Moving From Slave to Servant to Child: The Soul’s Reckoning of an Immediate Reality of Grace

The soul’s reckoning of God’s work of salvation is a common battle ground for Gospel assurance.  When I say “slave”, I intend that slavery to sin that the unbeliever relishes and continues to live in until they come to Christ.  When I say “servant”, I intend that servitude made explicit in that transference from the [...]

M’Cheyne on a “Full Joy”

An excerpt from his sermon on 1 John 1:1-4 (1839), particularly dealing with “and these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full” -
Other joys are not filling.  Creature joys only fill a small part of the soul.  Money, houses, lands, music, entertainments, friends, these are not filling joys; they are just [...]

Thoughts on a “Brush Over” Passage

Typically, Exodus 22 is not one of those chapters that you take the time to . . . think through.  And this is poor on many of our accounts.  Recent time spent translating the text caused me to slow down and deal with what was in the chapter.  Here are some thoughts, oxen, donkeys, and [...]

Piper on Addressing Justification By Faith Alone in Christ Alone with Your Children

“And to make it more pointed, mothers – and all those charged with training up the younger ones in the family and the church – are we teaching the Old Testament and the New Testament to make our children wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ? The emphasis is on “faith in Jesus Christ”! [...]

Gleaning #3: The Bible’s Theology of the Heart

While American marketing and the larger pop culture advertises the human heart as the seat of foolish, comedic and temporary lust (culturally synonymous with love), the Bible reveals a more comprehensive understanding.  The heart, while remaining tied to the affections, is the seat of the person’s thought life, his or her inner life, the character, [...]

A Series of Gleanings

You must pardon me for my absence, but in God’s providence, life has gently swallowed me up – but not without many wonderful wanderings through the land of the Bible, and in that pilgrimage, a great many gleanings from its eternal richness.  I don’t know particularly how many gleanings there will be jotted upon this [...]

Give Thanks In All Circumstances

Really?  This is what Paul writes to the church at Thessalonica in his first letter (5:18).  It is part of a rather incredible triad of amazing “really?” verses.  ”Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”  So, yes, really!
This morning as [...]

Paul and the Grace of Christ

I was reading in Numbers 35 this morning and fell upon an interesting passage.  In the middle of this text describing the cities of refuge and the different rules for dealing with intentional and unintentional murderers, Moses writes, “Moreover, you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death, [...]

What is Christianity?

Thomas Merton, in his introduction to St. Augustine’s massive City of God, writes:
“In plain words – if you can accept them as plain – Christianity is the life and death and resurrection of Christ going on day after day in the souls of individual men and in the heart of society.”
Thus, it seems, it is [...]

Consider Yourself, Consider Christ

I have recognized in myself the sinful propensity and inclination to think or speak in a belittling fashion towards others – particularly those that I do not know, that I may catch at a passing glance.  And I have recognized the same propensity any many others recently as well.  And this is not surprising, for [...]