GOD CALLS US TO CONFESS OUR SINS In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who … Continue reading Messaging the Gospel into Our Hearts
A Spiritual Workout – Using the Psalms to Transform Sadness into Joy
Our God specializes in transforming sadness into joy. The ultimate demonstration of this is our Lord’s resurrection which we celebrate every Sunday. Yet, God’s people have celebrated through the centuries that sorrow and suffering never have the last word in their lives. For example, King David offers a rationale for why we cannot remain silent … Continue reading A Spiritual Workout – Using the Psalms to Transform Sadness into Joy
A Prayer for Good Friday
O Father, at Calvary’s cross, Your grace removes my burdens and heaps them on your Son, who is made a transgressor, a curse, and sin for me. There Christ was all anguish that I might have joy, cast off that I might be brought in, trodden down as an enemy that I might be welcomed … Continue reading A Prayer for Good Friday
To What End Does God Love You?
I've been studying recently John 13-17 which is called Jesus' Upper Room Discourse. John 13:1 says: Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the … Continue reading To What End Does God Love You?
Maundy Thursday and the Mark of a Christian
The Mark of the Christian (John 13:31-38) The text upon which this teaching outline is based is normally assigned to Maundy Thursday. The Latin word for commandment is mandatum. This commandment that Jesus gave was the old commandment with which Moses himself summarized the whole law, but Jesus made it new by highlighting three things: … Continue reading Maundy Thursday and the Mark of a Christian
Reflections for Palm Sunday Worship
No word in my vocabulary expressed deeper hatred than the word interference. And the Bible placed at the center what seemed to me a Transcendental Interferer. — C.S. Lewis Glorious as Jesus is in Himself, as a conqueror over death, and hell, and the grave, the Son of God is still ‘meek and lowly of … Continue reading Reflections for Palm Sunday Worship
Palm Sunday and the Transcendental Interferer
When C.S. Lewis came to faith, he wasn't happy at all because the first thing that happened to him was the realization that God was God and that he was not. Jesus Christ was a transcendental interferer, barging into Lewis' life and saying, "You're not God, I am." In his own words, he describes his … Continue reading Palm Sunday and the Transcendental Interferer
A Well-Ordered Heart
“What does it mean to have a well-ordered heart?” To have a well-ordered heart “is to love the right thing to the right degree in the right way with the right kind of love.” Christopher Hall, Living Wisely with the Church Fathers (p. 221). Westmont, IL: IVP Academic. Quoting John Ortberg in the book The … Continue reading A Well-Ordered Heart
What Can You Do In Times of Trouble?
In the world we often experience times of trouble. Unwanted change avalanches upon us. Trials come, and we find ourselves in a place we don't like to be - NEEDY. King David did as well. Our natural response is to fret, worry, become fearful, angry, resentful, and controlling. Inn Psalm 9, King David counters these … Continue reading What Can You Do In Times of Trouble?
In Anxious Times…
Remember the birds and the lilies. Dr. Helmut Thielicke preached a course of sermons on the Sermon on the Mount in St Mark’s Church, Stuttgart, during the terrible years (1946–1948) which immediately followed World War II. He often alluded to the scream of the air-raid sirens, alerting people to yet more devastation and death from … Continue reading In Anxious Times…
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