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May 2018 30 May 30, 2018

All too often people arrive at a Sunday corporate gathering of God’s people and give little to no thought about what they are doing. It’s become something of a mindless, weekly routine. When the pastor preaches, they listen. When another prays, they pray (or doze off). And when the congregation sings, they sing. But do we understand what is happening when we sing? Do we think much of the spiritual dynamics when we sing our praises to God? Do we understand wh...Read More

May 2018 28 May 28, 2018

Were it not for the fact that no less than the Apostle Paul himself commanded us not to quench the Spirit, who among us would ever have suggested that this is even within the realm of possibility? To suggest that the omnipotent Spirit of God, the third person of the Godhead, could ever be quenched and thus limited or hindered or in some manner restricted in what he might do in our lives and in the life of the local church is to tread on thin theological ice. Yet in 1 Th...Read More

May 2018 23 May 23, 2018
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[I recently attended a gathering in Louisville of the Council members of the Gospel Coalition. The highlight of the week was a presentation by Tony Reinke who works at Desiring God. It was massively enlightening and equally frightening. Tony published the written version of his presentation at www.desiringgod.org on Monday of this week and has given me permission to post it here on my blog. I strongly urge all of you to read it closely and pray about his recommendations....Read More

May 2018 21 May 21, 2018
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I read in the local newspaper today (5-18-18) that an annual Jehovah’s Witnesses convention is scheduled to convene here in OKC this weekend. It got me thinking once again about this unusual religious organization. Some demographic details are enlightening. In his article at the website of the Gospel Coalition, Joe Carter cites the Pew Research indicating that “no more than 4 in 10 members of the group belong to any one racial and ethnic background: 36 percen...Read More

May 2018 16 May 16, 2018
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Perhaps the single greatest criticism from cessationists is their belief that the charismatic embrace of revelatory gifts of the Spirit, such as prophecy and word of knowledge, undermines and is inconsistent with the sufficiency of Scripture. As odd as this may initially sounds, I believe the opposite is true. It is the cessationist denial of the on-going validity of revelatory gifts that compromises the sufficiency of Scripture. By the sufficiency of Scripture many thi...Read More

May 2018 14 May 14, 2018

The Imago Dei, Latin for “image of God”, is crucial for our understanding of who we are as the direct creation of God. Here are ten things to guide our thinking. (1) We read in Genesis 1:26 of God’s determination to create man “in our image (tselem), after our likeness (demut).” Theologians typically have tried to identify one particular element or characteristic feature in humanity that embodies or constitutes the imago dei. (2) If both h...Read More

May 2018 10 May 10, 2018
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I probably shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was, upon hearing that there are people at Bridgeway who, for whatever reason, believe that sex before marriage is permissible. Pre-marital sex is commonplace in our culture, but to hear that it is present in the church is extremely disheartening. My surprise upon hearing this is that I would never have imagined that such a view could even exist among professing Christians. There are some things that are so patently o...Read More

May 2018 7 May 7, 2018
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There is in the New Testament a plethora of information and detail regarding the second coming of Christ. I couldn’t begin to cover it all in one short blog post. So, in this article I will only draw your attention to what we are told in Revelation 19:11-21, one of the more graphic portrayals of who Jesus is and what the second coming will mean for unbelievers in particular. (1) We must first remind ourselves that the second coming of Jesus is our sure and certain...Read More

May 2018 2 May 2, 2018

Were it not for the fact that no less than the Apostle Paul himself commanded us not to quench the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19-22), who among us would ever have suggested that this is even within the realm of possibility? To suggest that the omnipotent Spirit of God could ever be quenched and thus limited or hindered or in some manner restricted in what he might do in our lives and in the life of the local church is to tread on thin theological ice. Paul says in 1 Thessalonia...Read More