The following article first appeared on The Gospel Coalition Canada (11 August 2020). It can be found here. Pastors have their favourites. And I don’t mean people, but books of the Bible. And they will inevitably change over time. The worn out and wearied minister may find his daily solace for a season in the Servant Songs of Isaiah — refreshed with…
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Human thought struggles to plummet the depths to which the Scriptures saturated the mind and heart of Jesus, the incarnate Word of God. As Israel’s true King, He read and meditated upon God’s Law to the utmost (cf. Deut. 17:19; Ps. 1:2). Knowing full well that the united testimony of Scripture orbited around His own person and work (John 5:39; cf. Luke…
The following article first appeared as a guest post on Gentle Reformation. If your social media feed is not on silent these days, the ping of incoming alerts has perhaps been more noticeable than ever. And more alluring if you’re being honest with yourself. While we complain about being overtaxed by incoming messages by the minute, there’s a part of us that…
These days, it would be shocking to come across someone who does not have the word coronavirus indelibly stamped upon their mind. It comes knocking at the door of our thoughts in one form or another just about every waking moment — as we turn on the radio; as we scroll through social media; as…
Only leave your house when necessary. Keep two metres apart. Wash your hands. Don’t touch your face. Cough into your arm. Don’t gather in large groups. Respiratory droplets. Community transmission. Flattening the curve. Asymptomatic. Pre-symptomatic. N-95 masks. Ventilators. Insert your own term here. It seems that just about everywhere we turn (or click!), we are…
Note: The following article was written by the Rev. Warren Peel and published on Gentle Reformation under the title “Christians and Coronavirus” (28 FEB 2020). Rev. Peel serves as minister of Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland, as well as professor of Biblical Greek and New Testament Studies at the Reformed Theological College in Belfast.…
“Beware the barenness of a busy life,” warned Socrates. The words of the ancient Greek philosopher ring just as true in our own generation as they did in his. Facebook status updates. Instagram photo uploads. Netflix series marathons. The list goes on. It seems that just about every few weeks, the results of a new…
In the last post, we considered the rich imagery found in Psalm 46 — imagery that poetically and persuasively calls the people of God to take shelter in the shadow of the Almighty when the storms of life rage hard. We saw that it was Psalm 46, in all its poetic and persuasive beauty, that…
Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. Do those words mean anything to you? Perhaps their translation into English might help: A Mighty Fortress is our God. Starting to ring a bell? Roughly ten years after nailing his Ninety-five Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg (1517), the famous German reformer, Martin Luther,…
Many Christians are deeply familiar with Jesus’ seven “I AM” statements found in John’s Gospel: “I AM the bread of life” (6:48); “I AM the light of the world” (8:12); “I AM the door of the sheep” (10:7); “I AM the good shepherd” (10:11, 14); “I AM the resurrection and the life” (11:25); “I AM…