Thanksgiving in the midst of war is not an incongruity; it is one of our chief weapons. The Lord prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies (Ps. 23:5). We are not yet privileged to sit down in Isaiah’s hall, where the trumpet and spear are mounted in places of honor, where …
Joy and Exasperation
Thanksgiving is this coming Thursday, and it is a time—all over our nation—when people sit down to a feast with people who are dear to them, and who are also exasperating to them. This is why holidays like Thanksgiving are often filled with joy, and with tension. This is why our reunions contain both laughter …
The Gilded Rule
Perhaps we should rename the Golden Rule, and call it the Gilded Rule. What Jesus actually taught has been wrapped up and stored in the attic, while a poor substitute—which is “expect everybody to be comparatively decent”—has been plated with a flakey, golden looking substance, and placed on the mantel. And our workaround understanding of …
Fussers and Ladder Kickers
We have a strong religious tendency to get things backwards. We have a strong religious tendency to keep things exclusive. We have a strong religious tendency to want to climb up on the high platform of grace, and then to kick the ladder away, so that the riff raff cannot follow us up. This tendency …
Tend To Your Own Knitting
One of the great Pauline principles we have to be reminded of on a regular basis is the principle called “minding your own business.” As soon as we move away from a realm of life that we are not directly responsible for (as in, our own job, our own family, our own sanctification), and we …
Spiritual Dropsy
In Luke 14, we read an account of a time when Jesus was invited to share table fellowship with Pharisees at a Sabbath meal. He accepted the invitation even though they arranged to have a man with dropsy there, a man with an unquenchable thirst. They did this as a trap at a meal of …
Shopping At Cabela’s Isn’t Fishing
I have mentioned to you before that we want to be focusing on coordinating our ministry as a congregation as we live out our profession of faith in our community. We don’t intend to bind anyone’s conscience in any of this, but we do want to urge you, as the Lord leads, to join together …
Cleaning Smudged Mirrors
When we finally behold Jesus Christ in His fullness and glory, we will be like Him fully—for we will see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). That is when the capstone is placed at the top of the new Temple, that is when the work in finally and completely finished. But God is no …
The Table as Winnowing Fan
In Romans 16, the apostle Paul tells us to note those who cause divisions, and to mark and avoid them. He says in the next breath that one of the things that such divisive people do is “deceive the hearts of the naïve” (Rom. 16:18). This kind of smooth (and sophomoric) talk is very easy …
Right and Wrong Notes
God tests men according to their ways, and according to the fruit of their doings. This means that there are not only right actions and wrong actions, but also a need to see the context and outcomes of various actions. As C.S. Lewis points out in Mere Christianity, there are not two kinds of notes …