This is the third installment in a series of articles discussing the Christian tendency to put God in a box. In the first article we saw that we tend to feel insecure about God unless we have contained Him within a box in our minds and then saw that God has revealed Himself to us…
In the first article in this series we looked at the tendency Christians have to put God in a box. We seem to feel insecure about Him unless we have contained Him within a structure of our own making. We also saw that God has revealed Himself to us in the Scripture in a way…
My family owns a beautiful cottage in the woods near one of the most picturesque villages in Ontario. This village was once a center of commerce along the Rideau Lake system – a series of canals and both natural and artificial lakes that span the miles between the cities of Kingston and Ottawa. The canal…
Several weeks ago my dear friends Chris and Rebecca shared with us that her grandfather, Art, had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. The doctors considered it terminal and inoperable, describing it as one of the worst forms of brain cancer. He would have only a couple of months to live and for much…
Pornography is having an increasingly-harmful impact on the church. Pollsters like Barna have been telling us for years now that more and more Christians, including, and even especially, those in positions of leadership are as prone to pornography addiction as anyone. The effects of pornography, as most of us know (as most of us, by…
Most Christians have heard of the inductive approach to studying the Bible (though some may know it by the more dramatic name “grammatical historical hermeneutics”). This technique, drawn from the Scriptures, allows the Bible to speak to us within its proper context instead of having us read our preconceptions into the Word of God. I…
I have often found it odd how the word “son” is used in the Bible, particularly when it is used as part of a title. Matthew 5:9 reads, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Why should they be called sons of God? Or consider Acts 4:36-37 which speaks of…
I was recently asked to work on a rather strange project – a web site dedicated to teaching the Bible through limericks. Yes, limericks – commonly known to be the lowest form of poetry. While I was certainly glad to work on the project and to help the poet bring his ministry to a wider…
This is one of those articles I am going to post even though it goes against my better judgement. Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, or maybe there is just something I really want to get off my chest. So let’s talk about Protestants and the pope. Uh oh. It has been a few weeks…
Several days ago I posted an excerpt from an essay written by D.A. Carson that is published as the introductory chapter of Worship by the Book. Carson suggested that some Christians have come to worship worship instead of worshipping God through worship. He says, “This point is acknowledged in a praise chorus like ‘Let’s forget…
In the first article of this brief series we examined Total Depravity, as a prerequisite to evaluating the following statement: “Those who believe in total depravity have more confidence in the possibility of humans having divine knowledge- detailed, down to the footnotes knowledge- than many who don’t call themselves Calvinists.” I indicated that I did…
The bulk of this article was published on this site in November of 2004, but I am going to repost much of it in response to discussion about my article from earlier today entitled, Total Depravity and Divine Knowledge. There has been discussion about whether the act of regeneration – the act whereby those who…
Following the article I posted on Saturday, which you can read here, Michael Spencer posted a link to it on Boars Head Tavern and included the following comment, which I would like to address today: Those who believe in total depravity have more confidence in the possibility of humans having divine knowledge- detailed, down to…
Bob DeWaay has just published a thorough review of Brian McLaren’s A Generous Orthodoxy. Having read all 6700 words, I considered adding a new category to this website entitled “Why Didn’t I Think of That?” De Waay makes a comparison between Brian McLaren and Francis Schaeffer, showing how in many ways McLaren is the fulfillment…
The twenty-third chapter of Jeremiah falls near the halfway point of the book, in the midst of the section where the prophet is foretelling the end of the Davidic dynasty and the coming captivity of God’s people. In this particular chapter, Jeremiah pronounces judgments against the false prophets who had become a plague within the…
This morning I was researching a conference that is coming to Toronto later this year and noted the following statement which was in the short biography of one of the keynote speakers. “St. Thomas Church in Sheffield, England has grown to be one of the largest churches in England with 2,000+ in weekly worship, 70%…
This is the thirty first and final part in this study through the book of Proverbs. The purpose of this study has been to learn wisdom and discernment from God’s Word. Yesterday I learned that limited human wisdom can never compare with God’s unlimited perfect wisdom. I also saw that though nature proclaims that God…
Darren, friend and artist extrordinaire, recently sent me a link to some writings of the great puritan pastor and theologian Richard Baxter. Baxter wrote some advice on reading that seems as appropriate for us to learn from today as it was for the men and women of the seventeenth century. Perhaps the advice is even…
This is part thirty in my 31-day study through the book of Proverbs. The purpose of this study is to learn wisdom and discernment from God’s Word. Yesterday I learned that I need to keep my mouth and emotions under control lest I be proven foolish by my words or actions. I also saw the…
This is part twenty nine in my 31-day study through the book of Proverbs. The purpose of this study is to learn wisdom and discernment from God’s Word. Yesterday I learned that confession is a critical aspect of having a deep, intimate relationship with God. Failing to confess sin to Him will build barriers in…