Theology That Bites Back
Introduction: As we continue our consideration of the whole question of gift-giving at Christmas, we have been studying the background. What does the Bible teach about giving and receiving generally, and how can we apply these general principles to specific situations—like our Christmas shopping and our presents? So we started with the ultimate gift of …
Introduction: In the first message of this series, we considered that there are three basic kinds of gifts—the mandatory gift of the tithe, where God is teaching us how He runs the world, the free will gift of the offering, where the student demonstrates that he is beginning to grasp the lesson, and the celebratory …
Introduction: During this Advent season, I want to spend some time in a series of messages working through a theology of Christmas presents. Quite a number of you are going to be spending quite ...
I am trusting that you and yours will have a truly blessed Thanksgiving. Remember that we are not just fighting for those things for which we are most grateful, we are also fighting by means of our gratitude. If things out there are dire — and if you are a regular here, you probably think …
Introduction: The presence of the Lord Jesus, alive just as He had promised He would be, transforms everything. We can see this very clearly in the fall and restoration of the apostle Peter after the resurrection. The account of Christ’s care for Peter is given to us so that we might understand more of His …
Introduction: We are seeking to recover a Christian sense of time and history, and in some sense this means a recovery of the church year. But though we are seeking to escape a secularized calendar, we must never forget that we got this secular calendar (in part) because of a reaction away from the very …
I trust that God has blessed you and yours with a most merry Christmas. That said, it is time for you to go back to fellowshipping with them all, including even your cranky uncle. The normal letters feature here that runs on Tuesday will appear tomorrow, despite the fact that tomorrow is Wednesday. I know …
There are few things in this world more audacious than the doctrines underlying Christmas. And when we say this, we are not just talking about what God has done, in fulfillment of His great and precious promises, but we are also talking about what God is continuing to do, and what He intends to complete. …
Introduction: One of our great temptations is to project doctrinal anachronisms back into the past. When Jesus was living among us, and teaching His disciples, it is pretty easy for us to take post-resurrection realities, or post-ascension realities, or even post-Nicene realities, and project them back into the minds of the disciples. Now these were …
Introduction: Our celebration of Christmas is all about the arrival of the one who was given to us. For unto us a Son is given (Is. 9:6). The Christ was given. God so loved the world that He gave. In Isaiah’s promise, there are two words that are repeated twice, and they emphasize the reality …
