“Why is the gospel so powerful? Why is the gospel the omnipotent power of God operative unto salvation? Just for this reason: that it is the Word of God! And the Word of God is never void of power! “The Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces to the dividing asunder of …
“Moral evil is significant pain and suffering in the world that is caused by free persons either intentionally or through culpable neglect of their responsibilities. These include such things as murder, adultery, disobedience to parents, rejecting wise counsel, and human hatred. As surprising as it may seem, the Bible presents God as having such meticulous control over the course of …
“Many of the people I’ve talked to also had an awakening when they saw the controlling power of other people. They awoke to an epidemic of the soul called, in biblical language, the fear of man. Although they were avowed worshippers of the true God, below the surface they feared other people. That is not to say that they were …
“The basic reason we need negative, unpleasant emotions is that we live in a fallen world. God made us to respond to things as they actually are. Human beings should be distressed by what is distressing, horrified by violence and abuse, deeply concerned (we’d call it “anxious”) about the possibility of injury to someone or something we love, angry at …
“The overwhelming and fundamental tragedy of human autonomy was the creature’s alienation from God the Creator. The compulsion to hide from God’s face meant the loss of protection, provision, and self for our first parents, and shame came to dominate the human condition. From then on people would live with a simultaneous longing and loathing for the face of God, …
“Jesus begins His Great Commission by asserting that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. In view of this, He commands His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations… So we see that there are two parallel goals: the blessing of Christ to all nations and the reign of Christ among all nations. …
“In our day, anxiety has become one of the significant ailments of our world. Yet it is also a signal, an alarm that something is desperately wrong in our world… Seeds contain the imprint of the trees that they will eventually become. However, for seeds to grow, they must sprout past what is called the coat. That is the protective …
“It may well be a precarious undertaking to provide in a mere handful of pages a description of Christianity that is somewhat sufficient. The richness of [Christianity] is already in inverse proportion to the limitations of the available space. Christianity is a religion which, apart from its beginnings in Israel, has existed for more than eighteen centuries and has in …
“Preachers are “God’s fellow workers” (2 Cor. 6:1). Their efforts are not causative in power, but they may be instrumental in function (1 Cor. 3:5-9)… God does use preachers, but they don’t shake anything up. It is God himself who raises his deadened church to life. Therefore our self-exaltation is preposterous. The great principle driving all of history applies with …
“This morning’s faith will never do for this noon. The faith of this noon will never do for suppertime. The faith of suppertime will never do for the time of going to bed. The faith of midnight will never do for the next morning. Thank God for the reality for which we were created, a moment-by-moment communication with God Himself. …
