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Man Shall Not Live by Bread Alone

Man Shall Not Live by Bread Alone

All Christians are familiar with these famous words from Jesus in Matthew 4 as he rejects the temptations of the devil. Jesus had been fasting for 40 days and nights, and with understatement Matthew says, “he was hungry.” So Satan, called “the tempter,” knowing the...

God as a Consuming Fire: Transformation in the Christian Life

God as a Consuming Fire: Transformation in the Christian Life

I heard someone on a podcast recently say that when a person has an encounter with the living God the result in a person’s life is not emotion, but changed priorities. That phrase struck me because when God transforms us spiritually, inwardly, from death to life,...

Does God Want All People to be Saved?

Does God Want All People to be Saved?

This post is not going to make me popular with, oh I don’t know, maybe 90% of Christians. We Calvinists are in the minority among the faithful, but we are a confident and determined lot. I’m grateful, however, that God will not require a theology test to get into...

Articles on Theology

What is Sin? The Key to Unlocking the Meaning of the Universe

What is Sin? The Key to Unlocking the Meaning of the Universe

That’s quite a claim for such a little word, but it’s a word that contains multitudes, a phrase coming from Walt Whitman’s famous poem, “Song of Myself,” in a collection called Leaves of Grass. It comes specifically from this passage which will make a good...

The Hound of Heaven and Sanctification

The Hound of Heaven and Sanctification

Whenever I tell my story, my testimony about God’s working in my life, I always use the great late 19th century poem by Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven. When I was first exposed to it many years ago, it captured my experience of God perfectly, and that was...

Articles on Explanatory Power

On Never Tiring of the Moon

On Never Tiring of the Moon

During the most recent full moon, and the nights around it, as I gazed upon its never-ending beauty a thought kept coming to mind: why do we never tire of looking at the moon? Why is it we marvel at its beauty, find it mysterious, and awe inspiring, in the literal...

Articles on Culture

The Black Pill and the Psychology of Doomerism

The Black Pill and the Psychology of Doomerism

Being active on Twitter, now X, has exposed me to the big population of Chicken Littles among us. I expect negativity and doom from the left; it’s built into every one of their little petty Marxist genes, but seeing it so widely on the right is terribly annoying. I’ve...

Christ and Culture Revisited

Christ and Culture Revisited

Way back in the mid-1980s when I was introduced to Reformed theology, my theological and intellectual mentor introduced me to an influential book I’d never heard of by H. Richard Niebuhr called, Christ and Culture. The Niebuhr brothers, Reinhold (1892–1971) and H....

Articles on Apologetics

Developing an Attitude of Gratitude and the Atheist Dilemma

Developing an Attitude of Gratitude and the Atheist Dilemma

I recently saw an article that attracted me because of the title, “The Ingratitude of the Well-Fed.” The author, Maarten Boudry, explains what the piece is about in the subtitle: “We need to cultivate an appreciation for the abundance that modernity has bestowed...

The Hiddenness of God and God Revealed

The Hiddenness of God and God Revealed

Ever since the French philosopher Voltaire in the 18th century, the existence of God has been debated, especially among cultural elites. There have been atheists throughout all cultures and times because life can be so absurd, but with the Enlightenment and the modern...

Articles on Parenting and Family

The Difference Between Being a Parent and a Grandparent

The Difference Between Being a Parent and a Grandparent

I’ve thought about this a lot since we became grandparents over four years ago. As our kids were growing up and entering adulthood, I encountered people who had become grandparents tell us what’s great about being a grandparent is that you can enjoy your grandkids and...