Reformation21

After two years of the coronavirus, Christians are facing two temptations in relationship to the body of Christ. You might experience one or even both of these tendancies in your own life. I call them “a failure of heart” and “a failure of nerve.” [1] A Failure of Heart A failure of heart is to...

There are only 335 days until Easter. Are you excited yet? For many, Easter is a highlight in the annual life cycle of a church family. We mark our calendars months in advance. Our anticipation brightens and warms with the Spring. We clear our schedules of competing commitments and bend our lives...

Thieves are typically pegged under one of two caricatures. The first is the burglar ruffian who picks your pocket, breaks into your car, or steals your Amazon package. The second is the white-collar fat cat, embezzling from his employees and clients or pulling the strings of a Ponzi scheme. Both...

Jonathan Edwards’ short essay on Undiscerned Spiritual Pride [1] is something that should be read by all pastors or Christians in leadership positions. In that work Edwards writes, “The first and the worst cause of errors, that prevail in [our day], is spiritual pride . This is the main door by...

Every sinner effectually called by God receives the grant of repentance. God has mercifully provided a way for restoration His covenant of grace—a restoration that can overcome even our most grievous sins. This was the subject we saw last time in chapter 15 of the Second London Baptist Confession...

“You shall not steal” – Deut. 5:19 Back when Immanuel Church Nashville was first planted, Ray Ortlund made a case for spending money so people could have Starbucks brand coffee in the lobby. Setting aside the fact that Starbucks coffee by itself is not actually that good (it’s the blends), he made...

Note: This article is part of a series on terminology related to homosexuality. God loves binaries. In creation, he separated light from darkness (Genesis 1:4), the waters above from the waters beneath (verse 7), the sea from the dry land (verse 10). We should be glad for each of these binaries. A...

On April 4, the University of Kansas men’s basketball team won the NCAA Division 1 tournament. The whole Jayhawks season—hours of training and playing, wining game after game to make the tournament, and then five straight wins against the strongest teams—all of it came down to this last game. Lose...

When God made a covenant with Abram in Genesis 17, He emphasized covenant blessings and stipulations that extended to successive generations. The Hebrew prose style of repetition adds a poetic quality to this lovely and reassuring verse: And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your...

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) The way of the cross is about Christian discipleship, and the problem is that there is very little actual following of Jesus Christ in our time. Discipleship means forsaking everything in...