Here’s another excellent post by Gretchen! Make sure you check out the sources – Sibbes is a great read! ———————————– A few months back I shared a reflection on a conversation we’d had during the Cor Deo Women’s Programme regarding John the Baptist and how, as a friend of the Lord, he took joy in […]
Most of us have seen or used the bridge to life illustration at some point. Maybe you have even preached your way through it. On one side there is God and on the other there is humankind, and they are separated by a chasm (sin). Perhaps God is represented by a throne or a crown. […]
Life according to Jesus, Paul, and John is black and white. You either love darkness & hate the light, or you love light & hate the darkness. Where’s the middle ground in all this? Where’s the grey area? Only in our rationalizations that make us believe that “I’m a good person if I do [fill […]
I recently upgraded the operating system on my computer. Frustratingly I now have a computer that freezes periodically. The only solution appears to be reaching for the power button for an enforced reboot. God created humanity and soon saw them corrupted by sin. It was not gradual. We read of the fall into sin in […]
Paul’s heart-wrenching farewell speech to the Ephesian elders (Acts 20) had to have been a life-marking moment never to be forgotten. With tears in their eyes and lumps in their throats, they carefully listened to Paul’s pleas for them to be prepared for fierce wolves that would attempt to ravage their flock. I wonder what […]
Boredom. It can set in for all different kinds of reasons. I remember as a kid, it was usually because what had previously entertained me became predictable. Overuse (or abuse) of that entertainment meant that playing video games, shooting hoops, watching TV, riding my bike, etc., began to grow stale. Somehow, in some way, I […]
One of the prevailing responses to the message of free-grace or the freedom found in Christ is fear. This fear has as its basic assumption that free-grace in Christ won’t actually lead to good works, but leads to inactivity at best or licentiousness at worst. Instead, one must see the Law as God’s means to […]
When I was growing up my grandparents had an in-ground pool in their backyard. It was the place to be on a hot summer afternoon in Oregon. Here the whole extended family would gather around good food and the coolness of the swimming pool. We all loved these days. As the family enjoyed each other […]
The human problem is far greater and deeper than we’ve ever imagined. Not only are we all guilty before God, but we are also dead-hearted toward God and we don’t have His Spirit uniting us with Christ or with each other. This was not God’s design. He made us to live in the freedom of […]
A feisty debate stirred the New England churches in 1636. The question at stake was the nature of faith—what is it that makes a Christian? In an early exchange of letters between two of the pastors, Peter Bulkeley asked John Cotton whether he would agree that there must be “the work of faith in us […]
