Reformation21

Israel was envious. The nations around them had flesh-and-blood kings, while their ruler was only the eternal spirit-without-a-body Creator of the universe, Yahweh. The people obstinately demanded that God give them a king like all the other nations—and God, in a display of His immense patience,...

Spoiler alert: If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk, a straw, a broom, crayons, and eventually another cookie . The lesson of the story is simply that actions have consequences, which then lead to new circumstances demanding new actions. Every effect becomes itself a...

Iain Murray describes biblical revival as consisting of “…a larger giving of God’s Spirit for the making known of Christ’s glory… a sense of God… not only in conviction of sin but equally in the bewildered amazement of Christians at the consciousness of the Lord who is in their midst" ( Revival...

The matter of sanctification can be simply stated. It has been defined as “the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness” (WSC 35). The manner in which this work progresses in a...

If you are already holy, can you be made more holy? So far in this series, we’ve seen that a biblical view of sanctification sees the doctrine under two distinct-yet-inseparable aspects. Sanctification is initial and definitive in the moment we are saved, and we see this especially in the way the...

Jesus began his ministry in his hometown of Nazareth in Galilee. But when he spoke of Elijah and Elisha ministering to citizens of alien nations rather than within Israel, the people of Nazareth prepare to kill him (Luke 4:28–29). Following his ministry in Nazareth, Jesus continued in Galilee,...

In college, I attended a men’s group Bible study that met Thursdays, dark and early. Over burnt coffee and powdered donuts, our rag-tag band of Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, non-denoms, and everything in between read and discussed the Bible. It was a catalyst of spiritual awakening and...

Is it the done thing now to congratulate online friends when their tweet goes viral? I’m not sure, but in any case, my congrats to online friend Shane Morris for well and truly blowing up Twitter last month with a spicy tweet on millennials, children, and singleness. Shane observes, “Millennials...

How do church deacons help establish God’s kingdom? Many of us might struggle to answer that question. For a number of reasons, the diaconate is often viewed as a non-spiritual administrative committee. Because deacons oversee church money and property we might mistake them simply for parochial...

“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” (Lev. 18:22) “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them” (Lev. 20:13). Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 are some of the most...