Prayer and Praise
In the midst of suffering it’s easy to turn to all the wrong people, places, things, and ideas for answers. Oftentimes, in our desperation we cling to whatever sounds most satisfying or significant in the moment, or what makes us…
Tag prayer; godliness
Why are you Anxious?
Anxiety. Everyone’s experienced it. Ask the child who gets bullied at school, the teenager who compares herself to others on social media, the college student preparing for exams, the young professional striving for a promotion, parents caring for an injured…
Bible Characters: Samuel & the Savior
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…
George Schmidt, Magdalena, and the Bible Beneath the Pear Tree
George Schmidt, Magdalena, and the Bible Beneath the Pear Tree When the Moravian missionary George Schmidt left South Africa in 1744, he left behind a few converts, a copy of the Dutch New Testament, and a few trees he…
Eloquence and the Heart, Part 2
“How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34) In the first part, we saw how eloquence can have a place in Biblical preaching only when it…
How to Pray for God’s Kingdom
(This article is abridged from a chapter in Glorifying and Enjoying God: 52 Devotions through the Westminster Shorter Catechism.) In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus teaches us to pray for the coming of his kingdom (Matt. 6:10). This sounds like…
Majoring in the Minors: Malachi
If we fail to see to see the glory of Christ predicted in the Old Testament and then unveiled in the New Testament, we have failed to truly understand God’s Word. The Bible is replete with proclamations of the glory…
Majoring in the Minors: Zephaniah
The Book of Zephaniah unfolds during the days of Josiah. Who can forget those days? The pro-Assyrian party likely put this eight-year-old boy on the throne to placate the ruling nation at that time. However, the pro-Assyrian party in Judah…
Majoring in the Minors: Habakkuk
You have likely heard people called “boomers,” or maybe even “zoomers,” but have you come across the term “doomer?” A doomer is someone who holds a pessimistic view of life, who despairs over impending societal collapse, and feels a sense…
Majoring in the Minors: Micah
As we survey the twelve so-called Minor Prophets, Micah seems to be the prophet most obviously oriented on Christ the coming Messiah. More clearly and directly than the other eleven books that make up this canonical collection, the book of…