Our confession of faith, the Westminster Confession, describes this meal as “the sacrament of His body and blood.” The first purpose they list for the observance is the perpetual remembrance of His sacrifice on our behalf. We have already addressed this, noting that the remembrance is for both God and His people. But there is …
Penitential Seasons
INTRODUCTION: We are nearing the conclusion of the historic season of Lent, the preparation season for the celebration of Easter. This is Palm Sunday, the day in which we mark and celebrate the Lord’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. As we are trying to orient ourselves by and with a Christian year, instead of the secularized …
No Countermeasures
When we gather to worship the Lord, when the call to worship is uttered, the Holy Spirit gathers us up, and ushers us all into the heavenly places where we then worship God in the name of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. We have not come to a mountain that can be …
Wishing for a Doritos Commerical
Once a father and son were watching the news together, and since it was political season—a primary was looming in their state—not only was the news crammed full of information about the candidates, so also half the commercials were paid political ads, crammed full of lack of information about the candidates. Staring glumly at the …
Perpetual Remembrance
When it comes to marked events, there are two ways to remember them. One is to avoid forgetting, and the other is to enact what you have never forgotten. We mistake when we think that the first kind of remembrance is the only kind there is. But when the Bible says that the Lord remembered …
Loving Little Ones 4
INTRODUCTION: Thus far, we have considered the context of all child-rearing, the attitude underneath all child nurture, and the mechanics of discipline. We will finish this short series on loving little ones by addressing a miscellaneous collection of remaining issues. THE TEXTS: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that …
Partaking of Him
God loves matter. He invented it, He created it. God is the God of heaven and earth, which means that He is the God of earth and heaven. This means that He is Lord over all that is earthy. When we are coming to this Table, we are feeding on bread and wine, not abstractions. …
Why Is This Sin Privileged?
Once two men were talking about spiritual things and they finally came to an open disagreement. They had been friends for many years, but this was an area they had never talked about—not because they hadn’t been aware of the difference between them, but because they had been. It was, as you might guess, a …
Loving Little Ones 3
INTRODUCTION: Mankind has had, in various cultures, different metaphors to describe the workings of our internal psychology. For example, we easily speak of the difference between the “head” and the “heart.” The head represents propositional assent while the heart represents genuine commitment. But the biblical writers had a different set of internal organs to represent …
I Take Your Point
Once there were two women, next door neighbors, who were on pretty good terms. One was a Christian and the other was not, but still they got on decently enough. This lasted for several years, until one day the Christian woman noticed that her friend was becoming irritable and easily annoyed. This increased over a …