Here is the final installment of my Christmas devotionals based on the pre-incarnate appearances of Jesus in the Old Testament. May the Lord bless you all, especially as the gospel promises of Christ are celebrated in our churches and homes!…
A number of pastoral issues have arisen recently which have brought home to me some particular truths and some particular emphases arising from them. Many of these situations are on the fringes of church life or outside it (though I…
Crown and Joy Presbyterian Church, in Richmond, VA, celebrated its ninth Sunday on December 21, 2014. Time seems to be moving quite quickly. Before you know it, if the Lord wills, we will have finished our series through the book…
The singularly brilliant Christian apologist of the seventeenth century, Blaise Pascal, noted the existential reality that the human condition was one of inconstancy, boredom and anxiety. For him, the only real cure was made known in history by the God…
For century after century, one man has been the bogeyman of Western theology. He’s the bad guy. The one nobody wants to be like. Yes, you guessed it: that old Welsh heretic, Pelagius. For centuries the malign influence of his…
A nugget from Robert Bolton’s Some General Directions for a Comfortable Walking with God (London, 1626): By walking with God, I mean, a sincere endeavour, punctually and precisely to manage, conduct, and to dispose all our affairs, thoughts, words and…
Now as we conclude our series, we come at last to the vice of Pride, “the Great Sin” as C.S. Lewis calls it, and as the Christian tradition has consistently taught. It is both the first and the last of…
The language of royalty is pervasive in the Psalms. “Rule,” “king” and their cognates appear 98 times in the Psalms (and the figurative words “throne,” “rod,” or “scepter” appear 26 times). Kings govern their kingdoms via statutes or laws, and…
The language of royalty is pervasive in the Psalms. “Rule,” “king” and their cognates appear 98 times in the Psalms (and the figurative words “throne,” “rod,” or “scepter” appear 26 times). Kings govern their kingdoms via statutes or laws, and…
As is generally known, the Scottish reformers took a dimmer view of Christmas festivities than their continental peers. When Knox and company drafted the (First) Book of Discipline for the newly Reformed Kirk, they identified Christmas — along with “holy…
