This blog is Pastor Jay's weekly musings about God's Word, God's world, and God's call to our culture. We hope they encourage, challenge, and inform you. Sign up to recieve them in your email.
Pride is a disease. It is another name for idolatry. Wherever it is, destruction is not far behind. Humility, on the other hand, is glorious. It is a grace-created attribute that is bold, joyous, and life-giving. Many things can and should be said about both pride and humility. But for the sake of brevity and for punch, here are quick thoughts on the contrasts between pr...
Keep ReadingIt is so counter-intuitive to think that weakness is an asset. Weakness is supposed to be a liability. But that is just one of many reversals that we find in Scripture. The poor become rich. He who loses his life finds it. The first will be last. On and on it goes. At some point each of these reversals have to be explained because, as already mentioned, it just doesn't m...
Keep ReadingThe apostle Paul was promised a life of suffering, and God delivered on that promise. Few have ever lived such a hard life. Much of what made it so hard was the uncertainty of what would hit him around the next corner. It was like being blindfolded at the receiving end of a dodgeball game where anything was allowed to be thrown. Would the next thing be a rotten tomato or...
Keep ReadingI was pleased the other day when Albert Mohler finished his summer break and returned to his daily podcast called The Briefing. The Briefing is an analysis of news and culture from a biblical worldview. At the end of this blog I will list a few other great sources for news that you might consider. But first, let's think about news and how we are informed. You can't beli...
Keep ReadingIf you fail to plan, plan to fail. Statements like that are clich for a reason. They are so true and so observable in everyday life they cement themselves into our consciousness. We have all seen the need for preparation, even if we are not good at doing it. Regardless, the need for preparation is ubiquitous. Every different activity has its own unique preparation requir...
Keep ReadingSome things are capable of carrying tremendous loads. I have seen pictures of a massive ship called the Blue Marlin that is designed to carry disabled ships and other large ocean machines. Not rowboats, mind you, but huge ships like Navy Destroyers as well as oil rig platforms. Google it and be amazed. When it comes to sorrows of the deepest kind, what is it that will c...
Keep Reading"Yesterday in Baltimore, something didn't happen, despite convincing accounts that it did." This is the opening line of a NPR story about a non-shooting in Baltimore. There was an incident where multiple people described police shooting a man who was running away from them. While their testimony was passionate and spoken with a degree of certainty, it didn't actually hap...
Keep ReadingWe have all said it, and we have probably meant it when it came out of our mouth. "I don't have enough time" is a repeated refrain for many. I was once again challenged about this mindset after hearing a podcast in which a seminary professor named Bruce Hindmarsh made the following statement: "Busyness is moral laziness [because it is often a statement of our self-impor...
Keep ReadingIn one way or another, suffering for the gospel is coming. You might as well get ready. To do so, there is no better place to go than the letter of 2 Timothy. Over and over again, Paul is preparing Timothy to suffer. We can get ready too, if we pay attention and take heed to this letter. Buckle down, open your Bible, and let these instructions sink in. Read the verse; th...
Keep ReadingWhat is theodicy? Theodicy is the term given to what is otherwise called the problem of evil. That problem has been outlined in three statements that many say cannot all be true. Those statements are: God is all-good. God is all-powerful. Evil exists. The Christian realizes that to abandon any one of those statements would be a direct denial of scripture. Many say this i...
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