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.
Have you ever wept for a demon? Of course not. Demons are the enemies of your body and soul, and are bent on your total and complete destruction. They want your destruction because they want God's destruction, and you bear the image of God. There is nothing good in them and nothing to redeem. They are sold over, seared, and all consumed by every form of evil. And this is w...
Keep ReadingThe other day I was driving down the highway when I found myself behind the most common vehicle on the road: an Amazon delivery van. On the back of this van I was presented with a surprising caution: "Warning: contents may cause happiness." This got my gears turning and they quickly clicked into a common Christian refrain , that happiness is found in happenings but joy is ...
Keep ReadingThe other day I was driving down the highway when I found myself behind the most common vehicle on the road: an Amazon delivery van. On the back of this van I was presented with a surprising caution: "Warning: contents may cause happiness." This got my gears turning and they quickly clicked into a common Christian refrain , that happiness is found in happenings but joy is ...
Keep ReadingWho are we supposed to please, God or man? Our inner Sunday School rushes to the surface on a question like this: God! We should please God. But the question isn't quite as straightforward as that. The Scriptures speak about pleasing God and pleasing man. Look at these passages that speak of pleasing people. Romans 15:2 Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good...
Keep Reading30 seconds sounds like nothing in the scheme of things. But have you ever been in a teaching setting with a group of people and tried sitting silent for 30 seconds? I'll tell you what will happen. Your awkward-ometer will redline after about 10 seconds. Another version of this is the old saying "The watched pot never boils." What is happening in these situations? What is h...
Keep ReadingOne thing you can dismiss out of hand is the all-too-common promises of quick growth, easy growth or silver-bullet growth (doing one special thing guaranteed to work). That is simply not how spiritual growth happens. That is not to say that the Spirit of God does not at times do a dramatic work in a person's life. That does happen sometimes as a sovereign work of God. That...
Keep ReadingA few years ago, the publishing world was hot with a very specific topic: trips to heaven. It became so common that it basically spawned its own genre that some called Heaven Tourism. The problems with this genre however were not too difficult to spot because there was information that could easily be known about this topic from the Scripture, while other details contradic...
Keep ReadingOur church has been thinking a lot about baptism, the Lord's supper, church membership and how all of them tie together. One of the areas where this raises big questions is concerning children. Should children be baptized and brought into membership and the Lord's supper? As always, we turn to God's word for our answer. Were children baptized in the New Testament? There ...
Keep ReadingIn the last blog post I laid the foundation for biblical love and the impossibly to do it as an unregenerate person. The first and second great commandments are the heart of the issue and I worked off of those to put together a definition of love. That definition was as follows: Love is the worship and obedience to God that overflows in joyfully and sacrificially doing ...
Keep ReadingDespite all the love songs and love stories and love poems that have filled our culture, the culture is still no closer to knowing what love actually is. You can't change blindness by talking about seeing. The aforementioned songs, stories, and poems have only hardened people into a kind of love that is not actually true and glorious love. Self-seeking human nature stays...
Keep ReadingWhen it comes to truth, everybody talks a good game. People will tell you they are "truth-seekers," that they will follow wherever the evidence leads, that they only wants the facts, that they can create a no-spin zone. On and on it goes. But truth is a big deal. It doesn't only encompass the mundane relational, societal, and political matters of life, but more important...
Keep ReadingHebrews chapter 11 is one of the most famous and treasured portions of Scripture. While there is so much that can be mined from this chapter, I want to give you a few of the major features that will get you well-situated for diving into it yourself. First, chapter eleven is not about faithin general. It is about a certain feature of faith. Chapter eleven is about the fa...
Keep ReadingLast month I posted a blog about the surprising depth of foolishness there is in being wise in one's own eyes. We saw this in an astonishing way in Proverbs 26. In that chapter, Solomon relentlessly rubs our nose in the foolishness of the fool. Could there be anything worse than being a fool or even being around a fool? Verse 12 was the shocking answer. Yes, there is som...
Keep ReadingPop quiz: If you could have anything you want right now, what would it be? Don't think about it. Answer immediately with whatever is your most responsive desire. Do you have it mind? Now let's test how worldly you are. I want to try to lay out some categories of possible answers. First, the materialistic answer. If you are wanting things and stuff then you are shot thro...
Keep ReadingThis last Sunday I preached from Ephesians 5:15-18. It is the fourth "therefore" (4:25; 5:1,7,15) and the fourth instance of "walk" (4:17; 5:2,8,15) that has been driving our sermons since 4:17. The climatic command in the passage this week is wonderfully important: "be filled with the Spirit". However, in my studies I saw something I had not seen before. It involved the...
Keep ReadingIt is an awesome thing to think that this command in John 15:9 "abide in my love," has been uttered by the infinite God. If ever there was a command to embrace, this is it. In fact, it is made even more mind-blowing when Jesus says immediately before this command that "just as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you." How can this be? Jesus loves us with the depth...
Keep ReadingWhat should the atmosphere of the church be like? Many churches today want you to know what their atmosphere is like. Their websites tell you what you can expect when you arrive. This is understandable and helpful. However, many churches are quick to let you know that they are casual and easy-going. And often times this is only half the truth. The reality is they are fun...
Keep ReadingThe gospel is not only the good news of salvation, the gospel is also good news of fruitful living. But those two things, salvation and fruit-bearing, are not separate and exclusive features. A part of being saved is being saved from barren, fruitless living. In one of the most precious portions of Scripture, John 15, Jesus is teaching his disciples in the Upper Room ...
Keep ReadingIn the book of Jude we find another striking example of how divine sovereignty and human responsibility operate together. Finding divine sovereignty and human responsibility brought together closely, even in single verses, is not uncommon in the Scripture. But in Jude, these concepts stand out all the more starkly because this letter is so short. Jude didn't have a lot...
Keep ReadingNo matter how hard people try, they can't escape the fear of death. They can surround themselves with a stack of evolutionary textbooks, a hoard of hardened atheists, and a phone full of comedy routines about aging, but death still haunts them. My understanding is that the original zombie movies were a representation of the slow and creeping inevitability of death. Sure,...
Keep ReadingBad things happen. We understand that is part of this living in this world. Cars break down, parades get rained on and raisins are put into cookies instead of chocolate chips. Some bad things are on another level. People get diseases, relationships are broken and wars are fought. But a tragedy is something unique. A tragedy is when an exceptionally wonderful good is ...
Keep ReadingThere is a remarkable side note made in John chapter 14 that cuts to the heart of what true and false belief is. The verse states: John 14:22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?" "Not Iscariot" is a very brief note indeed, but it tells us something p...
Keep ReadingAll teachers are not created equal. Most of us have had a few teachers in our past that truly changed us. Perhaps it was their ability to communicate. Maybe it was how they taught a paradigm-shifting truth that upended what you thought you knew. Or maybe it was their servant-hearted investment into you that made you learn and do what you didn't think was possible. Tod...
Keep ReadingI have always been intrigued by something Jesus said in his upper room discourse found in John 13-16. In chapter 14 he says; John 14:2 "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. There are two wonderful realities here that are easy to see. First, the Father has a special place where he...
Keep ReadingThere is a unique moment in the earthly life of our Lord Jesus that I have thought about numerous times. This moment is recorded only in the gospel of Luke and it takes place during Jesus' praying in the garden of Gethsemane. The single verse reads as follows: Luke 22:43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. What is going on in this moment? ...
Keep ReadingOne of the primary drivers behind the charismatic movement is the desire for an experience with God. While we should always pray for and seek God's power in our midst, we have to be careful what we mean when we speak of these things. Do we mean watching God change lives, illuminate his Word, meet needs, and providentially orchestrate details? Or do we mean visions, dre...
Keep ReadingThe health, wealth, and prosperity gospel is a well-established and growing segment of the church worldwide. Though there are countless reasons why the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel is a prostitution of the truth, it just keeps raking in the followers. Why is this? Because there are two powerful forces at work: people are incurably religious and incurably self-ce...
Keep ReadingThere is always a war waging over the Bible. It will be different at different times, but it will be waging. In the last few generations we have seen battles over the full inspiration of Scripture and postmodern approaches to hermeneutics (what it means to me). One of the latest battles over the Bible has to do with sufficiency. People will say that the Scripture is ...
Keep ReadingA great question was laid before me after my latest sermon from Matthew 24. The question had to do with verse 22. Matthew 24:22 "Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. The question went something like this, "Verse 22 says that the elect people of God will be in the Tribulation. ...
Keep ReadingOne should not want to give even a whisper of support to an abomination such as prosperity theology. The tradecraft of all such false teaching is the ability to twist and distort the Scripture so that it ends up pointing in the exact opposite direction the author intended (2 Peter 3:16). Let's not forget, however, that the Scripture is being used (though in a wrong way...
Keep ReadingWe are living in a golden age of resources. The technological revolution has opened up to the common man incredible abilities to search information and use information by way of digital tools. This has never been so accessible or so easy to use. For Christians, this means we can access the writings and work of past Christians more than ever before. This also means that...
Keep ReadingWe live in a pornified culture. Sexual sin has become so commonplace that people don't recognize it as the sin that it is. This means Christians, and the church as a whole, need to become very good at speaking to sexual matters in a way that is clear, serious, and unashamed. As a caveat, we must always protect the innocence of young children, not giving them what the...
Keep ReadingRomans 8 is a gloriously rich chapter of the Bible that should fill the mind of every believer. But gloriously rich doesn't mean easily swallowed. Such is the case with verse 16-17. Romans 8:16-17 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Hi...
Keep ReadingWorry is a disease. It can eat at you relentlessly and steal your joy, your focus, and your health. Such a terrible disease needs a powerful antidote and God has not left us empty handed. In fact, he has filled our hand with a glorious book that will deal a decisive blow to the scourge of worry. But, like all medications, you must take it as prescribed. Poor applicatio...
Keep ReadingOne of those doctrines that is often debated among Christians is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. This doctrine states that those who are truly born again will have a faith that endures to the end. There is a reason that this doctrine is debated. That reason is we all know people who used to zealously profess faith in Christ, but then fell away completely,...
Keep ReadingOne of the realities of raising young children is that you begin to be asked a lot of "why" questions. Why do we brush our teeth? Why do we pray before we eat? Why do we have to go to bed? The benefit to this is you find yourself having to justify things you perhaps have not thought through in a long time. That is a good thing. Useless your response is to rely unthinking...
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