Thoughts on Scripture and life
for the glory of Jesus Christ
What Can Wash Away My Sin?
As sinners we are sick, diseased, and helpless to cleanse ourselves. Our fingers are covered with black ink; everything we touch is stained. Who will make us clean?
The Kingdom of God
God is King from eternity past to forever (Psa 29:10). He sits enthroned in the heavens (Psa 2:4) above the earth (Isa 40:22) and will reign forever and ever (Rev 22:5). However, His kingdom plan for the earth is not simply a generalized kingship in which He is sovereign over all. Rather, God’s kingdom plan is revealed in the Scriptures as a particular plan interwoven with redemptive history. God promised to establish His perfect kingdom on earth through the person and work of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that He would dwell with His people forever and ever.
Running to the Tomb
What about us? In our desire to be respectable, have we forgotten that we are a people purchased by Christ’ blood to be zealous for good deeds (Titus 2:14)? In our thirst to be accepted by the world, have we blunted the sword of the Word (Hebrews 4:12)? In our lust to be admired by the culture, have we edited God?
Alas, O Lord!
To the Lord our God belongs compassion and forgiveness
Yet we have rebelled against Him
To the Lord our God belongs perfection and holiness
Yet we have not obeyed His voice
To the Lord our God belongs justice and truth
Yet we have rejected His teachings which He set before us
Reflecting On Death During the Holidays
Surrounded by merry tunes and twinkling lights, the sadness of the season is like a bitter taste that refuses to be undone. Why do cars crush the life out of their passengers? Why do infections invade the heart and the lungs and the brain? Why do college students die with no explicable cause?
Help, I’m Anxious! (Part 2)
What does our anxieties reveal about our belief in God? When we are anxious, we believe that God is not all that powerful and is not all that loving. What! How can a Christian believe such blasphemies? And yet, by our anxiety, we betray our sin.
Dear Christian, you do not need to be anxious. You are not God; you are not in control—and that’s a wonderful thing. Your God is the King over everything; you can rest in Him.
Dear Christian, you do not need to be anxious. You are not alone in this world, left to care for yourself. Your God is full of love and He cares for you; you can rest in Him.
Help, I’m Anxious! (Part 1)
The question I want to ask is, “Does God care about our anxieties?” More specifically, does the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of His death and resurrection, have anything to say to us about our anxieties? Yes. Absolutely. The gospel is good news to anxious hearts, for when we trust God as God, anxiety melts to peace in Jesus Christ.
Heaven, Our Home
In Heaven, God will surely and finally overwhelm our heartbreaks. God will knit closed the wounds of war, schism, disease, and brokenness. God will erase the scars of sin; sorrow will reign no more.
Christianity and #BlackLivesMatter
We have a better resource than learned sociologists, informed friends, or the news cycle; we have the very words of God. Have we heard what He says? Many of us have learned from politicians, celebrities, and influencers. But what have we learned from the Scriptures about ethnicity, murder, abuse of authority, oppression, justice, government, violence, submission, outrage, and anger? God determines reality, not His creation. We need more than a two-verse theology of Micah 6:8 and Amos 5:24. We need a comprehensive, biblical, godly, just, compassionate, faithful, God-over-all worldview to interpret all things.
Some Practical Advice for Helping Suffering Christians
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
the clouds ye so much dread
are big with mercy, and shall break
in blessings on your head.Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
but trust him for his grace;
behind a frowning providence
he hides a smiling face.His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding ev'ry hour;
the bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flow'r.Blind unbelief is sure to err,
and scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
and he will make it plain.[1]
Behold Jesus Christ, the Suffering Servant
What could be more everyday suffering than griefs, sorrows, illnesses, and diseases? This means that Jesus carried not only our sin, but also our suffering to the cross. Yes, He absolutely suffered under the wrath of God for our sin; that is the dominant note of Isaiah 53. But He also took even the temporal effects of sin—earthly suffering—for us. Cancer, depression, loneliness, disability, abuse, sickness, sadness, betrayal, abandonment, conflict.
What Suffering People Need Most
But what was it for you? When your suffering blocked out the sun, when you didn’t even know what to pray, when your world was one of confusion, fear, chaos, what was it like? I don’t know your deepest sufferings, but I do know your prayer:
Where are you God? Don’t You see? Don’t You care?
In those moments, when your fiancé dies, when your cousin commits suicide, when you’re diagnosed with cancer, when no one understands you, when your entire country has been ravaged and bodies are strewn in the streets and the temple of God is no more, what do we need the most? Someone to throw a truth grenade at us? To ‘just let go and let God’? To believe that ‘Everything happens for a reason’?
That’s not enough for me. A Band-Aid just won’t do. So we’re back at our question: “What does a suffering person need most?”
Suffering is Never Simplistic
The question posed to me was this: how do we counsel suffering brothers and sisters in Christ?
To start, let’s dive into a book all about horrific suffering: Lamentations.
You know the famous words from Lamentations 3:22-23 from the hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.[1]
But I wonder, have you ever heard the context of those words?
The Black Plague in Geneva, Theodore Beza's Treatise, and COVID-19
In 1542, the world was decidedly pre-modern. It would be at least 100 more years until the invention of the first microscope and over 250 years until the first vaccine. The cause of the black plague, a bacillus called Yersina pestis, wouldn’t be discovered for another 350 years.3 In those days, ‘medicine’ meant blood-letting, drinking ground unicorn horn,4 and consuming concoctions of lead and mercury.
But pre-modern or not, in the fall of 1542, the black plague came to Geneva. At the time, the renowned John Calvin, reformer of Geneva and de facto leader of the Company of Pastors (the group of pastors for the entire city of Geneva), was just 33 years old. The Reformation was just reaching maturity, having been accidentally kicked off by Martin Luther 25 years earlier. Mary I of England (who came to be known as Bloody Mary for burning Protestants at the stake), was still 11 years from the throne.5
Dear Biblical Counselor
Is Jesus still marvelous to you, dear counselor? Or has He become yet another tool in your counselor’s toolbox? Is He merely the means to some nebulous end of Christian maturity, or is He more? Is not true Christian maturity marked by a heart caught up by, enthralled by, completely won by the grace and truth of the Lord Jesus Christ? The Son of God became the Son of Man that sons of men might become sons of God. Friend, let us cherish that above all! To whom shall we go? He has the words of eternal life; He is the resurrection and the life! Christ is the Beloved of all creation, God’s only begotten Son in whom He is well-pleased (Mt 3:17). Is Christ your Beloved? Are you pleased in Him?
Five Lessons From Biblical Counseling Training
Through the training, I came to understand that biblical counseling is better defined as “intense biblical friendship and discipleship, as counselor(s) walk alongside a counselee through his sin and suffering, to help him behold Jesus Christ as both perfectly sufficient and ultimately satisfying in every trial and temptation, repent of his unrighteousness and the idols of his heart, and put on the righteousness of Christ according to the commands of Scripture, so that God would be glorified in his heart, his relationships, and indeed his entire life.”
Biblical Counseling, the Hole in My Holiness
I am still very, very new to biblical counseling. But the sails are unfurled, the ship is sailing, and the skies are bright and sunny. I am excited to learn how to best love someone, by helping someone apply the truths of Scriptures to their life, that they might be enthralled with Jesus Christ and love Him all the more. Is there any greater ministry than that? I know of none.
The Greatest of All Virtues
Haters keep on hating and liars keep on lying. Churches keep on splitting and couples keep on sinning. Suspicion, presumption, and deception leave the battlefield littered with their victims. Bitterness, selfishness, retaliation, slander, and impatience — these are not the instruments and tools of love, are they? Fears, fakery, and faithlessness give the devil a foothold to lead our hearts astray. If we are the people of God of love, ought not we be loving as He loves?
Literal Word, a Better Online Bible
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What Makes Me A Christian
Christian knowledge, experience, doctrine, morality, deeds, etc. are indeed good. But they are the fruit, the results, and the evidences, not the substance. They are the harmonies and riffs, the tempos and the rhythms of the Christian song, but not the melody. Or, to put the question more bluntly, what is the sine qua non of Christianity?