As we come to this Table week after week, we are approaching the Lord Jesus. We are partaking of Him, and being knit together with one another in love. But sometimes, it might not feel that way to us. Sometimes we are tempted to be discouraged because we don’t sense the progress strongly enough. But …
The Senselessness of It
Sin is senseless. Petty sin is senseless, and high wickedness is senseless. If it made sense, if it lined up with how God made the world, then it wouldn’t be sin. Christians sometimes make the mistake of trying make sense out of sin—whether their own, or the sins of others. This is true all the …
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 …
Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream and Rock n’ Roll
I had an interesting exchange with Rick Warren the other day — but only made possible by some sort of flux in the space/time twitterverse. Rick started it by tweeting this: “There’s no such thing as “Christian music” -only Christian lyrics. The words,not the tune or music style make a song sacred.” This is a …
Hello, Old Friend
Affliction can harden us, and affliction can melt us—just as heat hardens clay and melts wax. The same input can cause two completely different results. And you can see this in people. Some people who, when they go through hard times, get hard. Others go through difficulties and it only makes them more tender. Obviously, …
Unclean Crows All Over It
In Genesis 15, Abraham is told to offer a sacrifice in which the sacrificial animals were divided in two. This was a time when God was going to give him a great promise concerning his posterity, and it was a numinous and holy moment. But when birds came down upon the sacrifice, they were treating …
Hoping to Live in Goshen
A few weeks ago, I addressed the fact that we cannot escape our civic responsibilities by saying something like “don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for him.” Corporate responsibility doesn’t work that way. But at the same time, the point needs to be nuanced. If we vote for economic folly, even if only 51% of …
Being Fitted
The Puritans used to speak of improving their baptisms. By this they did not mean that the sacrament of baptism had any deficiencies, but rather that the sacrament of baptism was a beginning. God is easily pleased with us, and with our improvements, but He is not easily satisfied. In fact, because we will live …
Cheese Whiz and Dryer Lint
For generations, Christian groups calling for “separated living” have been dismissed as legalists. And sometimes, this has been fair—separating from “the world” according to arbitrary standards of some small portion of the ecclesiastical world is legalism. But the fact remains that the Bible does say that we are to not touch the unclean thing, and …
Peek Out the Door
This is a meal indeed, but it is also preparation for the Meal. It is a true Supper, but it is not the final Supper. All of history is God’s preparation for the final Table of rejoicing, the great Supper of the Lamb. In one way we certainly are at the Table. Sit and eat, …