God the Father

Jesus is simultaneously the master theologian and the perfect pastor. He sets the deepest of truths before his people, but in a way that pastorally meets their deepest needs. This should give pause for thought for thought on different fronts. It says something to theologians and those who love...

Quite a while ago, I met a woman with whom I had attended a particular church several years earlier. At the time of our meeting we were both worshiping in different congregations. In the midst of the conversation, having discovered that I was reformed in my theology, she informed me that she too...

God created various means by which He, a pure Spirit, could communicate with earthly, speaking creatures. The first was the Angel of the L ORD . When He appeared to God’s people, they were confused. An angel? Or the L ORD ? Hagar asked herself, “Is it possible that I have seen Him who sees me?” She...

When we speak of God as our Father, it is immediately plain that we are expressing a belief that is unique to the Judeo-Christian tradition. Of course, to the extent that other religious or philosophical systems maintain that the world owes its allegiance to some kind of deity, in a very general or...

Among the early English Puritans, none has greater pastoral insight and enduring readability than Richard Sibbes. This blog hopes to honor his classic work, The Bruised Reed. First published in 1630, it opens with Matthew 12:18-21, which cites Isaiah 42. Behold, my servant whom I have chosen... a...

Have you ever wanted a fresh start? Perhaps you fumbled in some area – a marriage, a parent-child relationship, a job – and you longed to reset. Or something happened to you that made you wish for a complete change of identity. The witness protection program no longer sounded inconvenient, but full...

The Old and New Testament (Covenant) Scriptures command their reader to treat them as two distinct wholes inseparably and organically united. Yes, what is truly in the OT, yet somewhat concealed, is more fully revealed in the NT. Yes, the NT interprets the OT. But in affirming these truths we have...

Most of the time when we think of the earthly life of Jesus, we think of how he demonstrated his power and manifest that he was the Son of God. On occasion, we think about how he demonstrated his humility in the weakness of his incarnation particularly at Gethsemane and Golgotha. One area we often...

It is one of those ‘stop-you-in-your-tracks’ type statements that crops up in the Bible from time to time. ‘Who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’ (He 12.2). It is, of course, speaking of Christ and his sufferings...

Dropping into church on Good Friday you’d think we were celebrating the death of God. Of course, God cannot die. Of course God cannot die, but there is a sense in which you’d be on to something. Why is a cross central to Christianity? Why was it constantly on the mind of the Lord Jesus Himself...