The lovingkindness of God

“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised” (Ps. 48:1). The words are familiar to us. He is great. We do praise Him. But do we think on Him in ways that are fitting of Him? Do we consider His character and His activities and recognize them as the facets of greatness that they […]

Christ, the Servant

Jesus is the greatest of all men. He is greatest not because He is like every other man, but better. He is greatest because as a man, He is incomparable. He is the God-Man (both fully God and fully man), and that separates Him from every other person in the category of men. There is […]

The flesh is weak

The crucifixion of Christ would occur within hours. So Jesus went to the garden to pray and asked the three disciples in the “inner core” — Peter, James, and John — to also pray (Mk. 14:32-42). These were not immature or ungodly men. They loved Christ. Peter had just professed that he would die for […]

“It must happen this way”

Last week was the Passion week, which culminated in Easter Sunday. Many spent the week reading and contemplating the final events of Christ’s life before the cross. And then this week our Bible reading plan has taken us to that same week again. Isn’t that just too much about the cross? Do we really need […]

Judgment is coming

It was Spring of my sophomore year in college and I had a bad case of spring fever. A group of friends was headed to the beach on one particular day, and I had a dilemma — “beach or class?” Sand and surf won out over desk and discourse. The next week I walked back […]

When Christ returns

When Christ returns (see Luke 21:25-38), He will come “with power and great glory” (v. 27). He is the Son of Man — a title that emphasizes His humanity, but also is a reference to His Messianic authority — I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like […]

God, our refuge

While redeemed from sin, no believer in Christ lives perfectly. Every believer knows the daily (hourly? minute-by-minute?) battle with the flesh. Paul knew it (see Romans 7:14-25) and so do we. How can a believer stand more effectively? What will transform our hearts and change the way we live so that we are more like the […]

Unless the Lord had shortened the days…

Psalm 1 says it about as simply and clearly as it can be said: “the wicked will not stand in the judgment” (v. 5). But few believe it. Ask an unbeliever about hell and the judgment of God and he will characterize them as a debauched party with friends or something severe, but manageable — […]

The Olivet Discourse

Matthew 24-25, commonly called “The Olivet Discourse,” relates to Israel at the end of the age; it has nothing to do with the church, which will have already been raptured out of the world when these events happen. What follows is a brief outline of the events of Matthew 24: The first half of the […]

The sins of hypocrisy

Hypocrisy. Say the word and undoubtedly some past experience, activity, or person comes to mind. When we hear that word, we remember the hypocrisy and inconsistencies of others. We remember their failures and how they sinned against us while purporting to have attained a level of righteousness. We think of their lives and we look […]

You can reject Christ

Paul tells Timothy to “remember Jesus Christ” (2 Tim. 2:8). Specifically, Timothy is told to remember the resurrection of Christ and the Messianic fulfillment of Christ. In keeping with that command, this week is the great remembrance of Christ and His work. There is nothing that Jesus did or does that surpasses what was accomplished […]

What belongs to God?

In the final days of Jesus, His opponents used various means to attempt to discredit His teaching and malign His character. The questions they asked were not genuine desires to learn from Him or to clarify their understanding; the queries were not-so-cleverly disguised attempts to trap Him into saying something unintended that would make Him […]

Hope in God

Three times the Psalmist says in Psalms 42-43 that he should hope in God. He says this as a reminder to himself because he is in despair. He is discouraged and distraught — even brought to tears (Ps. 42:5) by a variety of pressures and burdens: attacks from critics who deny the reality of God […]

What happened when Jesus died

Jesus made His way into Jerusalem with the praise and adulation of the crowds on Palm Sunday. And when it was over, the people went home and the Pharisees said to each other, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him” (Jn. 12:19). They were wrong and […]

He came in the name of the Lord

Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, and this morning’s Scripture reading (Mark 11) recalls the event of Christ’s ride into Jerusalem. There was much joy that day and declarations from the Psalms of Praise were sung as shouted as Jesus and the crowds processed into Jerusalem. One statements that was called out was, “Blessed is He […]