Marriage: The Covenant Sustains the Love, not Vice Versa
Lots of weddings are taking place this summer at Coram Deo. So for you newlyweds, and for the not-so-newlyweds, here are some wise thoughts from John Piper, Tim Keller, and Don Carson.
Piper, Carson, and Keller on Sustaining the Covenant of Marital Love from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.
Review: "Washed and Waiting"
I have a love-hate relationship with Wesley Hill’s new book Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality (Zondervan, 2010).I love that this book has been written. It meets a massive need in the church and fills a gaping hole in the dialogue about homosexuality. Hill writes: “By the time I started high school, two things had become clear to me. One was that I was a Christian… The second… [was that] I had a steady, strong, unremitting, exclusive sexual attraction to persons of the same sex.”
The Gospel and Homosexuality, Part 1
Homosexuality will be the cultural issue facing the church for the foreseeable future. The church’s responses to it have run in two polarizing directions: blanket derision or wholehearted acceptance. Some churches shun homosexuals. Others ordain them. Thoughtful, prayerful, biblical consideration of how the gospel addresses homosexuality has been woefully absent from the conversation... A gospel approach to homosexuality must address the issues of righteousness and identity. These are the foundational questions of the human condition: Who am I? And how do I know that I’m OK?
Gospel Change: Lust
Lust has been an issue for me since my teen years, since I realized the beauty of the female body. The beauty of the good news of the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit is that it has the power to change and free me from my sin...
Don't Be Biblically Illiterate in Your Reading of Revelation
"One of the unintended and unhappy consequences of St. John's Armageddon vision is that it has inflamed the imaginations of the biblically illiterate... When people are ignorant of the imagery of prophets and gospels, and untutored in the metaphorical language of war in the story of salvation, they are easy prey..."
Spiritual Pathology: Lovelace
In my humble opinion, Richard Lovelace is the best writer and thinker of the past 100 years when it comes to spiritual theology. This morning I shared the following excerpt on Satan's characteristic strategies of warfare from Lovelace's magnum opus Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal.
As displayed in Scripture and spiritual theology Satan has at least 5 characteristic strategies...
Holy Week Reflection #6
Saturday must have been a dismal day for the disciples. Three years wasted. Kingdom aspirations down the drain. Embarrassment… depression… hopelessness… not wanting to show their faces. But, everything changed Sunday - more than they could have imagined.It wasn’t that the resurrection saved face. And, it wasn’t that the resurrection provided them with the grit and determination to show the world that they were right all along. Instead, the resurrection provided life...
Holy Week Reflection #5: Good Friday
As the sky grew dark that one Friday, Jesus felt the scorn, displeasure, indignation, anger, wrath and isolation of his Father. From all of eternity past, never once had there been the slightest breach in the unity of the Trinity. But, now, Jesus felt something he had never felt before – the Father turning his face away from the son…so that His face could be turned to us…in infinite pleasure.
Holy Week Reflection #4
When Jesus woke up Thursday morning, except for a possible afternoon siesta, it would be the last time he slept before his trial and execution. It was going to be a long day. The afternoon preparations would turn into an intimate evening with his disciples – but I can only imagine that the tone of this year's Passover was different than the past couple of years.The disciples could definitely sense that something was different this year. Maybe this is why, just like I revert to sarcasm in uneasy situations, the disciples again began to argue about their position in the kingdom (Luke 22:24).
Holy Week Reflection #3
Tuesday had been a long day. Everything had been building to a climax – from the accusatory questions from the religious elite to Jesus’ forceful and direct declaration of “woes” upon the Jewish people to the lengthy discourse with his disciples about His eventual, yet certain, return.As a result, Wednesday was a day of rest for Jesus and his disciples. But, it wasn’t a day at the beach or a day on Facebook catching up with friends.