Christ

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” – Jeremiah 29:11 For regular readers of PlaceForTruth, you may have given a good little chuckle when you read the title of the article and then the prooftext that we’ll be...

Is it difficult for you to think about joy and suffering in the same sentence? Normally, when we are in the middle of suffering, we just want it to be over. Think of the woman who feels betrayed by her best friend, or the wife who feels betrayed by her husband. Consider the mother who longs for her...

Who Needs the Church? “I’m a Christian, but I don’t need a church. Nature is where I find God.” Whatever the stated reasoning, those who avoid church attendance and membership often do so without understanding why believers need the Church and the Church needs them. Guest Terry Johnson has written...

Lactantius – An Original Writer Lucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius was born around the year 255 in North Africa. Quickly earning a reputation for his intellectual prowess, in 290 he was invited by Emperor Diocletian to serve as professor of Latin and rhetoric in Nicomedia of Bithynia (today’s...

Psalm 132 has a very different feel than the rest of the Psalms of Ascent. In fact, this Psalm is explicitly Messianic, speaking of the Davidic promises and line and the Lord’s Anointed. As a Psalm of Ascent then, this song brings the traveling worshippers into focus on the city and king that God...

Do you ever feel insignificant, unnoticed, or like your words and works aren’t significant contributions? Have you ever thought, “Does anyone love me?” or “Does anyone even care where I am and what I am doing?” If so, you likely know what it’s like to trust in “a false hope for salvation” (Ps. 33:...

Adam and Eve were tempted to believe, “You will be like God,” and that lie has been deceiving us ever since. We may not self-identify as deities demanding sacrifices and overt worship, but we may fall for subtler versions. One variation combines ideas that are very common today: I have no limits. I...

“They’re trying to get me” is the catch phrase of the paranoid mind. The question it raises, is the identity of “they”. But the leading declaration of Psalm 129 is quite different. It is not a statement of fears but of memory: “Many time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say.” (1...

Face to Face with God We celebrate Christ’s work as our high priest and mediator. Is Jesus active in those roles today? And how is Jesus “a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek?” Guest Desmond Alexander provides satisfying answers to these questions and others through the course of today’s...

Psalm 125 is about those who have faith in the Lord. For Old Testament believers, like New Testament believers, their trust or faith was in the Lord and no where else. The image in the text is how the Old Testament believer understood union with Christ. The believer whose faith is in God is...