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…
Tag Death
What Will They Do When I’m Gone?
This morning I was reading a well-written and edifying article about cancer, the sovereignty of God and facing the reality of an uncertain future (humanly speaking). I think most parents have, at some time, gone through this thought process: what…
The Consequences of Ideas in New York
By now, most Christians in America have seen the images: thunderous applause at the New York State Assembly and a festively decorated World Trade Center spire. And what is the great deliverance celebrated by this applause? The legal freedom to terminate…
John Bunyan: Is it Good to Fear Hell?
Around the time God converted me at the age of 21, I remember embracing the reality of hell. It terrified me right into the arms of Jesus Christ. I truly sensed fleeing from the wrath to come. So, the first…
Trying Not to Remember
I’ve been thinking a lot about self-deception and the lies we tell ourselves. Sometimes we lie to others so that we can advance ourselves. Sometimes we lie to others so that we can gain a foothold to a place where…
Death, The New Year And The Hope of Christ
2016 was a sobering year for our celebrity-driven culture. A recent CNN article reminded us of the many well known individuals that we lost over the course of the last year. More names have been added just in this past…
Laying R.I.P. to Rest
I have great admiration for non-Christians who have contributed to the improvement of society through their inventions, production, leadership, literature and art. My wife and I were recently reflecting on the remarkable ways in which Steve Jobs’ labors helped changed…
Calvin on Life’s Perils and God’s Providence
Calvin apparently lived with a profound awareness of the potential for death that constantly accompanies us as human beings. In 1.17.10 of his Institutes of the Christian Religion, the Reformer provided a rather sobering catalog of the “innumerable … deaths…
Death, the Final Boundary
It is arguable that the last hundred years have witnessed an interesting reversal in Western society, where the great taboo of the Victorian era and the great obsession of the same period have dramatically switched places. The great taboo for…