Category Archives: Gospel

Sanctity of Life Sunday 2

I hadn’t planned on writing anything this Sunday. I wrote about evil of abortion a year ago on Sanctity of Life Sunday. You can read that article here. I am not going to repeat that post. I spent the morning at my church where our pastor preached from Proverbs 24:10-12 and Psalm 8 regarding abortion. You can find Pastor David Sunday’s message here. (As of the published time of this post, the message is not up yet, but should be up shortly at the link provided.)

I had to write today, though, after reading an opinion article published in today Chicago Tribune’s Perspective section by Sara Paretsky. I found it very disappointing that the Tribune would publish such a radical opinion on abortion without a corresponding pro-life piece, but maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. I have never heard of Ms. Paretsky before, but her opinion piece made it very clear she is a staunch supporter of abortion on demand as a vital woman’s right. She refers to pro-lifers as zealots in her piece and references “6,000 acts of terror [that] have been committed against clinics, patients and staff since 1973.” The irony is striking. Especially considering the 50 million unborn children murdered since 1973. And that’s just in the United States.

Let me be clear, I do not condone or approve of any violence against abortion providers or recipients. That is not a God-glorifying, Christ-honoring response. It is evil, too. Instead, Christians must be armed with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We must be ready to share the hope of salvation found in Christ alone through His death on the cross, how Christ paid the penalty for our sins on the cross, becoming sin for us, so that we may be clothed in the righteousness of Christ through faith. “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12) Both the woman who has had an abortion and the doctor who performs them can find redemption in Christ as Savior and Lord.

In the last couple years, I have become firmly convinced that the issue of abortion is vitally important for us as a nation. It is inconceivable that we can turn our heads to the murder of over 50 million children. We must be clear, a child in the womb is a child and a person no matter what the stage of development. Any other line drawn is an arbitrary line that can be crossed at any time as we have seen in the recent closing down of an abortion clinic in Philadelphia last year and corresponding arrest of Dr. Kermit Gosnell who didn’t see the difference between an unborn child and a live child outside the womb, but saw both as inconviences to the mothers who came in for his services, and so brutally murdered infants born alive.

In my post last year, I linked to several excellent sermons on abortion and provided a few great steps that we can take as Christians to protect life. I will conclude with the important truth that this is not just a United States problem, but a worldwide problem, where in many places, unborn children are murdered simply because they are not boys. Take a look at this video.

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The Gospel in the Life of the Believer

“The reminder of what we have become by grace is a constant defence against slipping  back into what were by nature.” (Ferguson, Sinclair. The Christian Life. (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2006), 114)

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not merely the door by which we enter the Christian life. It is much more than that. It is the house within which we dwell as Christians. As Ferguson points out in his excellent work, The Christian Life, a regular reminder of the Gospel is the best defense against slipping back into old sinful habits. The Gospel needs to be preached weekly from the pulpit in our churches, returned to often in our small group Bible studies, and regularly remembered in our daily lives. Continue reading

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Adoption

Adoption is a great doctrinal truth that is often overlooked in the Christian faith. Over the past year, my wife and I have been seeking the Lord’s direction in our desire to adopt. Consequently, I have also taken the time to study what Scripture tells us about adoption. Adoption is a wondrous doctrine. That we, those justified in Christ, should be called the “children of God” sits at the heart of the gospel message. Continue reading

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Tale of Two Mountains

This past Sunday, my pastor preached from Exodus 20, the giving of the Ten Commandments. As this was God’s inauguration of the Mosaic covenant, I found the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews description interesting as compares the old covenant to God’s new covenant established through the blood of Christ and His resurrection. Continue reading

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Already But Not Yet

As a follower of Christ, doctrine and theology have been important to me, particularly in the most recent decade of my life as both a means to better understand and articulate what God has done for me through Jesus Christ and fan my zeal for the Lord. The concept of “already but not yet” has been a great help in gaining a more full perspective of God’s story and, most importantly, His plan of salvation for His people. I first encountered the concept in my years interning for Young Life immediately following college. My understanding has changed much and continues to expand. Continue reading

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The Bible is Not About You!

I first watched this video from Tim Keller this past Sunday at my church as a sort of introduction to our new series on “Reading the Bible for Life”. The video is great. How you view the Bible and what it is primarily about will ultimately shape your conception of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In short, “The Bible is not about you, it’s primarily about Jesus Christ.” This is why the Gospel is good news and not merely good advice. Enjoy. Continue reading

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Christ’s Gospel is For Everyone

Two Sundays ago (August 21st), Justin Taylor concluded a short sermon series at our church on our mission statement, which reads, “To bring glory to God through Spirit-transformed lives by the beauty and power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” His sermon covered the last point of the mission statement: the beauty and power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Here’s an excerpt: Continue reading

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I Believe!

I was reading Psalm 27 earlier today and verse 13 jumped out at me.

“I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!”

David’s emphatic statement is full of conviction. He says this within a psalm where there are evildoers assailing him, adversaries and foes, an army encamped against him, and a war rising against him. (vv. 2-3) “Yet,” he says, “I will be confident.” Where is his confidence? It is in the Lord who his light, salvation, and stronghold. (v. 1) David confidently believes that his prayer in verses 4-6 to dwell in the house of the Lord, gaze upon His beauty, and inquire in His temple will be answered. And it will be answered in the “land of the living.” This he pronounces with confidence, “I believe!” Continue reading

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Viewing God’s Creation With Wide-Eyed Wonder Again

Wow! It is has been over four months since my last post. I have been working through figuring a lot out. Oh, and we moved, which was a huge answer to a yearlong prayer. All in all, in the last four months I have learned time and again that God is good!

I have been able to do some reading, too. I just finished, in less than a week, N.D. Wilson’s book, Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God’s Spoken World. Wide-eyed wonder is a great description of this book. Justin Taylor calls it “provocative”.  Justin definitely gets it right. The book reads like a succession of random thoughts thrown together, but they all weave together to get his point across: This world (universe) we live in is amazing! Every part of it screams out at us that there is a Creator God that designed every corner, every microscopic organism and spoke into existence every sub-atomic particle. Continue reading

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Cursed Is The Ground

Would God punish someone for eternity in hell because of a bunch of sins committed in a few short years of life? That is a popular question being raised today. The question behind this question is, “Would a good God be fair or good to punish someone for eternity for that which was done in a finite life?” Seems like a good question. Let’s look at Genesis 3, just after Adam and Eve ate of the apple.

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:17-19)

Was it fair for God to curse the ground for the rest of this age because of one sin, one instance of disobedience by Adam and Eve, something as simple as eating an apple? This question, just like the first one, is shortsighted and misses the point. It confuses and misunderstands the entire doctrine of sin. Continue reading

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