I play drums. For many of my teen years, this meant playing with a variety of youth groups, filling in at friends’ churches, playing at youth camps, and so on. This exposed me to a whole host of different leadership styles and approaches to service planning. Even at that point, in my less theologically developed… Continue reading The Holy Spirit in the Order and Purpose of Worship

This is going to be another foray into speculative theology. In other words, I am not willing to bet the farm on how accurate my thinking is, and I am certainly willing to be corrected. Reformed sacramentology has long been a fascination of mine. On the one hand, we reject the Roman Catholic conception of… Continue reading Bread, Wine and the Imputation of Christ

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Deuteronomy 5:15, ESV At church this past Sunday, I noticed something that… Continue reading Salvation and the Fourth Commandment

The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in… Continue reading Arts and Aesthetics

It is entirely by the intervention of Christ’s righteousness that we obtain justification before God. This is equivalent to saying that man is not just in himself, but that the righteousness of Christ is communicated to him by imputation, while he is strictly deserving of punishment. John Calvin At the very outset, I would like… Continue reading Lordship Salvation Is Not The Gospel

Recently I was pondering the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23. The first group never had any growth and the last group had great growth with little complication. But the middle two groups were intriguing to me because they had temporary growth for different reasons. Group two, “fell on rocky ground, where they… Continue reading Gardening God’s Way

Though we can not comprehend Him as He is, we must be careful not to fancy Him to be what He is not. Stephen Charnock One of the most oft-quoted verses about the nature of God is that “God is love” (1 John 4:8) We hear it quoted endlessly in popular Christianity. There have been… Continue reading Keep it Simple

A quick glance through any number of the recently published works of major Christian organizations, Christian media outlets and blogs, Facebook and Twitter debates between Christians, and you will find that seemingly everyone is on fire for social justice, whether advocating for this position or against that one. I certainly wouldn’t suggest that the people… Continue reading And all these things…

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my… Continue reading Our Transfiguration

Living in Orlando has many benefits. One of the most well-known is its proximity to basically every major brand of theme park. They remain a key attraction to visitors without completely losing the interest of the local crowd. Around this time every year, the park trots out their Halloween theme, with Universal Studios, in particular,… Continue reading Don’t Fear The Reaper