There are labels I can use to describe what I believe. I am Reformed in my understanding of salvation. I am Baptist in my understanding of the church and baptism. I gladly affirm the doctrines commonly called the doctrines of grace. I believe that man is fallen and unable to rescue himself, that God sovereignly […]
There are books that we deliberately seek out, and there are books that seem almost to find us. Family Prayers by Henry Thornton was one of those books for me. I discovered it five or six years ago, and it has remained a personal favorite ever since. Thornton’s prayers have that quality I so often […]
I have not published much here lately. That is not entirely unusual, as my writing has always tended to come in seasons. There have been times when I have written regularly and other times when weeks or months have passed while drafts remained unfinished, ideas accumulated in notebooks, and things I intended to return to […]
I spent this past weekend assembling a detailed 3D book-nook puzzle, one of those miniature architectural scenes made of dozens upon dozens of tiny wooden pieces. Each piece had been precisely cut with notches so small they were nearly invisible, yet every one fit only in a single location. The instructions required an exact order. […]
Each year, “Merry Christmas” is spoken more cautiously, if it is spoken at all. In its place, “Happy Holidays” has become the safer greeting, offered under the banner of politeness, neutrality, and inclusiveness. Just last week, after wishing a gentleman “Merry Christmas” over the phone, he replied with a carefully neutral “Happy Holidays.” These exchanges […]
“Record all special favors, mercies, providences, and experiences.Little do you know the advantages that will redound to your souls upon this.” – Thomas Brooks, Smooth Stones Taken from Ancient Brooks I began journaling as a teenager, long before I knew Christ. What began as a class assignment soon became a nightly ritual. I would open my […]
Reverence does not grow in the heart by accident. Scripture never treats it as a passing feeling or a heightened emotion that comes and goes with the seasons of the soul. Reverence is the posture formed when the heart sees God as He truly is, and bows beneath the weight of that truth with joy […]
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1, ESV) I was reading a devotional this morning that made me pause. It was beautifully […]
Many assume that Christianity begins with believing that God exists or believing that Jesus is real, yet Scripture draws the line far tighter. For Paul, a person is either in Adam or in Christ. There is no neutral space. There is no spiritual middle ground. One is rooted in the old humanity, bound to sin, […]
When John Calvin begins his Institutes, he doesn’t linger in the realm of speculation about God’s essence. He presses us into something far more practical: what it actually means to know God, and what effect that knowledge must have on our lives. In chapter two, he defines what true and genuine religion looks like. It […]
