The structure of our worship service follows what we call a covenant renewal pattern. First, there is a call to worship, where God’s people are solemnly called to order in the name of Christ, making this a worship service. When we do this, the Holy Spirit gathers us up and escorts us into the heavenly …
How God Made the World
Holidays can be divided up into three general categories. The first would be holy-days, ecclesiastical holidays. In these, the Church remembers and commemorates the life, death, resurrection, and the continued work of Jesus Christ in them—Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. Then we have what we might call civil holidays—like the Fourth of July. And third, …
No Monochrome Deity
As you read the newspaper, as you follow political campaigns, as you watch the evening news, you will see outrage after outrage. But I am not referring to the outrages of private criminals, which can certainly be horrendous. I am referring to the outrages of our elected officials, our appointed justices, our magistrates. Now all …
An Unhassled Bride
Never forget that the point of worship is identical to the point that God has established for the history of our world. The meaning of worship is the same as the meaning of history. God is engaged in remaking the human race in Jesus Christ. There are three main points to the Christian worldview, which …
Mothers Day and Pentecost
This year, as it happens, the church holiday of Pentecost and our cultural holiday of Mothers Day, happen to fall on the same day. There is no deep spiritual significance to this, but it is suggestive of a few things that we ought to consider. Mothers Day is one day a year on which we …
Odd Behavior
In just a few moments, we will come to the point in our service where we confess our sins. We do not do this because we think it should just be part of the drill—because we just want to acknowledge something theologically. Although this does make a theological statement, we are not preaching here; we …
Your Mother Cuts Your Meat for You
Several years ago, Pastor Leithart exhorted us, concerning the public reading of the Scriptures, to seek to listen to the Word rather than to just read along with it. This was done to encourage you to add the layer of simply hearing the Word in worship, and not to subtract the experience of reading the …
In Relationship
One of the most difficult things for us to do is the task of locating sin properly. One common mistake, one that we have addressed a number of times before, is the mistake of locating sin in stuff. This mistake thinks that sin must be resident in material things—in sex, in alcohol, in refined sugar, …
Restoring From Within
We are still in the season of the resurrection, and we would do well to continue to focus our hearts on the meaning of life from the dead. The fact that Jesus was raised in the middle of human history, and not at the very end of it, means that God has not abandoned this …
Unity Unattended
In the book of Ephesians (4:3), Paul tells us that we should endeavor to the keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He tells us to endeavor to do this because if we don’t, unity is not the kind of thing that can be put on auto-pilot. Unity unattended is disunity …