has blessed us greatly, and one of the items of business was the division of our presbytery into two, Anselm Presbytery in the west and Augustine Presbytery in the east. We also had …
Worship of the Undefined
We are coming into the presence of our triune God, and we do so in order to worship Him. We are coming to worship Him, and we have not come here to define Him. The Latin word for boundary, or limit, is finis. And so when we define something, we set the boundaries of it. …
Learning from Scandal
Some of the lessons that God appoints for His people to learn from time to time are the lessons that come with scandal. Whenever a situation arises within the Christian community that shocks, grieves, angers, or scandalizes the people generally, we have to remember that this also is from the hand of God. And because …
Making the World New
A central feature of proper Christian worship is a right understanding of the promised presence of God. But too often we assent to such phrases with a superficial and glib understanding — of course God is present with us in worship because He is omnipresent, and this leads us to think nothing unique happens here …
Smoke in the Eyes
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 63 “As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him” (Prov. 10:26). Vinegar to the teeth provokes a strong reaction. Smoke in the eyes is a guaranteed irritant. And …
Straight Line Power
When Jesus came as the long awaited Messiah, He did not play it out according to the anticipated script. Of course, He fulfilled the prophecies that had been given about Him, but over the centuries those prophecies had been gradually turned into something consistent with something that the religious heart of man dearly loves—straight-line power …