Have you ever wondered why Matthew 1:23 quotes Isaiah 7:14? Perhaps the ready answer is that the quote substantiates the virgin conception and birth of Christ, which is true enough. However, the text raises a number of questions. For instance,…
I was in a store just a couple of days ago when a smiling clerk asked if she could help my wife and me with some pictures we were admiring. However, talk about beautiful pictures gave way to a less…
Many Americans are still marrying but an increasing number are not. So, why aren’t people getting married these days? Recently, I was reading an article by a secular psychologist who offered several reasons for what he called the decline of…
Irenaeus grew up in Smyrna, one of the greatest cities in Asia Minor. He was the son of Christian parents, who at an early age placed him under the tutelage and discipleship of Polycarp of Smyrna. The influence of this…
My spiritual mentor began worshiping with his wife before they were married, and has faithfully continued the practice through the arrival of children and grandchildren for more than fifty years. Sadly, it seems that few men among even the best…
I will officiate at a wedding ceremony today. My wedding sermons aren’t really sermons but meditations. They are short but calculated. I view the wedding meditation as the last effort on the heels of pre-marital counseling to sink the arrow…
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on reformation21 in December 2008. From Adam onward, each generation of believers has faced the challenges of bad and erroreous theology. When we look at our children—and the one I’m looking at now happens to be a fourth…
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on reformation21 in June 2007. It was twenty years ago that Lisa Maxwell and I walked down the aisle at the First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. As a minister, I go to more weddings than…
Editor’s Note: For more from Ian Hamilton, be sure to check out the latest “A Place For Truth” booklet (Providence) at ReformedResources.org. “How Should We Benefit From Communion?” Many helpful books and articles have been written on the subject. Often we encourage…
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” So wrote the eighteenth century poet, Alexander Pope. Platitude? Yes, but true for all that. I have to confess the lines (from An Essay on Man) come to mind frequently at dinner when…
