Psalm 75 provides us with two alternatives: praising God or praising ourselves. From the beginning of time humanity was created to make God’s name known, but with the conflict of the fall, people began making a name for themselves instead of glorifying God. Satan uses the desire to make our names known in his temptation…
Imagine watching the victory procession of a king from a bird’s eye view. That’s a good way of thinking about Psalm 68. Only it proclaims God’s victory. This psalm points to the last days when God will defeat all of His enemies, enter Israel and Jerusalem in victory, and rule from His throne over all….
O Lord God, let me not rest content with such an ideal of manhood as men have known apart from Christ. Rather let such a mind be in me as was in Him. John Baillie, A Diary of Private Prayer Photo by Soroush Karimi on Unsplash
I was recently reading over a sermon that I preached almost a year ago at a graduation service in India. What I read convicted me, not because it is particularly eloquent, but because it is true, and I haven’t been living it. 2 Timothy 4:6 is part of Paul’s dying words as he passes on…
In Matthew 11:25-27 Jesus prayed a prayer of adoration to God the Father recognizing God’s sovereign choice to reveal Himself to whomever He pleased. This is a well-known truth, but it’s remarkable in its context. In Matthew 11:1-19 Jesus addressed the crowd’s failure to accept the message of John the Baptist and, by extension, Jesus…
“Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.So, remove grief and anger from your heart and put away pain…
The wisdom literature of the Old Testament has much to say about the wicked and wickedness. Neither can dwell with God, and both will be brought to sure justice. One example of this is in Psalm 5:4-6: For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. The boastful…
One of the things we were asked to look into was what accounted for the success, in fact, the pre-eminence of the West all over the world. We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective. At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had….
“Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!” Lamentations 3:22–23 Much of the time, we as Christians recognize the extraordinary gift that we’ve received in God’s mercy, and it inspires good works of faithful service and thankful worship to…