Category Archives: Baptism

A Sign of the Covenant

When we hear the word covenant today, (in addition to the name of our church!) we may think of something like a contract or agreement. But the biblical understanding of the word is something richer, relational, and remaining. A covenant commits a person to another person, typically involving a verbal oath and sometimes a visible symbol. To break a covenant involves a violation of the terms of the covenant resulting in due consequences.

Who Are the Children of God?

On this Pentecost Sunday, a day on which we commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit in fullness upon Christ’s church, I want us to consider within our passage today the indwelling characteristics of the Holy Spirit, and therefore the identifying characteristics, in every believer.  

To that end, I want us to think on this simple question: Who are the children of God? Are they the natural descendants of Adam, as the universalists believe? In other words, is every human being a child of God? Or, are they the natural descendants of Abraham, as the Jews of Jesus’ day believed, or as dispensationalists believe today? In other words, is every one of Jewish ethnicity a child of God? Or, how do the writers of the New Testament use the term “child of God,” or do they make a distinction at all?

The Loving Discipline of our Father

The purpose of God’s discipline is not alienation but reconciliation, that our restless hearts may find contentment not in our circumstances but his presence. And in his presence, our hearts are kindled in grateful praise of the One who loves us most. And so, as we gather to worship the Lord in spirit and truth (John 4:24), as the children of God, we trust the loving discipline of our Father, because “the Lord disciplines the one he loves” (Heb. 12:6a).  

What Is Your Life?

One day, not too many years ago, when all my children were still at home, my oldest son told me that his Sunday School teacher was beginning a new study on Ecclesiastes. I was elated. Ecclesiastes is my favorite Old Testament book, if not my favorite book in the Bible. Unfortunately, my son didn’t share my enthusiasm. After prying a little deeper, I found out why. His teacher had given the class a one-sentence summary of Ecclesiastes: “Life stinks and then you die” (except he didn’t say “stinks”).