The uncertainty we face in the time of the coronavirus outbreak is nothing like the uncertainty that Jesus' disciples faced after his death on the cross. Even though Jesus told them numerous times that he would be raised from the dead, they didn't get it. And so the Sabbath after the crucifixion, when the disciples were shut in for fear of the ( Read more... )

Psalm 118 is a psalm that speaks of salvation, and once more we find a need to find the meaning behind this churchy word. Salvation is what Christ offers us - to be saved. Saved from what? Right now there is chaos and uncertainty in the world, but God offers to save us from something much greater than a disease or temporal problems. Jesus ( Read more... )

Psalm 130 is a song of ascents, which means the Jewish pilgrims would sing it to themselves and to each other as they went up the mountain to the temple in Jerusalem. It is a song that is meant to keep our eyes fixed upon God, and what is it that this song tells us about God and His relationship with us? We are sinners, and our state is hopeless ( Read more... )

The Shepherd's Psalm is one of the best-known and most-memorized passages of scripture apart from the Lord's Prayer, and like the Lord's Prayer, we mostly know it from the King James Version. We also primarily know it as a prayer from funerals, and for when we are in imminent ang grave danger. The risk in expositing such a well-known passage of ( Read more... )

So now, after Jude has railed against these false teachers, what are we to do with them? What Jude tells us is that we ought to treat them like any other unsaved person - we ought to respond in mercy, even after contending for the faith. After all, Jesus responded to the unsaved with mercy. But we are to be careful that they do not drag us down ( Read more... )