2013 Bible Reading Plans

For several years, our church has read through the Bible annually. Last year, we created another plan in which individuals could read chronologically through the New Testament and consecutively through the Psalms. This year, we have not only updated last year’s plan to correspond to the dates of the new calendar, but we are also […]

They deserve it

It is perhaps the most oft-spoken objection against circumstances and God: “That’s…not…fair!” Virtually every hardship will elicit that comment — everything from overcharges in a store or a flat tire to a five-year-old’s cancer or a tsunami that destroys tens of thousands. And certainly it is the primary complaint against God’s judgment of the unrighteous. […]

Two truths about God’s wrath

It seems somewhat inappropriate to think and write and talk about the wrath of God at Christmas time. Shouldn’t we be thinking about gifts, friends and family, food and fellowship, joy and happiness? How can we think about wrath — God’s judgment and condemnation at Christmas? Yet the wrath of God is linked to the […]

They want to get away

It is the nature of the ungodly to seek to escape God. In introducing his important book, The Long War Against God, Henry Morris writes, The denial of God — rejecting the reality of supernatural creation and the Creator’s sovereign rule of the world — has always been the root cause of every human problem. […]

The Lamb and His book

Just about everything we know about the Book of Life is from Revelation (cf. Rev 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27; the only other reference is in Phil. 4:3). And here’s what we know. It is a book about life (how’s that for insightful?). It’s not that the book itself imparts life, but it is […]

What do you know about Satan?

If we are not careful, it is easy to be duped into adopting the world’s caricature of Satan — he is a mischievous cartoonish red character with a pitchfork, horns, and a spiked tail who desires us to do wrong, but probably shouldn’t be considered as wholly evil. He is someone to be laughed at […]

Recent sermons updated

I’ve been remiss in keeping up with my “Recent Sermons” page. However, this afternoon I updated it with a list of the sermons I’ve preached during the past four months at Grace Bible Church. You can download or listen to them here.

Jesus Christ learned obedience

The writer of Hebrews says of Jesus, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Heb 5:8). There has been much debate about what that exactly means. In his recent (and excellent) book, The Man Christ Jesus, Bruce Ware offers two explanations: 1) Although Jesus was a Son, and […]

Sunday Leftovers — He knows our troubles

We know that Jesus did not sin. But we can wrongly infer from that truth that life was easy for Him. It wasn’t. He felt the troubles of life as no other man has ever felt them. And that means that not only has He experienced the trials of life Himself, but that He really […]

A favorite Santa Claus story

What’s your favorite Santa Clause story? Nathan Busenitz tells his favorite story of the real Santa Claus, the fourth-century pastor Nicholas of Myra: Tradition says that Nicholas was one of the bishops attending the great council [of Nicaea]. As he sat listening to Arius proclaim views that seemed to him blasphemous, his anger mounted. He […]

Coping with affliction

Joel Beeke talks about some lessons he learned about suffering from the puritan Arthur Hildersham that he learned while enduring three rounds of the removal of basal cell skin cancer from his face yesterday: Just as my murmuring began to pick up, I came to a remarkable section of the book about the afflictions that […]

Will God’s wrath relent?

Reading a book like Revelation can leave one overwhelmed by the relentless onslaught of God’s wrath. Chapter after chapter devastating destruction pours from God’s throne. It is grievous and wearying. Will it ever stop? Will God’s wrath relent? Will suffering cease? Revelation 10-11 provide some hope for the end of God’s wrath and God’s provision […]

He didn’t repent?

I do not remember a time when I have not been in a church. And in all those years of memories, I have seen and heard many tales of perverse sins, both inside and outside of the church — drug and alcohol abuse, financial misdeeds, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, unbiblical divorce and remarriage, physical assault, abuse […]

It’s about to get quiet

Last night we finally decorated our Christmas tree (as usual, the topper is crooked). When we finished, we did what we generally do. We turned out all the lights except the ones on the tree and enjoyed looking at the beauty. We talked a little bit, but we also were quiet and just looked. It […]

Broken, yet intricately woven

From Emily Armstrong, wife of blogger Aaron Armstrong: I was diagnosed with epilepsy on Friday. My first thought was, “This is very inconvenient.” I asked the doctor how it happened, but there is no apparent cause. It just is. I didn’t do anything to cause epilepsy, nor is anyone else responsible for it. I find […]