biblical fidelity

A few years ago, I wrote about Isabella Graham [1] . the Scottish educator who founded one of the first women's societies to be legally registered as a charity, for the improvement of lives of needy women and children. Her accomplishments were so striking that she is now widely recognized as one of...

The Lutheran doctrine of the Lord’s Supper is frequently described as consubstantiation . Though Lutherans do not prefer this description, it captures a key distinction being made in their eucharistic theology. Lutherans assert that along with ( con ) the bread and cup in the Supper, the humanity...

Each day you and I awake to a world that is experiencing the effects of sin. Broken relationships abound. Financial hardships occur. Places are wiped out by fires, hurricanes, and tsunamis. People die from sickness and starvation. In light of all the sin and suffering, we are oftentimes silent,...

God’s law reveals God’s character. By it, we know Him and know what it means to be like Him. Therefore, the law itself is beautiful and desirable, reflecting God Himself. The law is also mankind’s tutor. It instructs us of our inability to be like God or to fellowship with Him apart from a...

Before I had come to truly embrace the doctrines of grace, I remember being incredibly hung up on the idea of the perseverance of the saints. I simply could not understand how it was remotely possible that a Christian could be saved and then would never need to fear losing their salvation. After...

The three uses of the law—restraining sin, convicting sinners, and guiding believers in holy living—reflect its multifaceted role in God’s moral order. While the third use promotes societal order and the second provides a blueprint for Christian living, it is the first use that acts as a catalyst...

Perhaps more than anything, we need to be heard by God. That is, we need divine favor. We need God to look upon us sinners favorably. The problem is, we’re sinners, and the God whose eyes are too pure to look well upon evil must look away from our defiled selves (Hab. 1:13). One of the of the...

One of the first sermon series I ever preached was on the life of Samson. I was new, at the time, to expository preaching, and I wanted to start with something manageable and familiar. Little did I know, a careful study of Judges 13-16 would radically alter my understanding of not just Samson, but...

It’s a plot fit for a Hallmark Christmas movie. A young widow follows her mother-in-law to a small town where she is considered an outcast. She catches the eye of a kind and wealthy bachelor, who makes a grand gesture to redeem her as his wife and gives her an inheritance and a son. Yet the well-...

Josiah is introduced in 2 Kings 22 as the new king of Judah who is merely eight years old. As a young boy growing up in church, this story intrigued me. Later in elementary school in writing for an assignment asking what person in the Bible would I most like to spend one day with and what would we...