Was the Divinity of Jesus a Late Invention of the Council of Nicea? There is little doubt that early Christians believed Jesus was God. Written by Michael Kruger | Tuesday, September 29, 2020 There are many ways to approach this question, but for the purposes of this short post, we will simply consider the teachings of the apostle Paul on this question. Why start with Paul? Larry Hurtado explains it best: “Pauline Christianity is the earliest form of the Christian movement to which we have direct access from... Continue Reading

Choice for No Sanctity When I observe such opposition to what we are doing, it tells me the devil is stirred and hates what we do. Written by Ken Ham | Tuesday, September 29, 2020 So why share any of them with you? Well, what really hit our staff who had to deal with these was how evil many in these younger generations are. We all know the X, Y (millennials), and Z generations are much more secularized than the older generations like Boomers, Silent, and Greatest. Researcher George Barna... Continue Reading

A Spiritual Start-up: the Disciples as Witnesses And it all started with one guy inviting a few friends who invited a few friends. This is exactly how the kingdom of God was started up… Written by Clint Archer | Tuesday, September 29, 2020 So, get out there and connect people with Christ. Expand your network of converts. Talk about Jesus. Share the good news. Invite people to church. Do whatever you can to win souls for Christ. Jesus came to die for you, will you be a true follower? Will you follow him even if it cost you... Continue Reading

No Hand But His Ever Holds the Shears Pain may be better for us than pleasure. Loss may enrich us more than gain. Sorrow may equip us more fully than joy. Written by Tim Challies | Tuesday, September 29, 2020 Vines must be pruned if they are to bear fruit; Christians must experience trials if we are to grow in grace. Trials will come, and we must do more than passively endure them. We must submit to them and even embrace them as the will of the Father. We must determine we will emerge from... Continue Reading

Does Evangelicalism Have a Robust Centre? We have 2,000 years of the Spirit’s work growing the church through its meditation on the truth that we can retrieve. Written by Wyatt Graham | Tuesday, September 29, 2020 Our robust centre is not in prophecy conferences of the earth 20th century nor the theology of the 80s and 90s. It is in Paul, Ireneaus, Athanasius, Augustine, Maximos, Anselm, Aquinas, Calvin, Luther, and Turretin (among others!). The Spirit was not at rest; Christ built his church by the Spirit just as he promised in... Continue Reading

Poor in Spirit All calls to repent are calls to submit to His Lordship. Written by Mike Ratliff | Tuesday, September 29, 2020 What we must never forget is divine election as we see in v27 is not incompatible with the free offer to all we see in vv28-30. How could this be true? All unregenerate humans stubbornly cling to their sinful rebellion. In fact all are spiritually dead outside of God’s grace. Unless God “quickens” people unto... Continue Reading

Painting Sin with Virtue’s Colors Never let go out of your minds the thoughts of a crucified Christ. Written by Thomas Brooks | Tuesday, September 29, 2020 Seriously consider, that even those very sins that Satan paints, and puts new names and colors upon, cost the best blood, the noblest blood, the life-blood, the heart-blood of the Lord Jesus. That Christ should come from the eternal bosom of his Father to a region of sorrow and death; that God should be manifested... Continue Reading

On Being Black and Conservative Kay Coles James is president of the conservative Heritage Foundation and is a member of the Presbyterian Church in America. Written by Nicole Ault | Monday, September 28, 2020 Mrs. James almost sputters—“You can tell that I struggle even to find the words”—when I ask what she thinks of the New York Times’s “1619 Project,” which attempts “to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619,” when the first slaves were brought to Jamestown, Va., “as our true founding.” That dubious history, Mrs. James says, hurts... Continue Reading

The Real Problem of Prayer Jesus’s passion, pleasure, and purpose is to bring us into the presence of the Father. Written by Stephen Witmer | Monday, September 28, 2020 So, the real problem of prayer is not how difficult it can be to pray once we gain access to God. It’s our lack of access to God in the first place. The real problem of prayer is not a subjective problem (having to do with our own emotions and feelings), but rather an objective problem (having to do... Continue Reading

Is “Systemic Racism” a Useful Category for Christians to Use? We need moral clarity, not moral confusion. Written by Denny Burk | Monday, September 28, 2020 This is where I have come to have serious problems with the category of systemic racism—at least as the term is defined in Critical Race Theory (CRT).1 My church’s confession teaches me to treat racism as sin. CRT teaches that racism of the systemic sort need not involve any moral agency at all. This clash confuses people as to what... Continue Reading

By All Means, Let’s Attack Cuties Without Watching It We need to restore the lines we once had as a society, and so-called artistic viewing shouldn't be a prerequisite. Written by Tony Woodlief | Monday, September 28, 2020 The inconvenient truth is: the liberal logicians are right. But while they think pointing out how far down the slope we’ve slid is a rebuke that will get us to unseat our heels from the earth, in truth it’s a call to greater resistance. Thanks for the heads-up guys—when we’re done with Cuties, perhaps we... Continue Reading

Is God Really in Control?: Sovereignty To fail to affirm that the only living and true Triune God does these things... while claiming to trust him, is to take God’s name in vain. Written by David Smith | Monday, September 28, 2020 The solution to the Christians earthly troubles, anxieties, distresses and cares is the knowledge that their all-glorious and all-good Triune LORD is in total control of all things. We are never helpless victims of earthly calamities, but in all circumstances of life “we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37) and loves us... Continue Reading

Is Soft Totalitarianism Coming to America? Is Dreher just being a pessimist, an alarmist, a scaremonger? Written by Tim Challies | Monday, September 28, 2020 Lives Not By Lies serves two purposes and, in my assessment, succeeds at both of them. It sounds the alarm, warning people to wake up, to see that the enemy is already closing in on the gates. And, in the eventuality or even the likelihood that it is already too late to hold the hoards at... Continue Reading

Three Reasons to Keep Going as a Pastor Hold fast, press on, fulfil your commission, own your weakness, keep your hope, and pray for others in your position as you do. Written by Andrew Roycroft | Monday, September 28, 2020 Fellow Pastor, please let God lift your eyes beyond this moment, to see that a time will come when we will reflect on the events of today as the experiences of yesterday, when we will reclothe the reality of our problems in the rhetoric of providence, when we will trace the path which God was... Continue Reading

Exegesis Without Embarrassment If Jesus is not embarrassed about something and if He and His Apostles see no ethical problems with a particular event or issue, then neither should we. Written by Robert Rothwell | Monday, September 28, 2020 There is much misunderstanding about the invasion of Canaan not only outside the church but also within the covenant community. Moreover, there are a number of issues that the invasion of Canaan raises that we must think about deeply if we are to better understand our Bibles and be able to give an answer for... Continue Reading

‘Real Men Don’t Cry’ And Other Myths About Masculinity, Male Caregivers The role of caregiver is too difficult and critical to assume with poor belief systems. Written by Peter Rosenberger | Monday, September 28, 2020 Courage is not the absence of fear but the presence of devotion. When caregiving, fear constantly lurks at the corners of our minds. We face things that are fear worthy. Yet, Scripture states, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear…” 1 John 4:18 KJV While incapable of perfect love on... Continue Reading

Enjoying Imperfection When we stop seeking perfection, and start seeking the Perfect One. Written by Mark Loughridge | Sunday, September 27, 2020 My To-do list never emptied. I felt like I was swimming against a relentless tide—sometimes lying awake, almost panicked, thinking, “I can’t afford to be awake, I need to sleep so I can get up and get things done”. Then one day I heard a preacher say, “Only God gets his to-do list done”—and the lights... Continue Reading

God is Faithful to His Promises (and Threats) We must be saved from God, but it is also God who does the saving. Written by D. Eaton | Sunday, September 27, 2020 It is the Lord himself, who grants mercy. God is righteous, just, and must punish sin. He will not deny himself, but he has made a way to satisfy the wrath of those who will put their trust in him. On the cross, we see the wrath of God propitiated for those who will come... Continue Reading

Contentment Here is the only solid ground on which to build lasting contentment: I may be an imperfect soul enduring an imperfect life, but I have been loved by a perfect Savior. Written by Neil C. Stewart | Sunday, September 27, 2020 For those with ears to hear, Paul offers a different vision of contentment: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.... Continue Reading

The Local Church Was Made To Serve The Christian, Not The Christian The Local Church How will we mark our measure our commitment to God’s good gift of local church fellowship? The point is not so much what we do, but why we do it. Written by Tim Challies | Sunday, September 27, 2020 There is nothing wrong with a church offering many different activities and programs and studies. Each of them can be a tremendous blessing and a part of a well-balanced spiritual diet. Each of them can provide an opportunity to serve and to be served, to deploy our gifts for the good of others and to... Continue Reading

Why the Church Needs Gentle Shepherds In the midst of the cultural upheaval that 2020 brought with it, more than ever we need shepherds who are gentle. Written by Nathan Williams | Sunday, September 27, 2020 In 1 Timothy 3:3, Paul writes that the elder must be “gentle.” Paul isn’t looking for men who act gentle in one or two arenas of life, or who do something gentle several times a month to save face. The roots of gentleness grow deep in his soul. To exhibit this quality, a man must... Continue Reading

Messy Church In many ways, all of our churches should be messy. We should expect nothing else when a group of sinners in need of God’s grace get together. Written by Stephen Kneale | Sunday, September 27, 2020 Whilst the sin that leads to church discipline (and, how we do that is another post for another day – but we don’t eject people from the church at the first sign of trouble) isn’t a cause for celebration, the fact that it has to be used again speaks to the fact that we are,... Continue Reading

Becoming a Man with C.S. Lewis Lessons from his teenage wanderings. Written by Harry Lee Poe | Sunday, September 27, 2020 One of the primary tasks of middle adolescence is to learn to be appropriately independent. It is a necessary step toward growing up and being on one’s own, in the way God intends. In some families, however, adolescents learn in a stormy way, accompanied by all manner of rebellion against parental authority. They need not,... Continue Reading

The Difference Between Faith and Presumption Refocus your faith not on the results but on the One behind them. And then, even if He does not, we stand even still. Written by Michael Kelley | Saturday, September 26, 2020 “Even. If. He. Does. Not.” Remember this phrase? Three exiled Hebrews said it a long time ago. They spoke these words to an angry potentate in the most dire of circumstances. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood before the gigantic golden statue the king of the foreign land had erected in his own honor. The law... Continue Reading

What Could Make You Sell Everything You Own? The Gospel writers tell us that this man had many possessions. But really we can see that his many possessions had him. They had him in their grip. They had his heart in their vise. Written by Nancy Guthrie | Saturday, September 26, 2020 Imagine the conflict in the young man’s soul as he made the long walk home. But as sad as he was on that day as he walked away from Jesus, imagine the sadness he experienced when he finally did have to let go of everything, leave it all behind, as he entered not into eternal... Continue Reading

Living for Him Who Died for Us (Count Nicolaus Zinzendorf) "He launched a worldwide missionary movement that set the stage for … the ‘great century’ of missions that would follow.” Written by Vance Christie | Saturday, September 26, 2020 In 1719-1720 Zinzendorf had his Wanderjahr, a year of traveling abroad to complete his education. While at the magnificent art gallery in Dusseldorf he viewed many masterpieces. The painting that impacted him the most was of the thorn-crowned Christ after he had been flogged by Pontius Pilate. Beneath it was the Latin inscription: “This I... Continue Reading

John Did Not Go Quietly Into Exile (Rev 1:9-11) John had continued to worship and serve Christ Jesus and to bear witness to the gospel of salvation. Written by R. Fowler White | Saturday, September 26, 2020 Though we share a transformed identity with the Apostle John, he also underlines how he differs from us. King Jesus, John tells us, had transformed him into a prophet with a special commission to write a book to us his siblings and partners. John rehearsed the particulars of his transformation for us (Rev 1:10-11). He had... Continue Reading

The Value of Reading Life is too short to read everything, and most of what has been written is not worth reading anyway. One must be selective. Written by John Samson | Saturday, September 26, 2020 Great books are our teachers, and good books are our companions. Poor books are obstacles we meet along the way. If you are a Christian, there is one book you will love, even if you do not love any other. That, of course, is the Bible. But if you know the value of reading, there... Continue Reading