The Word

Public worship can all too easily feel lacklustre and mundane, not just for a congregation, but also for the one entrusted with leading it. This is not some new phenomenon. It has been a challenge for the church throughout its history. Indeed, it was at such a low point in the history of worship,...

Think of a cup being filled to the brim—or inflating a children’s play castle or a basketball to its entire design. The thing being pervaded is what it is, but it is in the process of functioning fully and living up to its potential and peak performance until completely full. Such gets at the sense...

From the earliest days of Protestant missions, foreign missionaries understood the need of training local pastors. The priorities given to this task varied. In many cases, circumstances helped to hasten the process. This is what happened in Manchuria, a historical region of northeast China, in 1941...

Gary Schnittjer returns this week to continue the fascinating and vital conversation about his book Old Testament Use of Old Testament . Released just a few weeks ago, it has already proven to be an essential tool in the hands of Bible scholars, pastors, and students of theology. One tragic issue...

Learning about the battle between popes and civil authorities in medieval Europe feels a bit like an episode of Oprah’s show: “You get excommunicated; you get excommunicated; everyone gets excommunicated.” Of course it famously culminated in Henry VIII finally not going along with the program and...

Our author, John, wants us not only to see the prophet Moses, whose rich memory is woven throughout the entirety of chapter six, but he also wants us to see He who is greater than Moses. Consider: the setting, we’re told, is the season of “the Passover, the feast of the Jews” (vs. 4), and just like...

On December 24, 1920 Benjamin B. Warfield fell ill after being struck with angina pectoris. He died on February 16, 1921. Why should we pause this week to remember a Princeton theologian who has been with the Lord for one hundred years? Perhaps Isaac Newton’s reason is enough, “If I have seen...

It is hard to overstate the impact the late Francis Schaeffer has had through his writings, ministry and work of L’Abri , the study centre he and his wife established in Switzerland. He was a man for his times who provided a Christian response to the cultural mega shift that began in the Sixties...

Among professing Christians in America, there is perhaps no word, and the reality to which it refers, more used and abused than grace . Space only allows us to glance at the subject, but understand this: There is an application of God’s grace that actually saves the people whom he chooses to save...

Kindness is one of God’s communicable attributes, those He shares with humans in some measure. We use the word often when we speak of a kind person or a kind gesture. THE SOURCE OF KINDNESS If we are called to emulate God’s character, we must go to the Teacher himself. We must be thoroughly...