“Woman, why are you weeping?” As she stood at the tomb of Jesus, dismayed and horrified at the thought that grave robbers had stolen the body of her beloved teacher, Mary Magdalene was asked this question twice: “Woman, why are you weeping?” (John 20:13, 15). Has anyone ever asked this – “Why are you weeping?”…
A Reformed Church in Wasilla, Alaska
Posts from March 2013
If you were President of the United States, how would you choose to travel? In the official limousine, surrounded by dozens of armed Secret Service officers, and with a fleet of security and police vehicles leading the way, their blaring sirens and flashing lights signalling your importance? Or would you rather be carried through the…
Last Sunday, since it was Palm Sunday, I preached on the Triumphal Entry of Christ. As I studied for the sermon, John Calvin’s words on John 12:13 struck me as timely and apposite for our circumstances today. Calvin writes we must learn from the crowds who so enthusiastically welcomed Jesus as their King. They were…
We Calvinists have a problem. And it’s not Calvin or Calvinism, but our failure to communicate to other Christians what we believe concerning God and his saving work. According to Greg Forster, the five points we traditionally use as a summary of Calvinistic teaching, that is, our beloved flower TULIP (Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited…
By nature I am not a controversialist. I’m not one to jump head-first into the nearest raging theological or political debate. And as a minister of the gospel, what I strive to keep central to my preaching and teaching is the good news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross, and…
This Sunday evening at Grace we will observe the Lord’s Supper. I’ve had in my mind two striking passages about the sacrament that I came across in my recent book reading. What impressed me is that though they come from very different sources, they each make the same point. The first is from John Paton’s…
Would it be enthusiastic excess to say this book deserves a place next to Augustine’s Confessions for its intense spiritual drama, and for its profound theological insight into the experience of conversion to Christ? Maybe a little, but not much. This is a masterful account of God’s redeeming grace towards, humanly speaking, the most unlikely of sinners. In her…
John G. Paton spent his life telling two stories. First, he told the story of God’s bringing salvation to sinners through the death and resurrection of His Son. But he also told the story of how God used him and other missionaries to bring a little heaven to earth as the gospel of Jesus Christ…