This blog is Pastor Jay's weekly musings about God's Word, God's world, and God's call to our culture. We hope they encourage, challenge, and inform you. Sign up to recieve them in your email.
Servanthood is one of the marks of Christlikeness. Mark 10:45 says "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve" Servanthood is doing what other people truly need done because they can't do it, either because of lack of ability or opportunity. The believer's heart is inclined toward this. We were created for good works (Eph 2:10), we should be zealo...
Keep ReadingEvery parent wants to know the age of accountability. But really, that precise moment isn't important to know. This is like being 90 years old and asking "When am I going to die?" That is asking a question that can't be answered while ignoring the question you should be giving all your attention to. The real question is, "How can I be prepared for my very near death?" ...
Keep ReadingIn the last post about prayer, we looked at a few short passages about the incredible power prayer unleashes. Prayer gets things happening whether we see it or not. Perhaps the only thing more exciting is to be incessantly told to use it incessantly. This feels almost too good to be true. I can easily imagine being told never to use a tool of immense power unless it was ...
Keep ReadingThe ubiquitous LGBT mantra "Born that way" is finally getting dumped in the landfill of scientific fiction. Bible teachers have been trying to do that for years, and the sexual revolution is now doing it for us. What has caused the reversal? Think of it like this. Bikes are wonderful vehicles. But do you know what bicycles are terrible at? They make for terrible tow-tru...
Keep ReadingNitty-Gritty. You have probably used that term before. It refers to the small details of life where real difficulty is found and real work has to be done. Nit and grit are things that have to be dealt with, but you only get to it when you are elbows deep in a project. The shiny exterior of the project is no longer in view. All you can see now are the little problems that...
Keep ReadingThe knee-jerk answer to that question by most Christians is "Well, of course." But in order to be Christians who do not lean on their own understanding, and do not lean on knee-jerk answers, we have to do more. The fear of the Lord calls his people to test everything by the Word of the Lord, because the Word has the final say on what we teach, and how we are corrected ...
Keep ReadingI am fan of Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce. There is only one reason for this: a coupon. During my days in seminary, Emily found a coupon for it so we gave it a try. The sauce is the boss! All of this is a classic marketing strategy. Free samples are regular features in the marketplace because the only thing better than a word-of-mouth reference is a tastes-good-in-my...
Keep ReadingSomeone has said that one of the most difficult things in sports is using a rounded bat to hit a round ball coming at you at a high rate of speed. This may be true, but a far harder thing is teaching your kids to think rightly about sports. Our family is just beginning to enter into the world of kids and sports, and already we are asking the question of how to talk about...
Keep ReadingIn last week's blog I took a close look at one particular type of suffering that Paul spoke of in Romans chapter eight. But as I was thinking about that one type, it got me thinking about the other distinct categories of suffering that Scripture speaks about. As I did that, I found it incredibly helpful to think about the variety and number of categories that suffering c...
Keep ReadingRomans 8 is a gloriously rich chapter of the Bible that should fill the mind of every believer. But gloriously rich doesn't mean easily swallowed. Such is the case with verse 16-17. Romans 8:16-17 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Hi...
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