What Hope Can We Have?

What hope can we hope for in the midst of trials, and tribulations and calamities that we ourselves have had a hand in creating?  To my believing brothers and sisters, we of course immediately recall King David; a man who committed terrible atrocities, and as a result found himself in dire straights and even danger

Deliberate Foreknowledge

Original Publication Date: 5/30/23 What does God’s foreknowledge mean? Many people believe that God knows the future only because he can “look forward through the corridors of time” and see what happens in the future.  The problem with this view is that it makes God a passive observer of something that is outside of His

No Root of Bitterness

Original Publication Date: 5/14/23 In Hebrews 12:12-15, the author of Hebrews (who is unknown to us) is explaining how our race of Faith is run in community. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put

Love Your Enemies, Not Just Your Friends

I’m not going to win any friends with this post, but this needs to be said. For all the evil that she did, it is just as sad and tragic that the police shot and killed this girl. She is every bit made in the image of God that I am, and her sins are

Parchment and Peels

The Written word of God vs. the banana peels of pop culture in the Church Just because you believe the Bible ‘says it’ doesn’t ‘settle it’ More from the Southern Baptist Convention’s train wreck. Increasingly, Like so many other books and articles, the title betrays it’s conclusion before it even begins. It’s an attack on

“Be Anxious For Nothing…”

Original Publication Date: 3/25/2023 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication and with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Finally, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right,

His Mercies Are More

Original Publication Date: 3/12/23 This morning, we sang a hymn that contained the following verse: Our sins they are many,His mercies are more. The hymn encourages us and reminds us that no matter what sins others have committed against us, they are nothing compared to what God has forgiven US. When we remember how great

The Gospel in Marriage

Original Publication Date: 12/24/2022 God has, for whatever purpose suits him, couched all of the Gospel plan of salvation in the language of Marriage. There is a Groom. There is a Bride. There is a spotless white wedding dress. There are groomsmen, and brides maids. There is a Wedding Feast. There is a Marriage, and

The Cultural Attack on Women

19 December, 2022 The root of feminism is just the dislike and disdain for male and female differences, roles, and responsibilities. And the root reason of that is hatred of God who made those distinctions, and commanded us to observe and preserve them, and to make ourselves separate and distinct from the world’s culture. Our

What even IS Masculine and Feminine?

The Premise: The concepts of “masculine” and “feminine” are, and always have been a completely social and cultural construct that predates the Bible, Judaism and Christianity. It is a basic human truth established and understood from creation to this day. When Paul exhorted the men of the church to “act like men“, he didn’t go on

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

“How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn!You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!” — Isa 14:12 (NIV) SO, having a conversation with a friend about Isaiah Chapter 14; the passage that lots of people have mistaken notions about – including myself because I come

YOU Should Be About Your Father’s Business!

And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” — Luke 2:49 Information that you cannot use is, by it’s very definition, “useless information”. And I have no time at all for useless information. Yet do you know how many who profess to be followers

Flags in the Church

Do they belong there, or not? The word “Kingdom” is the combination of the word “King” and “Domain”. The Kingdom, then, is the entire realm over which the King has dominion. In the case of our Lord, his Kingdom, his domain, is literally all of creation, and everyone and every thing in it. Once God

Treacherous Husbands

. . . the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and your wife by covenant. [Malachi 2:14] In scripture, a great many of God’s commands regarding marriage are primarily designed to protect the wife. Far more often, God’s

Plinko And The Universe

I suppose we’ve all seen a Plinko board at some time or another. Here’s one (in the photo). Now, let’s just dive right in. Let’s just say that’s you up there at the top about to release that checker (disk). What slot at the bottom that checker will end up is absolutely and completely predetermined

One Can Always Hope

It was the topic of this morning’s sermon. Of all the many hundreds of ways that men and women can hurt, and grieve, and suffer, Jesus has experienced all of them; deeply. In fact, he has experienced them to their fullest depths. Depths that no man can suffer. Depths that no man can grieve. He

Partial Regeneration

“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.” — John 3:3 “But the gospel is foolishness to them that are perishing.” — 1 Cor 1:18 So, it was brought to my attention that an analogy, or illustration that I often use might have a flaw. It’s in my testimony, and

As Unto The Lord

Many people, especially those in Egalitarian or Liberal Progressive circles like to discuss Ephesians 5:22, which says in almost all bible versions, “Wives, submit to your husbands in everything, as unto the Lord.” But whether or not they include the verse just before it, verse 21, depends much on what they are trying to accomplish.

Choosing To Believe (Again)

So, it’s back in the discussion with some folks today. In response to a meme I made: Basically, I took that image and added those speech bubbles. “So, salvation is not 100% of God, you must also do something to be saved… Hm.“ “It would seem that way if you had any control over what

Vacuous Straw Persons

This is going to be a difficult article to write because the subject matter is difficult (for me) to understand. The subject matter is an article by Aimee Byrd entitled “When The Feminine Gift Is Rejected” Here is the problem in a nutshell. The article is full of vague, vacuous, ambiguous and (since this is

Guilt and Remorse are not Conviction or Repentance

Feeling bad that you’ve done something is not conviction of the Holy Spirit. Having a sense of guilt for having done something is not “repentance”. Conviction and repentance are the God-given knowledge that what you have done is a sin against someone else, and ultimately against God. Ultimately, all sin is a sin against God,

Qualified Male Leadership

One last problematic issue I have with the idea of “Junia as an Apostle” is this: It puts Paul in a delicate spot, because now, he is in the position of saying that there is, somehow, an Apostle who is required to keep silent in the Church. How likely is that?

The Word Is “Fallen”

Today’s culture has subtly changed the meaning of the word “broken”. Progressive Christianity (if you can call it that) remands itself to the world to (as quoted here) “help us bring hope to those who are in this broken world.“ The word is “fallen”, not “broken”. By referring to it as “broken”, you summon images

Grace is Not Faith

Grace is Not Faith And grace is not repentance, either.  By definition, Grace is “undeserved and unmerited favour” granted by God upon only some individuals.  All those adjectives are necessary.  It is undeserved because all mankind is guilty before God.  It is unmerited because Grace occurs before man does (or indeed can do) anything at

To Whom Am I Speaking?

The following was originally written as an introduction to Option Number 3.  I separated it into it’s own article. It is important to remember that the Bible is very often speaking to SOMEONE, not EVERYONE. Most of the Old Testament is being spoken to the Israelites. Sometimes to a specific tribe of the Israelites. Sometimes to

Option Number 3

Free Will This article is about “Free Will”. The topic of “Free Will” needs some clarification before we continue, because there is a difference between Reformed Theology (sometimes erroneously called “Calvinism”), and various incarnations of “Free Will” Arminianism – or, what calls itself “church” in America today. At the very beginning, one thing to clear

The Wide Gate Preacher: Charles Finney

Influences and Inducements – Smoke and Mirrors The sheer enormity of Charles Finney’s writings make exposing them a very difficult task. For on the one hand you will find him writing one thing in one place, and then completely reversing himself in another. But since the volume of material is so great, taking an exception

Cry All The Louder

How can we know that we are saved?  I’ve been asked that question before.  And here is my answer: Two blind men were sitting by the path when they heard Jesus pass by.  And they cried out, “Lord, thou son of David, have mercy on us.” And others around them, annoyed, scolded them and told them

Spiritual Spam

I clean out a LOT of spam from my daily mail.  My spam filter automatically deletes about 500 spam emails per day, but sometimes it gets through anyway. Today, what struck me is the uncanny (ie, amazing) resemblance spam has to spiritual nonsense going on today in the “health, wealth, and prosperity” movement in the

Stop Believing!

An earlier article of mine was entitled “Stop Sinning!”  It was aimed at the section of the professing “church” who believe that the goal of the Gospel is to help men to stop sinning.  That it is not is the subject of that article.  The subject of THIS article is another angle, very similar. The