97. What is our ultimate hope? Our ultimate hope is to see God’s glory in His realized presence (Rev 21:2-3, 22:4; Joh 17:21-26), where we will behold His beauty forever (Ps 27:4, 23:6). 98. How will we commune with God in His realized presence? We will behold Him without the curse of corrupt bodies and partially… Continue Reading
91. What are the disciplines of perpetual worship? The disciplines of perpetual worship are gratitude, discernment, fasting , and stewardship, which seek to behold, reflect, and magnify God’s glory in His works of creation, redemption and providence. 92. What does the discipline of gratitude entail? Gratitude is receiving all that is good and lawful in… Continue Reading
Every pastor and Christian leader feels a certain pressure to be relevant. We do not want Christianity to slip away into an oblivion. We do not want the church to go “backward” during our watch. This impulse has led many to the conclusion that Christianity must “keep up with the times.” One of the criticisms… Continue Reading
84. What are the disciplines of public worship? The disciplines of public worship are recognition, service, discipleship, and corporate worship, which seek to behold, reflect and magnify God’s glory in the society of others. 85. What does the discipline of recognition entail? Recognition is repeatedly submitting to the biblical view of our neighbor as a… Continue Reading
76. What disciplines will nurture faith and maintain abiding in God’s presence? We must embrace disciplines of private worship, public worship, and perpetual worship. 77. What are the disciplines of private worship? The disciplines of private worship are meditation, private prayer, and memorization, which seek to behold reflect and magnify God’s glory in solitude (Mt… Continue Reading
67. How is faith nurtured? Faith is nurtured through the grace-enabled practice of the spiritual disciplines (2 Pet 1:5-7). 68. What is spiritual discipline? Spiritual discipline is imposing order upon disorder to nurture communion with God (2 Tim 3:3-6). 69. What is the first purpose of the spiritual disciplines? The first purpose of the spiritual… Continue Reading
60. What is the Spirit’s work in this cycle also known as? Grace: He grants the grace of conviction, the grace of cleansing, the grace of conformity, and the grace of illumination (Phil 2:13). 61. How is this grace received and the cycle maintained? Grace is always received through faith (Eph 2:8) – the faith… Continue Reading
Take some time to consider Caravaggio’s Adoration of the Shepherds. Don’t scan and speed-read, but if you have the time, stop and stare. First, where is the focal point of this painting? Where does our gaze go first, and where does it seem to land? Is there more than one focal point? Are we above,… Continue Reading
52. What is meant by consecration? Consecration is dedicating something to the holy glory of God. 53. What are we to consecrate to God? Whatever cannot be loved for God’s sake should not be loved at all; whatever can be loved for God’s sake should be consecrated to Him (Phil 4:8). 54. How are we… Continue Reading
46. What is meant by confession? Confession is the agreement of the mind and heart with God’s conviction (1 John 1:9). The mind agrees with the sinfulness of the sin, and accepts the guilt of it (Ps 51:3-4). The heart agrees it has loved what God hates and hated what God loves, and sorrowfully revolts… Continue Reading
Too often, contemporary Christianity sees all emotions or affections as essentially equal. For this reason, many conclude as long as some kind of religious emotion is evoked, some good has been done. Augustine did not believe that all loves were equal. In fact, he distinguished between different kinds of genuine spiritual love. This comes out… Continue Reading
39. What is meant by imagination? Imagination is that faculty which interprets and construes reality, and enables us to understand both what is seen and unseen. 40. How are we to behold God in His revealed and reflected presence? We are to gaze persistently (Lk 11:5-13, 18:1-8) and deliberately upon His Word and works, diligently… Continue Reading
33. What is meant by communing with God? Communing with God is beholding of the glory of the Triune God, directly and indirectly, in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 3:18-4:4) as the Holy Spirit illuminates our imagination with truth, resulting in a desire to bless and magnify that glory, and become more like… Continue Reading
Yesterday at the national meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, I presented a paper evaluating Isaac Watts’s Trinitarian views. I hope to get the paper published soon, but in the meantime, here are several of the very relevant implications I drew related to the boundary of Christian fellowship, the importance of church tradition and creeds,… Continue Reading
8. Can we love anything or anyone besides God? Ultimate love for God demands that we love all that God loves, for His sake (Matthew 10:37). 9. How can we love people or things for God’s sake? First, we can love what reflect and reveals the Creator (James 3:9, Ps 19:1, Jas 1:17). Second, we can… Continue Reading
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. -G. K. Chesterton Continue Reading
It would be easy – or more precisely, lazy – to dismiss Tozer’s concern with the doctrine of illumination 1 as a form of flakey quasi-prophecy or dreamy mysticism. Presumably, some of Tozer’s contemporary critics did just that. Among Evangelical Rationalists, the truth is in the text, and the Philosopher’s Stone is solid hermeneutics. Apply… Continue Reading
In the fourteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul rebukes the church for its chaotic worship. It seems that the problems included women teachers (14:33b-35), the incoherence of foreign langues (14:13, 19, 27-28), and even people speaking over each other in the services (14:27-32). Paul rebukes them strongly for this. As he wraps up his discourse,… Continue Reading
Mark 13:11 promises that followers of Jesus will be given words by the Spirit to speak when they stand before civil and religious authorities in the context of persecution. Below is but a brief theological explanation as to why this promise is not for us today but for those in the Tribulation, a time of… Continue Reading
What does it mean to take the Lord’s name in vain? In common understanding, the Commandment forbids using the word God as a profanity. And ultimately, this ends up being a legitimate concern, although I have come to believe that it misses the central point of the prohibition. The challenge we have here is that… Continue Reading