While we may not feel the impact of silence for generations and to one day hear the news of the Messiah being born, we do have the promise of Jesus’ presence.

In valuing Christ we devalue all else for this object of our love, the treasure. 

Death marks not the end, but the beginning for the believer.

The special value of General Revelation is that it calls the believer simultaneously to praise God and proclaim God.

His standards are the robes of Christ’s righteousness—they literally cannot be higher. 

I’ve been told that becoming an older man guarantees more aches and pains. I hope it also means more hopeful discipling, and more earnest prayer. May the Lord help me.

The Bible reveals that while we are fixated on what we don’t have, God’s focus is on what we are becoming for the sake of His purpose.

The doctrines of systematic theology do not replace or stand over the Bible; rather, they provide definitions and summaries of certain key terms and themes that we encounter in the biblical story.

The flesh may counterfeit Spirit-fruit. But it cannot produce genuine fruit. 

In a world of self-justifiers and wannabe gods, the idea of God’s wrath will always be the first domino the devil tries to topple.

When teaching or reading Genesis 1, we should focus on the sovereignty of God in creation and how important mankind is to him and to the flourishing of the world.

Luther was God’s wrecking ball. He was God’s appointed servant for such a time as the Protestant Reformation.

On Halloween night 1998 I threw a party in my apartment. I had girls, booze, weed, and cocaine. On that Halloween night, I was geared up for what I expected to be a good time. But my friend Dave didn’t respond like I expected he would.

When others hear the gospel from your lips, they hear it not from one who can leap over buildings in a single bound but from one who needs grace for the next breath.

How is it that even while we sleep, we don’t lose our bearings concerning Christ?

When we “accept” Jesus into our life, we give him a seat at the table. But this is not how Jesus operates.

True wisdom—biblical wisdom—is not limited to the intellect. 

Where does the wayward mind truly go when it comes time to pray? It’s hard to say.

All our longing for God-likeness is only wrong when we strive for it in and of ourselves.

The letter to the Galatians reminds us that the faith that saved us is the faith we still walk by and the Spirit that regenerated us is the Spirit that grows holiness within us.

While the attributes of God’s wrath and God’s love may seem to clash to our spiritual ears, they were in perfect harmony in Jesus’ death on the cross. 

Many would rather live it up now and use the party they create out of their life as a sedative numbing them to the certainty of what lies ahead in death. 

When you hear of new appeals for tolerance of sinful behavior in the churches, remember that this is not a nascent problem, but the old Corinthian problem revived.

I am transformed from a person who balks at King David’s selfishness and short-sightedness into a person who bawls alongside of him. 

If the Lord who counts every star came down from heaven to die in your place when you were his enemy, is it likely that he has forgotten you?

Just as we appreciate the skill of a spectacular soloist, or an elite athlete, or simply a brilliant coworker, we can appreciate the work of an artist. 

The essence of Christianity is the believer’s union with Christ. 

There can be a temptation to put believers who are suffering in a petri dish, watching to see if they grow evidence that will confirm our doctrinal beliefs without making us too uncomfortable in the process.

As God’s revelation to man, the Bible comes with binding authority.

If you are not content with a Christianity characterized by minimal devotion to God, Nehemiah is your book.​

Because He is the Master at creating a brand new something from a pile of nothing, He saw what we could become.

Jesus commands humility from us but he does not leave the humble man hanging!

The Bible is preoccupied with the Messiah and we must be as well.

Jonah fled because he knows that God is compassionate and loving, eager to forgive sinners. 

I made a disjointed relationship into a convincing substitute for true unity.

We share a couple of things in common besides our name. One is a dark reality. The other is a greater Truth.

Father, help us to see that you are at work through us for the advance of the gospel. 

There is one thing that the churches experiencing historic revival have in common: they seemed overrun with the sense of the glory of God.

God desires us to run to Him with both the things that bring us joy and the things that bring us pain.

In this fallen world permeated with sin and death, even adopted children of God may taste the bitterness of loss.

Because God is good and he does not change, there is a reason to be thankful, to God, for God, always.

The more bored you are with the things of God, the more vulnerable you will be when difficulty comes.  

We may not always understand why the Father prunes the way He does.

It is good and right also to consider the impact of a group of praying students, heirs of Wittenberg themselves, on the modern missions movement of global gospel proclamation.

If all else were stripped away—your career, your earthly relationships, your plans—your identity as a beloved child of God would still remain.

The good news is that the Lord has a way of making a way where there is no way.

Certainly, my smartphone and its accompanying array of apps can be a tool of inestimable value.

What’s it like to hear the whole world sing your praise? Only God knows. Be awed by the fact that He does.

Two decades of pastoral ministry has taught me that a prevailing theme of Christian life is the faulty thinking that we relate to God as though he is a disappointed father.​