Category: Theology
What to Do When You Are Just a Little Birdie in a Big, Bad World
If you’ve ever been in a minor car accident, you might have called a loved one and started off by saying, “Hey, everything’s okay; I’m not hurt. But I’ve been in a wreck.” David starts off Psalm 11 with “everything’s okay” type of language: “In the...
Your Very Worst Problem
Death is not the worst thing that can happen to you. The worst thing that can happen to you, or to any human being, is to die on the wrong side of God’s judgment. As Jesus said of Judas after he exposed himself as a greedy...
Should People Feel Badly Before Responding to the Good News?
It seemed as if a wet wool coat of conviction was covering me before I came to Christ. I was weighted down with guilt. It seemed unbearable. Something had to change. My mother faithfully shared good news with me. I had heard it all before, but...
Free from the Law! What Does That Mean?
When I was a boy, our church used to sing a hymn called “Free from the Law, O Happy Condition!” Little did I know that being free from the Law was so important! Here’s a short explanation—a primer so to speak. Jews Were Under the Law...
How to Avoid Being a Theological Ignoramus
J.I. Packer tells a personal story about his freshman year in college (see Bruce Milne, Know the Truth, IVP, 1998, p. 9). The chaplain at his school took some of the students on “pastoral walks.” Packer was on one of those strolls and said of the...
Loving What is Beautiful
We were made for beauty. Our concept of beauty will vary, distorted by what theologians call “the Fall.” That is a way of speaking of the evil present within us permeating all aspects of our person. This causes one woman to long for an illicit affair...
The Gift of Love: When Do I Die?
It was told as true, but I cannot be sure of that. However, such love as I’m about to show you has been seen in the history of the world many times, in one form or another. It is sacrificial love, like Christ’s. It is the...
Seeking and Saving Zacchaeus, the Wee Little Man
“Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he.” The story of Jesus seeking and saving Zacchaeus is found in Luke 19:1-10. The song, quoted above and throughout, is sung by children throughout the English-speaking church world. It memorably summarizes the Zacchaeus...
When Do Christ’s Sheep Become His Sheep?
“But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep” (John 10:26) I once heard a man read the above verse and ask, “When does a sheep become a sheep?” The question is a good one, and has importance in the dialogue in John...
Crumbs of Mercy
The Gentile woman’s daughter was demon-possessed. Having heard about Jesus from others and learning that he was in her region of Tyre and Sidon, she came and begged him to cast out the unclean spirit. Jesus’ response at first sounds less than gracious, even harsh: “Let...
