Awestruck by the Sovereign LORD

My generation turns to dust, Replaced by youth who age. The cycle's equalizing thrust Turns vanity's next page. For all of life beneath the sun Will end soon after we've begun. Aflood with wealth and wine, I sought to maximize my joy. If pleasure's limit can be bought, The grave will thwart my ploy. For all of life beneath the sun Will end soon after we've begun. In God's good gifts, we should delight. In work. In drink. In food. But with eternity in sight, A life so brief is viewed. For all of life beneath the sun Will end soon after we've begun. To summarize, fear Him. Obey our Lord's commands. For when the sun grows wholly dim He soon will judge the lands. For those who live beneath God's reign Will hope in Him as life does wane.

Jesus' actions never lacked purpose. The care he took in choosing whom to heal, when to pray, and what to say is evident from the Gospel accounts. Therefore, we wouldn't expect any waste in his final hours. The culmination of his earthly ministry had come.  And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." (John 12:23 ESV) How does Jesus spend the remaining hours with his disciples? He establishes a practice that will be repeated regularly for millennia. The Lord's Supper is layered richly with meaning and is a beautiful summary of the breadth of Jesus' work. Looking Back in Faith In the coming hours, Jesus would be crucified. His willing and perfect sacrifice would be presented as a substitute for sinners. For Christ to be glorified, he would be lifted up on a cross. Glory in Christ's kingdom consists of a paradoxical humility. The cross-event is foundational for the follower of Christ. The Christian's entire identity is wrap...

  I wrote a hymn based on Jeremiah 2:11-13. A cistern hewn by prideful hand Will promise empty joys. Amid our idol-laden land, A drought of hope destroys. Exchanging works in place of trust, Denying streams of life, I'm prone to drink the idols' dust, Replacing rest with strife. And then one day, His voice called out. "Oh, taste of me and see. Find life in me the living Fount, A life so good and free." The Spirit gave a heart of flesh That beats with love for Thee. Alive! My soul is now refreshed With life eternally!

Bewitched, you fools! By Law, perfected still? The Spirit you received by faith at first By faith will hold you even at your worst. The Law has saved you not and never will! To be a son of Abraham, believe. Accursed for us! It's Christ upon the tree Who did redeem because he is the Seed So that the Spirit we may now receive. We walk as sons and heirs, enslaved no more. In liberated steps, we're led to bear The Holy Spirit's fruit and show great care To all to let our boast in Christ outpour. A cut of skin is impotent to save. Instead, trust Christ - the sacrifice he gave.

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great. ( Job 2:11–13 ESV) When suffering falls upon us, a good friend is better than gold. The above statement about Job's friends is their high point as friends. Seven days. Seven nights. Then it goes down hill. They proceed to hit Job with wave upon wave of criticism and bad theology. They kick a man when he is down. All of his children are dead. His wealth is gone. His wife is critical. Then his friends try to...

Christianity is not individualistic. Perhaps that is a drum that you've heard me beat before. When someone is saved, they are saved as individuals. I don't want to diminish one's personal relationship with Christ. We do have that, and it is to be celebrated! In fact it is celebrated by the community of faith. However, God has ordained community to be the locus of sanctification. Sanctification is the process by which we are made holy, and it cannot be accomplished without others. It is not that sanctification is more difficult alone. It is that sanctification is not possible on your own. This not some rhetorical flourish or hyperbole. It is thoroughly grounded in Scripture. Jesus' Prayer for Us When Christ is mere hours before death, he prays for us. This majestic prayer is recorded for us in John 17 , and it has been called the High Priestly Prayer. In particular, let's look at verses 20-23. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me ...

The knowledge of the truth and godly lives Will coincide and bear the fruit so sure— The hope, eternal life in Christ secure— Because of Faithful Him who never lies.   As stewards, elders watch the house of God. Above reproach and sober, they uphold The truth and so defend against and scold The empty talkers, Cretans—doctrine flawed.   Our doctrine sound, the older must convey. The grace of God has brought salvation whole, And we renounce our sin for self-control Until our hope is manifest that day.   Astray, our hearts were chained to worldly cares. Then Love appeared—unearned—and made us heirs! 

Recently, Tim Challies posted on Daniel Doriani’s commentary on James. I found it incredibly intriguing, and it was well worth the read. I wrestled with it for days. While I don’t want to dive into the deep end with regard to the continuationist vs. cessationist debate, I would like to examine further healing and the book of James. In his post, Challies shares the following quote from Doriani’s commentary: Sick men and women call the elders as a group. They do not call those with a gift for healing; rather they call all to pray for healing. James says the prayers of a righteous man are effective. Since the first qualification for an elder is holiness—not social standing or theological acumen—the prayers of elders are effective. The elders pray for healing , not for miracles. It doesn’t matter if a healing is quiet or splashy, True healings garner all the attention they need. The reference from the book James is: Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the e...

I am currently reading some of John Owen’s commentary on Hebrews.  I absolutely love John Owen.  He was a great theologian, but he was mindful of the every-day battles. In one place , he writes: FIRST, The illative, “wherefore,” as was first observed, denotes both the deduction of the ensuing exhortation from the preceding discourse, and the application of it unto the particular duty which he enters upon, verse 12. WOW!  That is some academic stuff!  However, only a few sentences later, we read from his pen and his heart: Divine knowledge is like a practical science; the end of all whose principles and theorems is in their practice; take that away and it is of no use. It is our wisdom and understanding how to live unto God; to that purpose are all the principles, truths, and doctrines of it to be improved.If this be not done in the teaching and learning of it, we fight uncertainly, as men beating the air. That is a gem!!!  That is something yo...

One of the arguments used by some atheists is:  Can God, an omnipotent being, create a stone so large that he cannot lift it? They argue that if he is omnipotent, then he will be able to do it.  However, if he does create such a stone, then his omnipotence fails when he is unable to lift it.  Clever, eh?  Well, there is a problem with this argument.  It is logically absurd.  Omnipotence is not thrown into question when we say that God cannot make a crayon so red that it is blue.  By definition, this is absurd.  In the end, the atheist is asking if, in God’s omnipotence, he can make himself not omnipotent.  What looked clever becomes absurd because “omnipotence” actually has a meaning. Syrian king Ben-hadad made some demands of Ahab, the king of Israel (1 Kings 20).  When Ahab denied Ben-hadad his demands, the countries went to war.  We read, “And the servants of the king of Syria said to him, ‘Their gods are gods of the hi...

A few points about the Lord’s supper: The problem at Corinth with regard to the Lord’s supper was probably that one group ate before the other group (cf. 1 Cor. 11:21-22). However, the root problem was that of division. Moreover, Paul was not a moralist. In approaching the solution, he did not want people merely to change their behavior. He wanted the divisions to dissolve because of a deeper understanding of the work of Christ. Communing with each other is not about getting a full belly. You can do that on your own (1 Cor. 11:34). In communion, we are to serve each other as Christ has served us. (1 Cor. 11:33, cf. John 13) In communion, we remember who we are in relation to each other. (1 Cor. 11:28-29) The Lord’s supper is not about the bread and wine. The bread and wine serve as a vivid reminder, an object lesson, directing our affections to God and to each other because of what Christ has accomplished. T...

In part 1 and part 2 of this series, we saw that the church at Corinth was divided when it came together to observe the Lord’s supper. The very nature of the Lord’s supper as a remembrance of the sacrificial work of Christ is opposed to such division. In this post, we examine Paul’s warning for the church: Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another-- if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home--so that when yo...

In the last post , we saw that the Corinthian church was coming together to eat the Lord’s upper with divisions among them. Because of this, they’re not actually partaking of the Lord’s supper. Their eating of the Lord’s supper is actually mocking Christ’s work. The work of Christ on the on the cross is about reconciliation. Think of it this way: How great is the divide between Jew and Gentile or a math nerd and police officer? Then how vast is the chasm between the sinner and God? If Christ cannot bring the Jew and Gentile together or the math nerd and police officer together, he cannot bridge the greater trench between the sinner and God. For there to be a division in the church of God slanders the work of Christ. He has bridged the smaller gaps and the largest chasm! Paul writes to them: For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my bod...

Whatever was going on in Corinth during the Lord’s supper deserved a harsh apostolic rebuke. Paul begins his analysis of this specific situation with a stern reality check: But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. (1Co 11:17-22) Paul will not commend them. He won’t even consider commending them. For Paul, just say...

I'm currently reading through the book of Job. One thing that stands out is that Job's friends always are speaking to Job whereas Job addresses both his friends and God. Here, there was no need for someone to speak on behalf of God, prosecuting Job. A wise man of God wouldn't speak of Job's alleged sin in general terms. In fact, Job's friends cannot speak about his sin because Job is blamelesss (at least at the beginning of the book). What Job really needed was someone to come alongside of him, praying with him. Job's friends shouldn't have spoken on behalf of God to Job. They should have spoken to God on behalf of Job (cf. Job 9:33 ). Praise God for Christ Jesus who is the true friend who will speak to God for us in our trials: Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who is interceding for ...

…that is the question. Andreas Kostengerger and David Croteau search the Scriptures to answer it. You may find their answer provocative. You can find links to their study (in two parts) below: “Will a Man Rob God?” (Malachi 3:8): A Study of Tithing in the Old and New Testaments Reconstructing a Biblical Model for Giving: A Discussion of Relevant Systematic Issues and New Testament Principles Thanks go out to a wiser brother for pointing this study out to me.

From Organic Church (p 211-212) by Neil Cole . While doing some teaching in Japan, I had a dream that Heather, my daughter, started a church. In the dream, a room was full of young people who were all seriously worshiping God. When I returned from the trip, I mentioned it to her just to let her know that she was on my mind and in my dreams while I was away. The next day she said, 'Dad, my friends all want to do it!' 'Do what?' I asked. 'Start a church.' I told her that she would have to do most of the work, and I would coach and lead only a little. She said that was fine. The next day she arranged a house to meet in, picked a night of the week, and found a worship leader; flyers were soon being passed out to friends on campus. After the church had been meeting for several months, I met with these students and we all sang praises to the Lord. I felt the Lord's pleasure. I asked the students what was the biggest church they had ever been to. L...

Here is a good article by Bill Mounce on 1 Corinthians 13.  In the season of weddings, the question of reading 1 Cor. 13 may come up.  What do you think?

Here is a good post on why we should seek to be hospitable rather than just falling into it.

D.A. Carson, in his remarkable commentary on the Gospel according to John, shares a poem of his on “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 I am the way to God: I did not come To light a path, to blaze a trail, that you May simply follow in my tracks, pursue My shadow like a prize that's cheaply won. My life reveals the life of God, the sum Of all he is and does.  So how can you, The sons of night, look on me and construe My way as just the road for you to run?      My path takes in Gethsemane, the Cross,      And stark rejection draped in agony.      My way to God embraces utmost loss:      Your way to God is not my way, but me. Each other path is dismal swamp, or fraud. I stand alone: I am the way to God. I am the truth of God: I do not clai...