The law of the Lord is perfect, the psalmist says, converting the soul. For the one who receives the word of God in faith, the law teaches us to stay away from the precipice of sin, apostasy, and damnation. The law of God makes the simple wise. Hear then, this warning from the law. The …
Mutual Indwelling
Jesus explicitly prays for His followers to be one, just as He and the Father are one. This is the basis for the likemindedness that we find frequently commended in the pages of the New Testament. But too often we just glide over this, thinking that the unity we are to have is a mere …
Grow Up
You have heard from us that God is triune, and, by God’s grace, you will hear it many more times. Whenever this happens, there is a danger of whatever it is being emphasized becoming an “in-group buzzword,” or some “denominational distinctive.” The fact that the teaching is biblical in many cases does not even slow …
Middle-Aged Congregations
By the grace of God, our church has grown significantly over the years. Also by the grace of God, our church has actually survived through these years. We are now facing the temptations and obstacles that churches our size and our age have always faced. When we were young and small, and no one had …
Prayers and Exhortation
Many of you have heard that there was a sniper shooting late last night and early this morning at the Presbyterian Church here in Moscow. We don’t know many details, but our thoughts and prayers are of course with the victims, and with their families. We also pray for the congregation at the Presbyterian Church, …
Grace and the Three Gs
Martin Luther once observed that young men are tempted by girls. When they are thirty, they are tempted by gold. When they are forty, they are lured and enticed by glory and honor. And when they are sixty, they think, “What a pious fellow I have become!” We too readily confuse the natural waning of …
Story Telling as Subversion
Story telling is a subversive activity. Every culture, every society, has a story to tell of itself. Idolatrous societies tell stories that vindicate their idols, presenting them in the best possible light. You, as Christians, will always be allowed to worship as you please, just so long as you do not do anything to subvert …
Not Nearly Scrupulous Enough
God pronounces a blessing for those who do not lean on their own understanding. Of course, in one sense, our own understanding is the only thing we have. The proverb does not mean that God somehow requires us to think with someone else’s mind, to look out at the world with someone else’s eyes. This …
Another Blast from the Past
Within the last week or so, we have seen the removal of the Ten Commandments from an Alabama courthouse, a removal done on the tyrannical insistence of our federal government, over the courageous protest of Chief Justice Moore. My point here is not to praise or blame Moore, although if it were, I would praise …
Why the World Limps
The world used to be a pleasant place. Occasionally trouble would arise—a plague, or a disaster, or an invasion. But men instinctively knew how to deal with all such events—they would find the one responsible, whether he was responsible or not, take him outside the city limits, and stone him there. The pile of stones …