We’re all familiar with the Apostle’s charge in 1Cor 11.1, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” It’s a call to follow him in so far as he follows Christ. He actually says the same thing in several places. E.g. “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us,” (Phil 3.17). The Epistle to the Hebrews echoes this sentiment with, “[be] imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises,” (6.12); and with “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith,” (13.7). Today I’d like to introduce you to a Christian brother worthy of imitation… Continue reading “How far have we come?”
Living to die well
Everybody wants to get the most out of life, to make sure that nothing good passes them by. They want to live to the full, to make every day count, to move closer to their dreams every day. But is this why we have the short breath of our lives given to us–to fill it to the brim with stuff and busyness? That would be like reducing a race to the mere steps along the way and caring nothing for the finish line. Who enters a race with no thought of actually finishing, and finishing well? Shouldn’t we stop and think about how we plan to end this thing called life? Shouldn’t we consider what kind of living would ensure that we die well? Continue reading “Living to die well”
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What’s so bad about pride?
“There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves…. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others” (C. S. Lewis). That universal vice, that most unpopular fault, is pride. Continue reading “What’s so bad about pride?”
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Is Jesus precious to you?
Precious things are things we dearly prize, things we keep close, watch closely, and, in a sense cannot live without. We like many things and would not easily part with them, but precious things are things we love and can’t bear to be without. I wonder, how precious is Jesus to you? Continue reading “Is Jesus precious to you?”
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Thoughts of His return
Today my thoughts are taken up with our Lord’s promise to return for His church. I think of His words in Jn 14.2-3, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” O the joy of that promise! O the blessing of those precious words to my soul! Will you pause and think with me a moment? Continue reading “Thoughts of His return”
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Thoughts of earth
My thoughts soared high yesterday as I dwelt upon the joys, the happiness, and the eternal fullness of living in the presence of God and growing in the knowledge of God forever. Today my thoughts are sobered by the present realities of dwelling upon this earth. Life, as the poets say, is a vale of tears. Jesus said, in this world you will have tribulation (Jn 16.33), and Paul said, we must enter the kingdom of God through many tribulations (Acts 14.22). Why, then, should we expect comfort in this world? Continue reading “Thoughts of earth”
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Do you complain?
Why do we always complain when things don’t go the way we want them to or think they should? Is it because we infallibly know that something is wrong and God should fix it, or is it because we simply don’t believe that the way things fell out is the way they’re supposed to be, or is it because we simply don’t like the way things are? Continue reading “Do you complain?”
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The Moral Law and Puritan Spirituality
One of the saddest effects of Scofieldian Dispensationalism on the landscape of the American church is the almost wholesale disregard for and discarding of the Moral Law. Scofield taught a stark division between Old Testament Israel and the New Testament church, a division so great that the two were not one people or one church or under one covenant of grace, but were rather two peoples under two covenants, and two churches in two different administrations. Indeed, the New Testament church hardly needs the Old Testament, according to Scofield, since it is a book of the Jews, by the Jews, and therefore for the Jews. The New Testament church has all it needs in the New Testament revelation. Continue reading “The Moral Law and Puritan Spirituality”
