Reposted from Rooted Thinking.

We need a God-centered, faith-filled expectancy as we pursue Gospel ministry. There are many reasons why we as believers in Jesus Christ should serve Him with a spirit of expectancy that God will work through us in evangelism. We looked at two reasons for such expectancy in a previous article. Now let’s look at three more.

We should have a spirit of expectancy because we have experienced the power of the Gospel

• “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes”* (Rom 1:16a).
• “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are...

The rhythm of my life in recent years is such that I have little time for paper and ink reading but lots of time for listening. In 2018, I read about sixty books that way. Though nearly all of them edified me in one way or another, most would fall into the category of relatively frivolous fiction. My thinking was that listening, especially while driving, exercising, or doing chores, wouldn’t permit enough concentration to do any thoughtful non-fiction reading—so why bother?

I was wrong. Though the good is often the enemy of the best, the reverse is often true: passing up on the merely good in hopes of gaining the best often gains neither.

Last summer, a discussion here at SharperIron raised the topic of Nancy Pearcey’s Finding Truth, and we later posted...

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In our quest to make Thanksgiving real, we left off by thinking about ways to ground our Thanksgiving in Scripture, following the example of the very Pilgrims who left this treasure as a heritage to our entire nation. The next challenge I would offer is to ground our Thanksgiving in history—primarily the history of these same Pilgrims.

Our American Thanksgiving dates back to the fall of 1621. Indeed, it represents a Christian ideal—a very Biblical ideal. Yet, it is also a remembrance of God’s providential working at the dawn of our country.

Recently, after I spoke to a church group about the Pilgrims, the pastor stood up and shared from his heart how much he...

Reposted from Rooted Thinking.

What am I doing here? Who am I to be giving the Gospel to others? Why would God use me? Why should people listen to me?

I imagine that most Christians have asked questions like these when seeking to obey Christ and witness. When these thoughts come, what we do with them becomes extremely important. If we allow ourselves to dwell on our weakness, we will witness less and ineffectively, if we witness much at all.

Hindrances to Expectancy

When it comes to making disciples for Jesus Christ, no matter who we are or what our circumstances, all of us struggle at times with man-centered thoughts that handicap us. We make ourselves too important.

• We...

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Looking Deeper into the Problems with Covenant Theology

9. Though they would consciously deny the charge, it is undeniable that CT ‘s way of reading the Bible (as above) creates a major problem philosophically in that it strongly implies that God equivocates. More seriously still, the manner of equivocation means that equivocation belongs to the essential nature of the Godhead.

Imagine that several years back I promised you in writing that once I turned sixty you could have all sixty of my volumes of Systematic Theology. I have Calvin and Berkhof and Chafer and Hodge. I have Bavinck’s 4 volumes and Oden’s 3 volumes. Dabney, Griffith-Thomas, Reymond,...

In these strange new “perilous times” (2 Tim. 3:1), it takes an awful lot to shock us. An unexpected trend has emerged, however, that is so unthinkably disturbing that we hate to even fathom it. It involves pushing a random stranger down onto subway tracks, or even in front of an oncoming train.

If more evidence were needed for the depraved nature of man, I am not sure where it could come from. But this is not mere depravity—it is a form of debauchery and degradation that only occurs in the final stages of cultural descent.

No matter what anyone says about such hideous crimes, one thing is beyond dispute: Anyone who could perpetrate such lawlessness is not thankful to their Creator God.

The Apostle Paul, in fact, made it clear in Rom. 1:21 that it is the very sin...

Recent headlines and incidents nationwide have demonstrated that church attacks are on the rise.¹ Definitions and data in statistics vary greatly depending on what entity provides them; however, it is undeniable that violence against houses of worship is increasing in frequency and intensity — one source estimates 480 incidents occur in the United States each year.²

Once an atmosphere...

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Lesson #1: The trials envisioned and trust enjoined by this text are not extraordinary but normative for the covenant community.

The command to “hope” in verse three is very common throughout the Bible, especially in contexts of hardship, suffering, and persecution (e.g., Lam 3:24, 26). Thus, the Psalmist is not calling God’s people to do something extra-ordinary. He’s calling them to live a life of faith in a sin-cursed world. And that’s the kind of world we live in. As a result, trials and tragedies are not rare, but rather they are part of life (Job 5:7; 1 Peter 4:12). We may not all suffer the same trials. We may not all face the same...