Following Elijah’s stunning victory over the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18, he turns his attention to drought that continued to linger over the land. Back in 1 Kings 17, Elijah had announced a drought on the land because of the apostasy of the people. They had backed into Baalism and paganism. And their failure to remain faithful to the Lord carried the judgment of God removing his word from the people, signified by the lack of rain or dew. This was also a polemic against Baal, the storm god. The Baal cycle would be broken and the LORD would show himself to be God.
Columns
"With which person in the Bible do you most identify?" This is a question I have often asked others in the church over the years. Most of us lack even enough self-awareness to able to answer the question. Others among us have a propensity to appeal to the best characters in Scripture.
For the previous post in this four-part series, p
The sermon was the minister’s attempt through reason to encourage faith as it affected this life and the next. They were committed to a style that was plain but not dull. Each minister was pledged by his own creed to use a balance of doctrine and practice, faithfully devoted to the exposition of the Word of Scripture, and understood by all. Every Puritan sermon began with a definite Biblical text. Once a text was selected, the preacher’s immediate duty was to clarify it in all possible ways. Thus the lengthy Puritan sermon had a structure of its own.
Recently I was speaking at a women’s conference where girls as young as ten years old attended. One of these young girls approached me after the conference was over and asked me a good question, What does it mean to walk with the Lord? I answered as succinctly as I could. We read our Bible. We pray. We go to church on Sunday. We love God and enjoy our relationship with Him. We trust God and we obey Him.
Recently I had the opportunity to comfort another woman who was going through an unexpected trial filled with grief. As sorrow-filled words came tumbling out of her mouth I wondered how I might comfort her, especially since I had not experienced this particular kind of suffering. But by the end of the conversation it was clear that it didn’t matter. I was able to comfort her simply because I was a fellow saint and sufferer who had experienced God’s comfort in my own suffering.
George Trosse and His Mental Struggles
The vulnerable honesty of some Puritan diaries can be startling at a time when we tend to guard our words. Yet it is through this honesty that we understand the depths of human struggles and, in the case of the Puritans, the tenacious confidence in the unwavering faithfulness of a God who acts in mysterious ways.
Last January, a new professor wrote with a little conundrum. A student scored a 27% on his final, realized that he might fail the course as a result, and called the professor three weeks later to plead for mercy - a second chance - so he could pass the course.
In Matthew 12, Jesus and the disciples experienced events that had to be bitterly disappointing. Jesus healed a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute and the Pharisees said “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons” (12:24). A little later, they came to him and said “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you” (12:38). But they had just seen a sign; what could possibly satisfy them?
Martin Luther’s Table Talk is arguably the most entertaining of his works. The Weimar Edition contains six volumes under this head alone! Thus, volume 54 in the American Edition represents about one-tenth of the total bulk of what we know as Table Talk. However, as the American Edition explains there are good reasons for editing the work. For example, there are less trustworthy sayings and there are sayings that have been elaborated on by his students. All of this is to say that the American Edition removes the dross.
I was recently struck anew by reading Genesis 26. It’s the story of Isaac dwelling in Gerar. The story is familiar. We might read it in “like father, like son” fashion. As Abraham told Abimelech that Sarah was his sister, Isaac did the same. Yes, we sometimes learn from our parents. Even the patriarchs passed on what was not good. But that’s not what struck me.
It is often the case that a minister only begins to really appreciate the value of his books when the time comes for him to part with them. Sometimes it happens when he runs out of space on his shelves and he is forced to thin them out. Or it may be when it comes to his retirement and he is downsizing his house and there simply isn’t the same amount of space in his new accommodation. Either way, he finds himself struggling to decide which ones to keep and which to let go. It begins to dawn on him that these volumes mean more to him than he may have previously realised.
The first question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism has resonated with generations of people familiar with it.
Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?
How can the Reformers guide us in speaking into our church, family, and everyday lives to ensure they remain consistently aligned with Christ and His Kingdom?
These are some of the questions we will address at this year's Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology. We hope you will join us April 25-27 in Bryn Mawr, PA, for Reformation: Church, Family, and Everyday Life. Register by midnight on Monday, March 31, to save $20 per person.
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There is no shortage of biographies on the French Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564). Interest in the “Master of Geneva” has not waned since his remarkable career as one of the Reformation’s great pastor-theologians. Arguably, most of the interest has been polemical in one of two directions.
Wilhelmus à Brakel: A Systematic Theologian for the Common Person
Introduction
Having laid a foundation for the nature and authority of the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God in the three opening articles, the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy proceeds to define and defend mankind’s capacity to receive God’s Word. The framers of the Statement make the following affirmation in its fourth article:
We affirm that God who made mankind in His image has used language as a means of revelation.
Taken from forthcoming book, Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung, Copyright © 2024. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.
