The Lord’s prayer

In prayer (when we are genuine and truthful), our hearts are exposed and revealed as in no other way. That is true as well of the heart of Christ, which makes the Lord’s prayer in John 17 a particularly rich and stimulating passage of Scripture. Of this passage, Melanchthon wrote, “There is no voice which […]

Take courage

Jesus never promises His followers a pain and trouble-free life. In fact, He promises just the opposite. There will be troubles, and often those troubles are because we are followers of Him. As two examples, consider: “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted […]

Life on the farm

One of my favorite pictures from my childhood is a picture that was taken of me and my farmer grandfather. I was maybe four or five-years-old and I was standing with my grandfather in one of his fields. He was surveying the crop; I was more interested in the camera. In those years, I would […]

Fearful?

What do you offer a man who is discouraged and hopeless? What do you offer someone whose world is shattered? What do you offer someone who has captured a glimpse into the future, and the fear of it is not startling, but terrifying in its deadliness? What did Jesus offer the disciples? On Thursday night […]

The Father and the Son

Several years ago, Mark Ashton-Smith was on a planned 4-day kayak trip around the Isle of Wight in England when his kayak capsized. Unable to get back into the canoe and in frigid and rough waters, he reached for his phone (which he’d had the foresight to place in a watertight container) and called the […]

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 […]

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 […]

Sunday Leftovers — The Supremacy of Christ

Christ is supreme over all things. He always has been. When creation began, He was already in existence, co-eternal with God the Father. He was, in fact, the One who created all things. And one week after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, He demonstrated that supremacy for all men to see with His resurrection. That […]

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 — […]

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 […]

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 […]

The innumerable works of God

Of all the attitudes that might be cultivated towards God, one of the most dangerous is complacency. Because God is majestic and supreme to be bored with Him is sin. Because God is infinitely gracious to all mankind and particularly gracious towards those who belong to Him, to take His work for granted is an […]

Is death reason to doubt God?

This morning I read this sentence from J. I. Packer: “It has become conventional to think as if we are all going to live in this world forever and to view every case of bereavement as a reason for doubting the goodness of God.” And then I read this sentence from Jesus (John 11:14-15): “Lazarus […]