When Christians publicly confess the truths that the church has always confessed, God is distinguishing between the church and the world...
Pastors must learn to strike the balance between pastoring people through the daily needs of their lives and courageously tackling false teaching that threatens the purity of the gospel and the church. Ministers should consider themselves to be, first and foremost, shepherds of the flock of the Lord Jesus which God has entrusted to their care. If they must engage in public controversy, let them do so with prayerfulness, patience, and a pastoral-heart. It is far too easy to make public platforms a counterfeit for pastoral ministry; and, in so doing, to lose the pastoral tone requisite when engaging in polemics ...
In all that happened to him, Daniel was serving the purposes of God in redemptive history. He was standing as a typical last Adam, gaining representative dominion over the threatening powers of darkness and subduing even the ravenous bests. In the destruction of Daniel's persecuting enemies, God was foreshadowing the judgment that He will pour out on the wicked in the last day. In Daniel's being thrown into the lions' den and bring brought out whole and alive, God was giving us a prefiguration of the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is in that death and resurrection that the new creation is secured, the enemies of God conquered, and the people of God exalted. In this way, Daniel 6 is not so much about Daniel in the lions' den as it is about Christ in the lions' den of the wrath of God for the redemption of His people and the consummation of all things. ...
Excoriating pastors for being abusive seems to have become par for the course these days. Much of this is in reaction to a failure on the part of churches to hold their leaders accountable. Usually, charges of abuse come in the context of a pastor who has supposedly bullied his elders, staff, or members of the church. Sometimes it is in relation to a pastor who is charged with covering sexual abuse in the church and has not done his utmost to defend the accuser and bring it to the proper authorities. Still, at other times, it may come in response to the perception of hyper-masculinity or oppressive patriarchalism that is said to foster a culture in which women are oppressed in the church their gifts asphyxiated. In whatever legitimate form it may arise, Christians should be ready to decry pastoral abuse. However, as finger pointing commences online, the opposite danger inevitably surfaces. Under the notion of exposing "pastoral abuse," well-meaning believers imperceptibly begin to fall into the snare of "pastor abuse."...
Jesus is the rock who followed the Israelites throughout their wilderness journeying. When they complained, God graciously answered their accusations by placing Himself in their place under the rod of His own justice. In this type, we discover that Jesus steps in the place of His people on the cross to be struck with the rod of divine justice. Now that He has offered Himself once-for-all without spot to God, we are called to simply ask Him for the living water, and He has promised to answer us for the soul-quenching blessing of the Spirit. ...
Jesus’ prayer in the Garden reflected what was going on in His heart. The Savior was not recoiling from the eternal plan of redemption. He is not faltering at the thought of the physical suffering He was about to endure. His soul was weighed down with grief over the prospect of having the unbroken communion He had experienced with the Father every second of every day of His life broken when He would be forsaken under the wrath of God. It would have been sinful for the sinless Son of God to want to lose the sweet communion and fellowship that He had with His Father....
Scripture teaches that there will be a last day when the infinitely just and holy God will exercise perfect justice--showing a full manifestation of His mercy to those for whom Christ has satisfied divine justice (Eph. 2:7) and pouring out His wrath on unbelieving men and angels (Matt. 7:21...
I have several friends in ministry who recently unplugged from social media. When a particular flashbulb, social media incident precipitated angst and outrage on "Christian twitter," my friends remained calm and steady. When I asked if they had heard about such and such a occurrence, they nonchalantly shrugged it off. I was envious of the freedom they were evidently experiencing. They were not carrying burdens they did not need to carry....
The justification of the believer is as sure as the resurrection of Christ. In fact, the resurrection of Jesus is the assurance that there is "no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." When a believer struggles to be settled about the once-for-all nature of their justification before God, he or she must look on the crucified and risen One by faith. Jesus was justified before Hod in His resurrection so that we might be justified by faith in Him. ...
I have always been astonished by the magnitude of Jesus' last miracle prior to His atoning death on the cross. As His attackers came to take Him by force, Simon Peter stood ready to defend His Master. With sword drawn, he struck the ear of Malcus, the servant of the High Priest. F.W. Krummacher notes the sense in which most professing believers would respond had they bee...
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If we have discovered anything about Christians during this pandemic, it is that so many are ready to divide with other believers on the basis of their opinions over face coverings. The better part of ministers I have spoken with are exhaustednot simply from trying to lead a congregation through the challenges and logistics of when and how to gather for worship, but from d...
Keep ReadingA number of years ago, the church I planted decided to include a section for "prayer requests" on a visitor card that we handed to first-time visitors. Needless to say, after numerous visitors took a cue from the world of celebrity award shows and wrote "pray for world peace," we decided to discontinue that section of the card. It was obviously not because we did not des...
Keep ReadingThere 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....
Keep ReadingBy restraining wrong opinions about His person and work...
Keep ReadingIn John 10, Jesus contrasted two diametrically opposed religious leaders--the Good Shepherd and the hirelings. He was, of course, referring to Himself under the figure of the Good Shepherd and the Pharisees, Scribes, and Chief Priests under the figure of the hirelings. Using figurative speech, Jesus explained that the Good Shepherd calls His own by name (v. 3), goes befo...
Keep ReadingWe live in a culture in which there are two competing sources of authority vying for the minds and hearts of professing Christians–--the Bible and the media. Many Christians have not come to recognize that they are in a battle to maintain biblical convictions and practices. 36 years ago, Francis Schaeffer wrote The Great Evangelical Disaster--in which he offered an anal...
Keep ReadingOne of the remarkable features of Jesus' teaching is the way in which He drew simple analogies and metaphors from the world around Him in order to instruct His disciples about the most profound truths of the Kingdom of God. Jesus spent much time reading the book of nature. He could point to a simple flower in order to explain to His disciples the mystery of God's providen...
Keep ReadingAfter a decade of church planting and pastoring in the beautiful Southern coastal city of Savannah, Ga., my family and I moved on to a new place to begin a new ministry and a new season of life. As our time in Savannah came to a close, my heart began to fill with sadness over the fact that we were leaving behind beloved friends, a house we loved, and a delightful city. At...
Keep ReadingI was recently struck with our propensity for creature worship while watching the documentary, "The Last Dance." If anything reveals our desire to give undue homage to creation, it is in the way the world worshipped Michael Jordan throughout the 80's and 90's. If anything shows the willingness men have to be worshipped it is the fact that Jordan goes by the code name "Yah...
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