For reasons I don’t need to go into here, I have been mulling this last week on godly ambition, and the desire to make a difference in the world. For, of course, there is a dangerous counterfeit here. Wanting to change the world is one of the most predictable and worldly things we can do. …
Secret Sin
As we bring up the subject of secret or hidden sin, a few preliminary cautions are in order. We are not concerned with sins that might have been committed by somebody else but weren’t. Nor is this about sins confessed and forgiven. This is not a post put up to stumble the introspective. The sole …
Sins Are Like Grapes
Sins are like grapes; they come in bunches. This explains two things that often mystify parents or teachers, but allow me to explain. Often a child gets into a blue funk, bad attitude, the works. Demeanor surly, nothing helps, you know the drill. This can be seen most clearly in little children, who do not …
The Way of Turmoil
Last Sunday night night one of our Greyfriars preached a fine message at Evensong on the subject of comfort. God comforts us in all our afflictions so that we might be able to extend to others the comfort we ourselves have received (2 Cor. 1:3-4). This was solid food for thought, as good messages are, …
Strange Contentment
INTRODUCTION: Rightly understood, contentment is impossible to understand. A preacher who sets himself to explain it is therefore heading into treacherous waters. He needs to take care to explain only those aspects of it that are laid out in the Word, and then leave the the Holy Spirit to His work in bringing about contentment …
Difficult Relationships
INTRODUCTION: For a number of years, we have been emphasizing community, life together, fellowship, communion, what the New Testament calls koinonia. The response to this emphasis has been significant—showing that there is a real spiritual hunger for this kind of thing. But there is a hitch—other people are involved. A number of months ago, Doug …
Where Peace Rules
Rightly understood, contentment is impossible to understand. A preacher who sets himself to explain it is therefore heading into treacherous waters. He needs to take care to explain only those aspects of it that are laid out in the Word, and then leave the the Holy Spirit to His work in bringing about contentment in …
A Word to NSA Students
We are halfway through Jerusalem Term, and so it is appropriate for me to bring you a few words of exhortation — what your academic dean described to me as a few kicks and hugs. This I am happy to do, and after thinking it over, I decided to speak to you in a Mosaic …
Sanctified Satire
With regard to our broader ministry, one of the things we are asked most frequently concerns the propriety of satire. How is satire consistent with the biblical requirements to consider others better than yourselves, to bear one another’s burdens, to love one another, and so on? The answer to these questions is to be found …
Bitterness
Bitterness is something which tempts us to be distracted, and this keeps us from looking where God’s Word requires us to look. And because bitterness has deceived many, it is our responsibility to pray that the God of heaven would teach us to be wise about this great evil. And when they came to Marah, …