The following is by Pastor Rob Golding of First Artesia Christian Reformed Church. He also writes for the Westminster Theological Seminary Magazine. What is the book of Ephesians all about? The goal of this post is to help you remember just that. To do this, we will use the acronym P.U.R.E.L.Y to recall the main point of … Continue reading A Summary of Ephesians [+ Infographic]
How many of us desire to love life and see good days? My guess is it is all of us. Only the jaded have abandoned this hope. This desire for the good life may seem like something from the self-help section, but it is directly from scripture. Peter addresses it in his first epistle. Peter … Continue reading To Love Life and See Good Days
Do you have joy inexpressible and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8)? I like this question because it speaks to our experience. The truths of scripture are true regardless of how we feel, so we should never put our sympathies above scripture, but when scripture speaks of the Christian experience, we should pay attention to … Continue reading Joy Inexpressible and Full of Glory
The perennial frog in the kettle does not know he is being heated until it is too late. Tepid water feels just fine as it is heated, degree by degree, but a boil begins to roll at some point. In America, at least, if not the Western world, we are beginning to succumb to a new phenomenon—relational fragility. In isolation, manifestations of this trend are not all that interesting—cancel culture, “ghosting,” the divorce rate, family estrangement, and political witch-hunts. On the other hand, combined, we can discern a cultural shift that is quite literally tearing at the fabric of American society. We are now in a time when people are trying harder than ever to be connected but are, ironically, sprinting away from one another at breakneck speed. - CLICK TO READ MORE
There is blood on your armor. It is bent, marred, and scarred with years of service, and your body is worn, tired, and giving way. Not too long ago, your armor was shiny and new. Still wet from the baptismal, you looked down the long and narrow path ahead of you, took your sword into … Continue reading Christian, There is Blood on Your Armor
The following is a post by Pastor Rob Golding of First Artesia Christian Reformed Church. He also writes for the Westminster Theological Seminary Magazine. In The Edge of Eternity, Randy Alcorn imagines what it will be like to experience true joy in heaven, as compared to the joys we now experience. The man who enters into the … Continue reading The Joy Beyond the Pain
If you want to turn the world's wisdom on its head completely, this is it. The Apostle Paul says he will boast about his weaknesses (2 Cor. 12:9). We do not boast of weaknesses; we hide them because they hold us back from being who we should be. They threaten our competence. They are faults … Continue reading Weakness: Our Unlikely Ally
When the Psalmist speaks of the enemies he so desperately wants God to kill, we should imagine that pet sin Satan intends to use to drag us to hell. When we read of the incessant desire of the Psalmist's adversaries, we should think of our own constant temptation to Sin. We should read these poems of war as our poems of war. We should be encouraged not just to sit through hard times but to... CLICK TO READ MORE.
When revival hits, should we expect the participants to have all their theological ducks in a row and align with our particular shibboleth? There is a lot of discussion surrounding the multi-day worship service, which is still going on at Asbury University. Some are glowing about it with unmitigated acceptance, and some seem to believe … Continue reading Revival and Bad Theology
Of all organizations, does the local church have preeminence in our lives? In the clip below, Pastor Jeff Saltzmann of Bethel Grace Baptist Church unpacks a quote from the church covenant. What he says is counter-cultural to non-believers and even ruffles the feathers of many professing Christians. Many others would agree with this idea of … Continue reading The Preeminence of the Local Church
The Fight of Faith 