Anxiety and God’s righteousness

Jesus was concerned to correct false views of righteousness. As an example, Jesus’ most famous sermon — the one given on the mount (Mt. 5-7) was given largely with a view of revealing God’s standard (and provision) of righteousness. The problem, as Jesus revealed it, is that there are competing forms of righteousness and none […]

I have set the Lord continually before me

Contemplating Psalm 16:8-9, Spurgeon [in The Treasury of David] outlines the importance and benefits of an ongoing consideration of and meditation on God: A sense of the divine presence our best support. It yields, 1. Good confidence concerning things without. I shall not be moved. 2. Good cheer within. My heart is glad. 3. Good […]

Suffer well

“Prepare your people for suffering,” one pastor has repeatedly advised other pastors. He’s right. And his counsel imitates what Christ did for His disciples while on earth, and what His Word repeatedly does for its readers even now. Persecution and suffering are inevitable for the follower of Christ (2 Tim. 3:12). Make a choice to […]

Blessings and woes

Every life has good and trouble — or to use the terms of Luke 6, blessings and woes. Each day has some of both. A card of encouragement and a hospital bill come in the same mail box: blessing and woe. A perfectly baked potato and an overdone steak are served as part of the […]

What makes a heart hard?

Examples of people with hard hearts abound in Scripture. Pharaoh is the first one who is explicitly said to have a hard heart (Ex. 7:13ff). He was followed by Sihon (Dt. 2:30), Israel in the wilderness (Ps. 95:8), the inhabitants of the land of Canaan at the return from Egypt (Josh. 11:20), the Philistines when […]

Honoring Christ

It’s late Saturday morning and you are trying to make progress on your too-long weekend to-do list when your door bell rings. You weren’t expecting company and as you go to the door you glance outside the window and don’t see a car in the driveway. “I wonder who it could be,” you muse. You […]

Only God

We like stories. Sometimes they are dramatic, sometimes inspiring, sometimes perplexing, sometimes amusing, and almost always entertaining. But we don’t just tell stories to entertain each other. Our stories have purpose; they are designed ultimately to illustrate a truth and instruct the mind and conscience. The writers of Scripture used stories in the same way […]

I will sing to the Lord

Today is Sunday. So the first part of Psalm 13:6 resonates (at least a little) with us: “I will sing to the Lord.” It’s fitting. It’s right. It’s what we should do. It’s what we have to do. We will sing. But notice why David says he will sing: “because He has dealt bountifully with […]

Nowhere to lay His head

The humanity of Christ is a great comfort for believers. Certainly we are dependent on His deity, for that is where His authority and His redemptive powers reside, yet in His humanity, we have a Savior who is sympathetic to our needs. He understands us and our circumstances (e.g., Heb 4:14-16). Yet it can be […]

Jesus prayed

It’s a short sentence almost hidden (you will miss it if you read too quickly) between two accounts of healing by Jesus: “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray” (Lk. 5:16). Now think about that for a minute. Jesus was a man, but He was also fully God. He had […]

You have a ministry; don’t miss ministry

A friend has told me of an opportunity he had several years ago to invest some money in the stock market. His financial adviser was encouraging him to invest in a small but stable computer company. He wasn’t sure. While the company had a decent reputation, they were small and had never shown overwhelming growth […]

Ministry motives

I was in my first or second or second year of seminary when a retired pastor and an elder in our church stopped me in the hallway between Sunday School and the worship service. “I want to ask you a question. Why do you do what you do? Why are you wanting to be in […]

Three portraits of Christ

In John 2, Christ interacts with three different groups of people: His mother and the members of a wedding party, the Jewish leaders in the Temple, and a broader group of people in Jerusalem. [Aside: It’s interesting that the ones who are most prominent at a wedding — the bride and groom — are not […]

Complacent about God?

Can I ask you a question? Have you become complacent about God? If you’re not sure, then consider these marks of complacency: apathy about worship a sense of emptiness when you read God’s Word a sense of emptiness when you communicate with the God of the universe spiritual dryness an overwhelming feeling of worry and […]

The temptation of Christ

Among evangelicals, there are two ways of thinking about Christ and His temptation. No orthodox believer thinks that Christ sinned, but there is debate about whether he could have sinned. The view that Christ could have sinned is termed peccability (“able not to sin”) while the view that Christ could not have sinned is designated […]