Hank and his wife Suzanne were one of the most active couples in the church. They were leaders in their home-schooling circle, and had been instrumental in getting many parents in the congregation to take their educational responsibilities seriously. In addition to being charismatic and hard-working, they were attractive people, and their young family would …
Just Not When It Mattered
Jack was in many ways an ideal parishioner. He was married, gainfully employed, and with two young children in upper elementary school. He was happily married, and conscientious in church attendance. In addition to this, he was the kind of church member who would diligently seek out pastoral counsel. If he had a situation with …
Think for a Moment
In answer to the question of whether or not Jesus was going to reign over a particular part of the earth or not, the answer that Isaac Watts suggested is an apt one. Well, he asks, does the sun shine on it? Jesus shall reign where’re the sunDoes his successive journeys run. This is a …
#SamePageSummer Guest Post
For more info, go here . . . For as long as I can remember we have been praying for reformation and revival in the church. While I have longed to see the Lord answer that prayer I have also felt the distant and intangible nature of the request. What could we actually do to …
Learning Our Lines
You have been exhorted as a people numerous times to remember who you are in the story you are in. You have been asked to think about what kind of character you are. If the day you are having were a movie, what character would you be? And would it be a sympathetic character or …
Calling It Something Else
The Bible instructs us on how we are to live together. When we do not follow those instructions, there are two kinds of disobedience. One is flagrant, and knows that it is disobedient. When professing Christians give way to these sorts of temptations, the results are called theft, adultery, fornication, sodomy, false witness and so …
Loving Your Creditors
When we live in tight community the way we do, it is not possible for this to happen without some of us becoming indebted to others of us. Scripture says we are to owe no one anything except the debt of love, and this either means no debt or no debt but what is fully …
The Mountain Behind
As Christians who live in history, as believers who occupy time, we want to make sure we understand the tenses of the verbs that describe our salvation. Before the foundation of the world, He has chosen us. That is in the past. His past choice concerns our future—that we should be holy and blameless. Because …
See What Happens
We gather here as a result of the gospel, and we gather as a means of proclaiming the gospel. The ordained evangelist proclaims the gospel to those outside, and the informal evangelist shares the faith with others as it comes up. But all of us together are evangelical Christians, and we are all to be …
Theonomy Is a Many-Splendored Thing
I may say this without fear of contradiction because a poet, one of our own, has taught us that love is a many-splendored thing, and no less than the apostle Paul himself has taught us that love is the fulfillment of the law. “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one …