We have come to the final day of 2014 and are at the cusp of a new year. I find it only appropriate to close the year with prayer–prayer that thanks God for the year that was, and prayer that looks with joy and expectation to the year that will be. Here is my prayer:…
We have all heard the statistics: 50% of people make some kind of new year’s resolution, but 88% of those resolutions ultimately fail. That is more than a little discouraging. But I still believe in new year’s resolutions. I believe in them as a convenient opportunity to evaluate life and to make choices about living…
Forgive Us These Faults – Much has been said of late about “respectable sins,” to borrow Jerry Bridges’ phrase. Here Tim Keller looks to John Newton and describes a list of sins that we prefer to think are mere “foibles.” Texas Bible – This is kind of silly and kind of helpful. This Chrome extension…
This is the 22nd installment in a series on theological terms. See previous posts on the terms theology, Trinity, creation, man, Fall, common grace, sin, righteousness, faith, pride, election, revelation, atonement, adoption, sanctification, incarnation, idolatry, the church, holiness, salvation, and judgment. “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place…
I guess every preacher has to take on Isaiah 6 (Isaiah’s vision of God’s throne room) at one time or another. My opportunity came this past Sunday. It is such a beautiful and powerful text and it was a great pleasure to just soak in it for an entire week. Don’t worry! I am not…
Simply stated, creation refers to everything that exists that has not always existed. It refers to all that God has brought into existence, which is everything apart from God himself—including angels and, eventually, Satan and his demons—since God is the one and only thing that has never been created. There are a variety of ways…
About a month ago I announced the start of a new series of posts in which I will attempt to define theological terms succinctly and simply (as much as this is possible). I began with a definition of the category itself—theology—and am now finally getting around to the second term. Trinity is a word that,…
There has been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about James MacDonald inviting T.D. Jakes to round 2 of The Elephant Room, to be held on January 25, 2012. Controversy has centered around the widespread belief that Jakes does not hold to an orthodox understanding of the Trinity. Rather, some claim, he is a…
I recently added a feedback and suggestion component to this site that allows readers like you to suggest topics for me to consider writing about. This has generated a lot of fantastic ideas, many of which are going to take a lot of study to adequately answer. One that I wanted to address right away…
This morning we come to chapter 3 of Gresham Machen’s book Christianity & Liberalism, a chapter titled simply “God & Man.” There was some great discussion based on last week’s reading and I’m hoping we can generate the same today. I found this chapter quite a lot easier to read and digest and trust you…
The holiness of God is his glory and crown. It is the blessedness of his nature. It renders him glorious in himself, and glorious to his creatures. “Holy” is more fixed as an epithet to his name than any other. This is his greatest title of honor. He is pure and unmixed light, free from…
So we’ve got just one week left in our reading of R.C. Sproul’s The Holiness of God. Next week we’ll wrap up–rather good timing, I think, since the holidays are just about upon us. Summary This week’s chapter was titled “Looking Beyond Shadows.” In the first part of the chapter, Dr. Sproul writes about the…
This is now week 2 of this project in which we are reading together through R.C. Sproul’s The Holiness of God. Before we discuss this week’s chapter, I wanted to make you aware of an interesting interview with Sproul on this very subject. It comes from a 1990 issue of Tabletalk magazine and, if you…
D.A. Carson will lead tonight’s session, the second to last at this conference. He will speak about “The Supremacy of Christ and Love in a Postmodern World.” Carson began by reading all of the seventeenth chapter of John (a passage commonly known as Jesus’ High Priestly prayer). My generation, he said, was taught to sing…
For the past couple of months I have been using Sunday postings on this site to feature reviews of books I wrote a while ago, probably before most of you began reading the site. I reviewed some awfully good books while I was the only person who bothered reading this site and thought it might…
A couple of months ago I asked Crossway if there was a book in their catalog that they felt was an overlooked treasure – a book that deserved far more recognition than it had received. They suggested Father, Son & Holy Spirit by Bruce Ware. I know of Bruce Ware from his excellent critique of…
Theology has become a bad word in Christian circles. It seems that theology is linked in people’s minds with cold, dead religion that cares more about principles and matters of the head than deeds and matters of the heart. It is associated with fundamentalism and with cold conservatism. Yet if we look at the meaning…