Focusing a household on God
It is a regular time to gather as a household devotionally by reading Scripture and praying.
These devotional times don’t have to be just for families with children either. Anyone who shares life with other people could do it. Christian housemates, empty nesters, and married couples without children could consider committing to a regular household devotional gathering like this. A couple of years ago I had a nagging feeling that... Continue Reading
Preachers Need to Be Catechized, Too
Ministry is a dangerous business, and we must guard and look after ourselves.
Ministry will break you. It will break your self-reliance, your expectations, your emotional and mental balance, and it will break your heart, over and over again. And all of this is good. Ministry is never the making of you, if “you” is a successful, fruitful version of the sinner who started out in the pastorate. ... Continue Reading
The Leading Principle of a Faithful Minister (Newton)
Here’s a helpful quote by Newton on Paul’s love for Christ – applied to Christian pastors today.
“Supported and animated by this love [for Christ], he [Paul] exerted himself to the utmost, in promoting the knowledge of Him whom he loved, and bearing testimony of His power and grace. Nothing could dishearted, or weary or terrify, or bribe him from his duty: and this must and will be universally the leading principle... Continue Reading
Why You Can’t Have Justification without Sanctification
If you’re united with Christ and therefore have the righteousness of Christ, it is impossible for you not to be transformed.
Heaven without Transformation I think there are two main misunderstandings people have of the central idea of reformation with which Luther and the Reformers started. The first is that justification is abstracted from the person of Christ. The problem there is that I might hear a message of salvation saying You can have righteousness and assume that... Continue Reading
The New Thought Roots of the Prosperity Gospel
"New Thought assumed essential unity between God and humanity, declaring that separation from the divine was only a matter of degree."
“The American religious terrain, plowed deep by the soulful individualism of Ralph Waldo Emerson, was fertile soil for a high anthropology (which is to say, an optimistic theology of human capacity.) As many New Thought authors worked inside a Christian framework, they explored “salvation” not as an act imposed from above by God, but rather... Continue Reading
5 Myths About the Trinity
The doctrine of the Trinity is the only view of God that makes sense of Christian salvation.
Since God’s triunity is bundled together with the gospel, it is the foundation of the spiritual life of every believer. The more you understand the deep structure of the spiritual reality you experience in Christ and the Spirit, the more you understand and are experiencing the deep things of God for us. If you think... Continue Reading
Why Higher Education Needs to Know Its History
We learn from the apostle Paul: calling the churches back to the truth of the Christian faith.
At the heart of this calling is the need to prepare a generation of Christians to think Christianly, to engage the academy and the culture, to serve society, and to renew the connection with the church and its mission. To do so, the breadth and the depth of the Christian tradition will need to be... Continue Reading
Erdmann Neumeister and His Pious Orthodoxy
Erdmann Neumeister (1671-1756) hated Pietism but his music was full of vigorous piety and lively devotion
“Born at Uechteritz, Germany, from a schoolmaster and organist, Neumeister studied theology and poetry at the University of Leipzig. One of the main subjects of discussion around that time was the recent visit of the popular lecturer August Hermann Francke and his subsequent expulsion from Saxony due to the disputes he generated.” Erdmann Neumeister... Continue Reading
How Old Testament Kings Bear Witness about Jesus
The man who died on the cross is the Savior of the world.
The message of “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2) is the greatest paradox in the history of the world. It defies all human wisdom. It is also the most profound, powerful and important truth in the world: it is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24). The man... Continue Reading
Are Christians Free to Enjoy the Things of Earth?
The created world reveals. It makes invisible attributes visible. The heavens declare the glory of God.
We can find God everywhere, and if we do that, then all of reality becomes an invitation. Everything in reality from our family to our food to our hobbies to the natural world—all of it is God saying, Come, know me in very deep and real way, because you’ve known the things that I’ve made. ... Continue Reading
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