I. Hark how all the welkin* rings, “Glory to the King of kings, Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!” II. Joyful, all ye nations, rise, Join the triumph of the skies; Universal Nature, say, “Christ the Lord is born to-day!” III. Christ, by highest heaven adored, Christ, the everlasting Lord, Late…
There are a bewildering number of “Herods” who make an appearance in the pages of the New Testament—keeping them all straight can be a challenge! Herod, somewhat miss-titled the “Great,” is the first to be mentioned and the ancestor of all of the others. Born around 70 BC, he ruled the entirety of Jewish Palestine…
The Christmas season offers many opportunities to turn the conversation towards the significance of the One Whom so many claim to be celebrating. This is a lightly edited version of a brief gospel tract I wrote some time ago entitled “The Gift that Changes Lives.” My prayer is that those who know the Lord would…
[W]hen we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans—and all that lives and move upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and…
I don’t know about you, but I have greatly enjoyed the first year of our book-of-the-month club. The books have been helpful, the discussions have been stimulating and the cookies have been amazing. These are the books we read through this year. It is pretty amazing what can be done one page at a time.…
Christian Women Don’t Always Submit “I am convinced that many of us women have a submission problem. A giant submission problem. But it isn’t mainly that we won’t submit to our husbands — it’s that we won’t stop submitting to the world. The biggest problem with women and submission is too much of it in…
So saith a gracious soul, though honour is not, and riches are not, and health is not, and friends are not, etc., it is enough that Christ is, that he reigns, conquers, and triumphs. Christ is the pot of manna, the cruse of oil, a bottomless ocean of all comfort, content, and satisfaction. He that…
Like the Pharisees, the Sadducees were a Jewish religious and political party that existed during the life of Christ and the beginnings of the early church but disappeared soon afterwards. If we know little for certain about the Pharisees, we know even less about the Sadducees. We know, from the accounts given in the Gospel…
I used to shake my head at the Israelites who complained about bitter water just after they watched God deliver them from the strongest nation in their world. I also thought proudly that, if I had lived in the little town of Bethlehem, I would have given up not just a room but my entire…
When Christians unite around something other than the gospel, they create community that would likely exist even if God didn’t. As a modern-day tower of Babel, that community glorifies their strength instead of God’s.
Mark Dever & Jamie Dunlop, The Compelling Community: Where God’s Power Makes a Church Attractive, (Crossway, 2015), 23
