Be steadfast

I like baseball. I have for as long as I can remember. I’ve suffered through four decades of mediocre baseball following my favorite team, the Texas Rangers, before they qualified twice for the World Series (without, alas, the victor’s rings). I’ve acquired thousands and thousands of baseball cards. I still reach first for the sports […]

Understanding New Testament Tongues

While in seminary, I took a required Greek course on 1 Corinthians. As part of the requirement for the course we had to right position papers on three topics that were prominent in the Corinthian church and letter: divorce and remarriage, the role of women in the church, and the sign gifts. The thinking of […]

Tests of love

1 Corinthians 13 is probably read publicly most often in wedding services. When I plan those services with engaged couples, I can almost predict with certainty when I ask, “What passages would you like to have read at the service,” that they will invariably respond with dreamy-eyed glances at each other, “1 Corinthians 13.” And […]

Questions about spiritual gifts

In most Bible-believing and Bible-teaching churches, we are well-acquainted with the Biblical teaching on spiritual gifts (e.g., 1 Corinthians 12). We understand that there are various gifts and various results from those gifts (vv. 4-5) and that God is sovereign over both the giving of the gifts and the effectiveness of the gifts (vv. 6-7). […]

The significance of communion

What is so important about communion? Or is it important? Every month we take time to eat a little piece of bread and drink a tiny cup of juice, and we say that it is an important and significant act of worship. Is it? We know that not only do the gospel writers provide accounts […]

An example and a hope

The Old Testament can sometimes seem obscure and difficult to understand. There are all the laws, sacrifices, and festivals in the Pentateuch that often seem quite disconnected from where and how we live, then there are some weird stories in the historical books (e.g., Judges 19 and 21), and it all culminates in the prophets […]

Running rules

I’m not a runner. (I’ve long said that my body is built for comfort, not speed!) But there is a kind of running that I must do and that all believers must do. We run the race of the Christian life (1 Cor. 9:24-27) — that is, we labor and work in the Christian life […]

A question of liberty

In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul explains the issue of liberty and freedom for the Christian — when is it permissible to exercise a freedom and when should practicing a liberty be avoided? There are numerous questions to answer in determining whether or not to use one’s liberty, and I thought it helpful to make it […]

Four reasons for the unmarried to consider singleness

There are more people than ever in America who are living as singles. Yet even in the American church, while there are more opportunities for singles to serve in minister, there still seems to be a stigma that is attached to being single. So what’s a single person to do? Biblically, singles are free both […]

What has changed?

Transformation isn’t always readily or immediately apparent. Go to a new car lot and it may be hard to tell the difference between the 2012 and 2011 models. But underneath the hood, there are likely to be significant improvements. Or when looking on a store shelf and seeing the label “new and improved” affixed to […]

Dangers of unconfronted sin

We are prone to make many justifications for not confronting evident sin in a fellow-Christian. He won’t listen to me anyway. It’s too hard and too embarrassing for me to do something like that. Wouldn’t it be more gracious not to say anything? Isn’t that only the kinds of things radical churches do? It’s not […]

Imitate me

It is a simple, eight-word statement by the apostle Paul, but it sounds bold, brash, and arrogant to our ears: “Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.” (1 Cor 4:16) Yet there is a sound biblical reason Paul offers this command: he was given to them by God as their earthly spiritual father to […]

Principles of building

For the third time in five years, today we are receiving new flooring in our kitchen and hallways. The first time, we laid new wood floors over some old, tired laminate. We were thrilled with the way it turned out and loved it. Then one Saturday night at 9:00 I went to get a drink […]

What do we believe about the Holy Spirit?

I’ve posted this chart previously, but since we’ve read this morning about the work of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:10-16), I thought it might be a helpful reminder to post a basic synthesis of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit:

Since we believe the cross…

Though the cross is foolishness to unbelieving men (1 Cor. 1:18ff), it is the power and wisdom of God for those who believe (1:18, 21ff). Men look at the cross and ridicule it and shame and despise it. “How might anything good come from a cross?” they mockingly question. Yet the believer understands that there […]