I'm sure this never happens to you when you're studying God's Word during your quiet time. It must only happen to me from time-to-time, I'll get distracted. I'm not talking about being distracted by something life-threatening with the kids or a personal medical emergency or something of that nature. I'm just talking about my mind traveling to the things that I've got to d...

This past week, I had the privilege of sharing the gospel with a very thoughtful Jew, who unfortunately doesn't believe that Jesus is the Messiah. As I reflect back on our conversation, I realize that too often we were talking about differences between Christians and Jews without talking enough about who is the main difference (Jesus). I think that this must happen to a lo...

There is a difference between confessional knowledge and functional knowledge. There are truths that we know in our hearts and confess with our mouths (that's confessional knowledge) and then there are truths which we know in our hearts and live out in our lives (that's functional knowledge). Too often, there's a gap between the two. Lately I've been thinking about this as...

How often do you meditate on the gospel? How often do you unpack the deep truths of the gospel? How often do you stand back in wonder at the work of redemption by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit? It would be good for your soul to take some time this week and unpack the gospel. Consider what R.C. Sproul says about the gospel. "A Substitute has appeared...

It is sometimes funny how the Lord teaches us. After having preached a sermon this past Sunday on how we're to count it all joy amidst trials of various kinds, the Lord seems to be intent on teaching me just how to do that this week. Has that been happening to you? I don't think that the trials that I've been facing are of the severe kind, but they're trials nonetheless. A...

Many today think little of the Church (universal and local), but the New Testament and theologians throughout church history have spoken of the Church in some of the most elevated terms. In Acts 20:28, Luke exhorts pastors to care for the flock entrusted to them because the church has been purchased by God "with his own blood." Paul teaches in Ephesians 3:10 that it is thr...

In our discipleship hour this past Sunday, we dove into a thrilling discussion on God's gracious work in the salvation of sinners. I've been in the midst of doing some reading for school and I came across this helpful excerpt on the subject from J. Gresham Machen's classic work, Christianity Liberalism. "The beginning of the Christian life is an act of God. It is an act ...

This past Sunday I began the sermon by talking about vindication. I said, "Everyone wants to be vindicated, proven to be in the right. Too often the desire for vindication comes in midst of conflict. One person sees things one way, the other person sees things another way and they both think they're right. They both want to be proven right and more than that, they often w...

From time to time I've mentioned the need to "preach to yourself." That idea and concept comes from D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his book Spiritual Depression (see pages 20-21). In that work, Lloyd-Jones identifies that we often have the problem of listening to ourselves instead of preaching to ourselves. We listen to our thoughts of bitterness and resentment, and so we're tem...

On Sunday I mentioned a few things about prayer, and I thought that I'd take this opportunity to circle back, remind us of them, and throw in a great Paul Miller quote for good measure. God is honored when we pray. Prayer honors God because it is an expression of faith that he exists. It is an expression of faith that says, "God, you're powerful." And it is an expressi...

In addition to their daily Bible reading and prayer, I generally encourage Christians to make a practice of reading through various kinds of Christian writing. It is good to read through categories like: Theology, Church History, Christian Biography, Discipleship, and Culture (issues like Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, etc.). I try to practice something similar when I'm n...

In our discipleship hour this past week, we thought about worship, both public and private. We thought about how worship is an all-of-life activity and that it is to ascribe the proper worth to God, to magnify his worthiness of praise, and to approach and address God as he is worthy. We worship God by the Spirit in connection with his Word. Our primary connection with God...

As we meditated on James 3:13-18 this past Sunday, we thought a lot about humility. As I look forward to the text that we'll study, Lord willing, this coming Sunday (James 4:1-12), it is clear that humility is going to be something that we're considering again. As I've prayerfully read over the text these last couple of days, I've been thinking again about Jonathan Edwards...

As many of you may know this coming Sunday we'll conclude our series in James by considering James 5:19-20. I'm looking forward to reflecting on Christ's redemptive work and how we minister to others. I'm also looking forward to what we'll be thinking about after we finish our study of the book of James. I'll be out for a few weeks due to some travel, but Lord willing, whe...

This past Sunday we focused in on a number of exhortations from James 5:7-12. One of those exhortations was to not grumble against our brothers and sisters in Christ. There is surely a reason James gave this command he gave it because the Lord knows that we struggle with it. I simply want to remind us of one way that we can guard against such grumbling, and if you haven't...

...

There is a reason that the Scriptures call the Christian life a race (1 Cor. 9:24 and 2 Tim. 4:7). Races require preparation and endurance, but more than that they require a knowledge of the prize. In the Bible that which motivates us to run the race is that which we already possess and will yet possess in complete fullness. As Thomas Schreiner and Ardel Caneday wrote, "B...

Christians often take great comfort and joy in God's words of love to them in Scripture, and rightly so. What child of God is not comforted by Paul's reminder, "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8)? Or what adopted son or daughter is not enamored with the Savior who says, "I am the good shepherd. I know my own ...

Some time ago, I remember a believer asking me to help them answer a question from a child. The child had asked, "How do we know God exists?" In preparation for an upcoming class, I've been reading the various arguments for God's existence. There are almost an infinite number of arguments advanced to make the case for the existence of God, but most have recognized that, hi...

As I was praying for my children, during my quiet time earlier in the week, I reflected on how valuable moments with my children are and how sadly, in my pride, I don't value them enough. Moments are those brief spans of time in which relationships are built. You see, I often take a task oriented perspective on life, and while God has certainly called me to be task-oriente...

Sometimes I fear that you (my dear congregation) get J.C. Ryle overload, if that were possible. I quote him often and in virtually every forum possible (sermons, blog, newsletter, etc.), but that is because I try to read him a lot. Why do I read him a lot? I read him a lot because time and time again I am challenged, instructed, rebuked, and encouraged to love Christ more ...

A few weeks ago I learned that I shouldn't worship concrete. Now perhaps you're thinking, "Wait, aren't you a pastor? You should have known that already, right?" Well, yes, of course I should have. One Saturday morning, not too long ago, the concrete truck pulled up to our home to pour our new sidewalk. We previously had some luxurious gravel (sarcasm alert), but decided ...

This past Monday was the 494th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing the 95 Theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg. His first theses declared that the whole of the Christian life ought to be one of repentance, but so often we find it difficult to turn from our sin. Instead of looking to Christ, we turn inward and look upon ourselves and our sin. Christian, take to h...

Theology helps us to live coherent lives. Take, for example, the doctrine of God's providence. As the Baptist Catechism of 1813 states, "God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions." This truth is confirmed by the testimony of Scripture. Ephesians 1:11 In him we have obtained an inheri...

I've often pushed an agenda of meditating on God's grace to us in Christ. I'm not sure that we can do that enough, so I'm going to push that agenda again. Take 10 minutes this week, maybe even today, and reflect on God's grace to you. Marvel at God's grace and pray that he would give you more of it for your good and his glory. In Volume 2 of his Reformed Dogmatics, Herman...

Sometimes we fail to recognize the interdependent nature of much of theology. In other words, while one doctrine may be distinct from another that does not mean they are unrelated. That seems fairly obvious when we think of the doctrine of the Trinity and the Doctrine of the Second Person of the Trinity. There is clearly a connection between the two. The same can be said o...

On Sunday we had the privilege of studying Psalm 45. In the sermon I pointed out that the King was described as being divine. Verse 6 unmistakably makes that point, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness." I took a little bit of time to explain that this makes complete sense with regard to what we know about Jesus....

One of the most fundamental aspects of the Lord's Supper is fellowship. The Lord's Supper is a display of our fellowship with Christ and our fellowship in Christ with other believers. As we partake of the bread and the fruit of the vine in faith, we display that we have been united to Christ by trusting in his life, death, and resurrection on our behalf. But we don't do th...

As we come out of a season in which we spent some time meditating on the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and as we move into a series in the gospel of John (which opens meditating on the incarnation of Jesus Christ), I thought that it might be valuable to think through the immense theology of the incarnation. J.I. Packer notes in his book Knowing God that the incarnation migh...

I have a chance to walk with sinners every day, but I've got to tell you about my most difficult case me. I am the most difficult sinner that I walk with because I know myself and my heart. There is still far too much darkness in my own heart that I need the light of Christ to dispel. So, I can say with Paul in Romans 7:24, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me fro...

One of the hidden snares that this world tempts us with is idealism. We are invited to believe that the ship is not sinking. Instead we are encouraged to sit, make ourselves comfortable, and listen to the beautiful chamber music being played as we sail on under the starlit sky. When all is said and done, we are in effect invited to, as some have said, "surrender realism fo...

From time to time, we have music playing in the house. Usually we just keep going about our day and business, but every once in a while, I will stop and listen and consider what is being said or sung. Earlier in the week, or perhaps it was last week, I stopped and listened to a song by Sara Groves entitled "Rain." The song unfolds her paradigm for wrestling with suffering ...

As part of my sermon preparation each week, I try to think of questions that Christians and non-Christians might have about the passage. For example, John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Perhaps you remember this verse from when you memorized it in Sunday school many years ...

I don't know about you, but sometimes a song will get into my head and then have difficulty getting out. For songs with redeeming content that can be a glorious thing. Of late I've been listening to Daniel Renstrom's rendition of John Newton's wonderful hymn "Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder." You can get a copy here or listen it here, but Daniel's verse 3 (Newton's verse 4...

As we were studying John 8, I spent some time reflecting on what it means to be enslaved to sin. I encouraged non-Christians to be set free by embracing Christ, and I encouraged Christians to keep living in their freedom. While I didn't have the time at the time, I wanted to spend more time dwelling on sin and slavery. I wanted to do so in part to help us as Christians rel...

For the past few weeks, I've been attempting to reflect on Matthew 22:37. I've attempted to answer the questions "What is love?" and "Who are you to love?" Now, I'm going to attempt to answer the question "How we are to love?" The natural temptation at this point would be to reflect on how to love the Lord with our hearts, and then to think about how to love the Lord with...

Last week I mentioned that Matthew 22:37 kept coming up in personal study, conversations with friends, and in planning for future services. Reflecting on Jesus' words, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind," I raised three questions: What is love? Who are you to love? How are you to love him? I at least made an ...

Perhaps the Lord has been prodding me over the past few days. In my personal study, planning for future services, and in conversations with others, Matthew 22:37 keeps coming up. There, Jesus says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Three questions keep coming to mind, and while I'll offer my own initial an...

On Sunday, we had the privilege of reflecting on Christ's love from John 13. We learned not only about Christ's love toward us, but we also learned from our Savior that we are to love as he loved. We then spent some time reflecting on how Christ loves. I specifically pointed out that while Christ's love could be described in many words, that for the moment I would attempt ...

"As a matter of fact, the redeemed man gains more through redemption in Christ than he lost through the fall of Adam" [Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Faith, p.15]. That is good and glorious news packed into one sentence. While I love a good turn of phrase, sometimes it takes a paragraph to unpack an immensely glorious point. Such is the case when trying to explain the bibl...

J.I. Packer once provocatively wrote, "Law-keeping is that life for which we were fitted by nature, unfitted by sin, and refitted by grace" [J.I. Packer, Keeping the 10 Commandments, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2007), p.44]. Is that you? Have you been refitted by grace? Apart from God's work of grace, we are sure to fail in keeping God's law. And even having been refitte...

When we studied John 11:1-44, and we considered Jesus' outrage and grief over sin and its consequences, namely death. Jesus, though he knew no sin, knew the effects of sin. Though he was sinless, he saw how full of sin this world was. It is his holiness and righteousness that fuels his outrage against sin and it is seeing its consequence in death and sorrow that fuels his ...

Not too long ago, I was meeting with a brother in Christ and he told me about how the Lord comforted him through various passages of Scripture. Does that happen to you? Do you interact with God's Word, as though it is his personal Word to you? You should. We all should come to God's Word expecting to hear from him, because when we are reading his Word that is precisely wha...

As is often the case, I've been reading the passage of Scripture I'm going to preach through during my quiet times throughout the week. As I've been reading John 15:18-16:4, I've been struck by how clear Christ has been with his disciples. He's always clear, but here especially he does not hold anything back. He says to them in John 16:2, "They will put you out of the syna...

This afternoon I was meeting with a group of pastors and we were talking about what pastors talk aboutministry. We prayerfully considered gathering our churches together one Sunday evening for a combined time of prayer. We thought that our congregations could benefit from praying through A.C.T.S. (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication) and hearing a sermon ...