When Our Voices Fail
Three weeks ago this past Thursday (March 21), I decided it was probably best, because of my mother’s serious health situation, for me to head home to South Carolina after worship on the coming Sunday to be with her. The…
Category Reformation21
Thomas Boston, the Marrow and the Gospel
Thomas Boston is one of my favorite authors. Through his sermons, memoirs, and other writings, the prolific theologian and humble pastor of a small rural church in the Scottish border country has become one of the pastors of my soul.…
The Good, the Bad and the Providence of God
Johannes Maccovius, in his Theological Distinctions, treated the subject of the Divine providence toward the righteous and toward the wicked with the maxim, “In this life, what happens to good people is never bad and what happens to bad people is…
Defeat and Victory in the Church
It is well documented that a staggering number of pastors leave the ministry each year. Conflict and burnout are numbered as some of the top reasons. Conflict between pastors and the congregation are common. In addition, the pastor’s inability to…
Calvin’s Four Rules of Prayer
Reading through some old notes on Calvin’s Institutes made me realize what always gets dropped when life feels like one giant game of whirlyball: prayer. Calvin says that if we do not pray, we are like a man who “neglect[s] a treasure, buried…
Christians in the Cultural Closet
Our society celebrates the openness with which it accepts homosexuality and transgenderism. It contrasts our present enlightened times with past eras when what are now called “sexual minorities,” LGBTQers, were once consigned to the closets, forced to keep their “sexual…
Adoption and the Image of God
When I was in my early 20s, I met a college friend of my parents for the first time. After a short conversation, she smiled and commented, “You’re just like your dad!” She wasn’t just referring to my appearance, but…
Questioning Our Preaching
The transition from preaching occasionally to preaching weekly came for me a little more than three years ago as I was called from an associate pastor position to lead a church plant. My preaching courses in seminary and the books…
Don’t Waste Your Privileges
The 2020 Presidential race is underway. Americans everywhere are now sitting back and bracing themselves for tedious recitals of attacks and scandals. The first attack has come in response to Beto O’rouke’s statement about sometimes helping his wife raise their…
Sticking Your Tongue Out at Suffering
On the surface, Paul’s observation in Philippians 1:14 that “most of the brothers” in Rome–where Paul was chained to a member of the imperial guard awaiting the outcome of his judicial appeal to the emperor Nero–had become “more confident in…