Introduction Before discussing what Joseph knew, we should perhaps begin by considering what we know about Joseph. Despite the fact that we tend to assume we know very little, we may be surprised to discover how much in fact we do know. This is even more surprising when we consider that in the entire scriptural …
Thanksgiving 2013
In a moment I will be going into the kitchen to lift the turkey out of the fridge for Nancy, in the full and certain expectation that she will do the rest. This year we are not celebrating at our house, but will be driving a ham and a supplementary turkey across town to celebrate …
Trigger Alert! Merry Christmas!
In the first place, I would like to draw your attention to this chart helpfully supplied at the web site of one Rachel Held Evans. I will give you a second to go take a gander. As you do so, I would invite you to remember that what is sauce for the gander is sauce …
A Face Like Flint: Palm Sunday 2013
INTRODUCTION:As believers in the Lord Jesus, we have to learn how to see Him as our substitute in all things, and not just in His death on the cross. Jesus did not just die in our place (although He did do that), He also lived in our place. The sacrifice of Jesus was for us, …
Bruise in Us the Serpent’s Head
As we mark the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, we of course begin by celebrating the objective nature of His arrival. He was born in particular town, to a particular mother, in a particular year. He truly lived among us. When the time was fulfilled, He was born of a woman, born under the …
Christmas Started It
To be fair, we ought not to be too hard on the secularists for their ongoing war against Christmas. Because Christmas started it. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there were no doubt people in the surrounding neighborhoods who drank too much, or who quarreled with their wives, or who sometimes shaved the edges of …
Openness Enough
The folks at CT were kind enough to reprint a section of God Rest Ye Merry, and it was the section that urges everyone — in the name of Puritanism no less — to go overboard for Christmas. Now I admit that there are ways of sinning in this, going over the port rail when …
And Slew the Little Childer
Whenever you have to deal with something like the Connecticut shooting, something that simply crushes the heart, it is important to think carefully before speaking or writing. This is not the time to be debating gun control, drone attacks in the Middle East, and it is certainly not the time to be drawing ham-fisted comparisons …
Thanksgiving 2012
I have been thinking about this for some years now, but for certain reasons rhyming with prudence have been putting it off. It has been my practice to publicly register my itemized thanksgiving to God on Thanksgiving Day, and I certainly have had no shortage of material. God is greatly to be praised — “Blessed …
The Holy, Horror, and Halloween
I want to take the approach of yet another Halloween to address something that is increasingly related to it. A few years ago I wrote about the lawfulness of celebrating Halloween itself — at the little kid dressing up level — but here I want to develop further a thought I mentioned in passing there. …