Let’s Study the Beatitudes! Part 5, An Appetite for Righteousness
You are what you eat! This age-old motivational wisdom teaches that the content of our diet is exposed by the composition of our selves. This is never more true than…
Joel Wood
Sanctification: Keep Advancing!
For a number of years, my family enjoyed a mid-summer escape from the hot winds of the Kansas plain to the cooler heights of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in…
The Ordo Salutis: Effectual Calling
In the Western, North American, capitalist culture from which I write, we have nearly no experience of interaction that isn’t based in some way on a transactional relationship. All of…
Humiliation & Exaltation: Christ’s Death
As we grow nearer in our series to the end of Christ’s humiliation, his death, then, his burial, it is, at this time, we begin to see a growing dissonance…
The Ten Commandments: The Seventh
Anyone who might still hold to the classical liberal perspective that the God of the Old Testament was this angry, vengeful, “bad-hair-day” deity that frankly hated everyone and everything ,while…
Sanctification & Sexual Identity
Can I change? Do I need to change? These two questions come at the same issue, sexual identity, from differing angles. Both are hopeless. One lacks hope in God’s promises…
Incomprehensible but Knowable: Special Revelation
While growing up, my church would sing an old gospel song that said Christ “hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock and covers me there with his hand.”…
Hell: How Long?
As I headed to the office to write this article, I tuned my radio to NPR, to one of my favorite programs: “1A, with Host Joshua Johnson.” He is an…
Word, Sacrament, and Discipline: Sacraments, Grace on Display
As a Presbyterian, I often find myself in attendance at the examination of our Seminary students. Our denominational seminary lies is within the borders of our presbytery, so we have…
Heaven on Earth?: Where do I go when I die?
Where you going, Dad? This question, above all others, comes from the lips of my now 10 year old son. He has always, from his earliest days, been keenly aware…
Natural Revelation: The Consequences of Suppression
Romans 1 is the story of humanity’s seeking to detour itself from the consequences of its rebellion against God, and thereby making the situation all the worse. Romans 1:18 explains…
The Apostles’ Creed:The Third Day He Rose Again from the Dead
The Apostles’ Creed has long been admired, memorized, and confessed in worship due to its simplicity in form, clear statement of factual belief, and its brief summary of vital, core…