In recent years, our society has rapidly embraced what has come to be known as the "cancel culture." If someone has said or done something--at any point in his or her life--that cuts across the grain of the suppose moral rectitude of society, he or she is swiftly excoriated to the point of irremediable social ostracization. An immediate sentence is determined by the masses and pronounced on social media in order to ensure its execution. There is no mercy, no call to repentance, and no hope of restoration...The rashness and widespread nature of the execution is, in part, the thing that makes cancel culture so brutal. The bitter and self-righteous speech of those pronouncing judgment gives the unremitting banter a veneer of justice. This is what makes cancel culture such a powerful weapon; yet, I suggest, a weapon to be avoided by Christians. ...
Paul teaches that Jesus Christ is the source of all godliness. There is no godliness apart from Him. His Person and saving work is the singular and exclusive source of that godliness that God requires and provides. Our God gives what He requires of Himself by coming in the Person of Christ. ...
May we not fall into ritualistic, Christless, and imbalanced approaches to the means of grace in our churches. How we minister the means of grace in the context of public worship is more important than simply professing to be “an ordinary means of grace church.” May the ordinary means of grace be more than a Shibboleth to us....
There is a clear pattern in Scripture of the way in which God uses the praises of His people for their future deliverances and the evangelization of the nations. May we enter into His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise, knowing that our God is enthroned on the praises of His people. We need His deliverance and the watching nations need His salvation....
By restraining wrong opinions about His person and work...
Anselm famously stated that God is "that being of which there is none greater." The members of the Westminster Assembly explained that God is "a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth." The living and true God is an infinite and eternal being. He is also a personal and communicative being. The Triune ...
Keep ReadingUpon the news of a statewide "stay in place" order, our family started singing hymns in family worship that specifically focused on the church. Of course, we didn't stop singing hymns about Christ. After all, Jesus is our God and Savior, Redeemer, Deliverer, Prophet, Priest, King, Shepherd, Brother, and Friend; and, He is the Bridegroom of the Church--which He purchased w...
Keep ReadingRecently--while working through the books of Jeremiah and Lamentation--I have been struck with the picture Scripture gives us of the tender heart of the prophet. Jeremiah has not been called "the weeping prophet" in vain. He weeps with and for the people who are together suffering for the sins of Judah. The pain of exile weighs heavily on the heart of Jeremiah. However, G...
Keep ReadingA number of years ago, I wrote a short series for Tabletalk Magazine on all that Jesus accomplished when He hung on the cross. Here is a summary of the series from one of the posts: "The Scriptures give us a robust revelation about all that Jesus accomplished on the cross. As we go about seeking to categorize all of the various dimensions of the cross, we discover that...
Keep ReadingLast week proved to be quite frustrating. Challenges in scheduling, establishing routine, directing productivity, interacting with family, and going out in public started taking its toll. Rapid circumstantial change combined with a sense of previously unexperienced monotony brought me to a point of undue frustration. Change and uncertainty often serve as an impetus for st...
Keep ReadingThe past three weeks have proved to be an unprecedented time of uncertainty for people throughout the world. Concern over the impact of the coronavirus has seized medical professionals, the elderly, those with weak immune systems, business owners, financial institutions, non-profit organizations, and—most significantly—local churches. This past Sunday, pastors and ...
Keep ReadingJohn Owen--often regarded as the Prince of the Puritan theologians because of his prolific academic theological contributions--is best known for his works on The Glory of Christ, Communion with God, The Holy Spirit, The Mortification of Sin, Indwelling Sin, The Nature and Causes of Apostasy, and The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. However, among the many substantia...
Keep ReadingIn the midst of the current worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, an account about the pastoral ministry of B.M. Palmer in the midst of a yellow fever epidemic came to mind. Yellow fever is extremely contagious and far more deadly than Covid-19; yet, Benjamin Morgan Palmer viewed the fulfillment of his pastoral ministry as of greater importance than his own safety. In The Life and...
Keep ReadingMartyn Lloyd-Jones once notably explained, "When the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it. It is then that the world is made to listen to her message, though it may hate it at first." Nothing is more important for Christian leaders to come to terms with in our day than this truth. History teaches us that when the church has sought to b...
Keep ReadingOne of my favorite things to do when leading a worship service is getting to pronounce the benediction over the congregation at the end of the service. A benediction is a divine blessing from Scripture pronounced by the minister in order to equip God's people as He sends them out into the world to live for Christ. The benediction is found throughout Scripture. Consider th...
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