Reformation21

Studying our little newborn has caused us not only to say, “Aww!” but “Wow!” It is amazing that our son arrived all ready to go. He had perfect little fingers that had begun to grasp his umbilical cord even before birth, practicing to take hold of our own fingers as we caress his cheeks; ears that...

It's six o'clock Wednesday evening. Your church's mid-week Bible study starts in one hour, but you don't feel like going. The trouble is, you can't think of a fresh excuse and you don't dare to say what you, (and several others) would like to say: "Is this really what a Bible Study is supposed to...

Note: This article is adapted from Eating and Drinking with God . The Lord’s Supper is the sacred occasion for eating and drinking with God. The sacrament is food and drink for our souls, real communion with our risen Savior. Yet even though Jesus is present in the sacrament, he’s invisible to our...

It hardly needs to be said: 2020 rode like a rollercoaster for most of us, and so far 2021 is looking more or less the same. And yet through it all, our Lord has remained faithful. As Simonetta reminded us (via Třanovský) the other day... His love abundant far exceeds the volume of a whole year's...

One pandemic leads to another. Because our lives are never compartmentalized, we can expect that the effects of a global epidemic will not be limited to the metrics of active cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. We know that natural disasters, such as hurricanes and wildfires, have far more wide-...

“Now greet the swiftly changing year with joy and penitence sincere; rejoice, rejoice, with thanks embrace another year of grace.” [1] This is how 17th-century Polish hymn-writer Jiří Třanovský (1592-1637, also known as Tranoscius) encouraged Christians to greet the year. Easy for him to say, we...

Church history can be of great help to us as we try to understand our calling to faithful Christian living in the times in which we live. In particular, it is helpful to remind ourselves in the year 2020 that we are not the first generation of believers to experience an outbreak of infectious...

What is gospel ministry? It’s a deceptively simple question. So much of modern church life is described as a ministry of some sort , but biblically speaking there is rather narrow meaning to the idea. The equivalent of the English word “ministry” is absent from both biblical Hebrew and Greek. In...

Early in my pastoral ministry, a thoughtful young man came with an interesting question while our congregation was in the midst of celebrating the Advent season. The question arose from a hymn sung during a Lord's Day worship service: the Isaac Watts classic, "Joy to the World." The question was, "...

Note: To read the previous entry in this series, click here. Christianity did not emerge in a vacuum. It was established in the face of opposition on all sides. [1] The religions of the Roman world stood in stark contrast to the doctrine and life of the early Christians. Indeed, Christianity...