This is an excerpt from a forthcoming publication on the Holy Spirit. We know that the human heart is hardened by sin. We see it everyday. We even see it in ourselves. We lack sympathetic understanding. We are a stubborn, stick necked people. If our...
If the aim of Jesus's saving work is to restore the presence of God with us, then the Holy Spirit must be a person to truly bring the presence of God to believers. If the Holy Spirit is not a person, then the truth and power of Jesus's saving...
John the Baptist’s ministry was to “prepare the way of the Lord, to make his paths straight.” What does this mean? As we read on, we learn that John had a “ministry of repentance.” John’s name— “the baptizer”—came from the fact that in his ministry...
I wanted to share this very interesting article by Michael J. Rhodes, OT lecturer at Carey Baptist College. Rhodes starts the article referencing the “Slave Bible,” which was a highly edited version of the KJV given to Caribbean slaves...
Included in the story of Jesus’s birth is the detail that after he was born, Mary “wrapped him in cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7). Why does Luke include this detail about his birth? This...
the Old Testament, yet a kind, loving, and gracious God in the New Testament? The short answer is that most people tend to overlook how wrathful God really is in the New Testament. The long answer is that the unity of God is beyond human...
The cross prepares the new creation in which God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, can take up residence. The goal of the forgiveness of sins is God’s perpetual indwelling. Jesus’s blood provides an internal cleansing specifically to prepare a...
The application of this can be summed up in John’s words, “I must decrease, and he must increase” (John 3:30). Jesus is the main character on the stage of the story of redemption in the world, not us. We must be careful not to be tripped up the...
God is in complete control of the future. In the Cross, God went to the greatest lengths to secure your future. You don’t’ have to worry. When you do, you’re being a false prophet. You’re leading yourself (and others by your witness) astray. You’re...
We have in our minds a very romantic view of the nativity. A little shed like structure with a light shining down on it with a single narrow beam. Joseph and Mary are there, looking pensively at the manger. It is full to overflowing with clean straw...