As we get older, we're likely to be increasingly exposed to the specter and inevitability of our mortality, through the example of the deaths of relatives and friends. We also experience this through the steady, unrelenting degradation of our bodies. We get old and die. Sometimes we don't even make it to old age. We do … [Read more...]
A Heaven Without Christ?
What if you died and woke up in a heaven without Christ? Can there even be a Christ-less heaven? I'm sure many people today would prefer it that way. But might a heaven devoid of Christ actually be something else? I was first taught about Christ by my mother. For all its theological problems, Christ was also taught … [Read more...]
Grieving Sin
One of my morning devotionals just happened to mention David's Psalm 51. The cool thing is that the devotional below was in draft ready to be published. Perhaps this is a divine message for us all. Here's the first part of the Psalm: Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to … [Read more...]
Isaiah 41 – Five Pillars of Fearlessness
Let’s look at the verse, Isaiah 41:10, and then see how the preceding verses intensify the point of the verse. There are two commands in the verse not to fear and five pillars of fearlessness. “Fear not” is the first command at the beginning of the verse. And then the second is “do not anxiously look about you”. As … [Read more...]
God Makes All Things New
Since Adam and Eve's temptation by the serpent and subsequent fall, all of creation has been groaning (Romans 8:22-23). Even so, God has made provision for its redemption through his Son. Here are some wonderful reminders of God’s plan for us and His creation. Isaiah 43:18 Remember not the former things, nor … [Read more...]
A Lot Can Happen in Three Days!
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded … [Read more...]
Happy New Year 2018
We saw a tweet from Pastor Steven Lawson and we couldn't agree more with him: "As we start a new year, may this be the year we hear the shout, the trumpet of God, and the voice of the archangel. Come, Lord Jesus! Come!" Exult and Rejoice We will exult and rejoice in you. Song of Songs … [Read more...]
Happy Mother’s Day
Being a mother is a very important role that the Lord chooses to give to many women. A Christian mother is told to love her children (Titus 2:4-5), in part so that she does not bring reproach on the Lord and on the Savior whose name she bears. Children are a gift from the Lord (Psalm 127:3-5). In Titus 2:4, the … [Read more...]
Groaning for Redemption
We ourselves . . . Groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8:23 This groaning is common among God's people: To a greater or lesser extent we all feel it. It is not the groan of murmuring or complaint: It is a note of desire rather than of distress. Having … [Read more...]
Count It All Joy
Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. Luke 6:22-23 Did you … [Read more...]
