The Escape from Sin's Penalty

The Manchester Guardian once ran a literary contest which involved writing a new ending for Shakespeare's famed tragedy Hamlet. Contestants were to present a synopsis for "a better last act." All of the contestants kept Hamlet alive, and some had the heroine return after her "death" in the previous act and state that she had only been in a trance, or that she had been feigning death to see if Hamlet really loved her. Each of the entries involved some artful device to insure a perfect, happy ending. Thus man seeks to change life and make it something different than it really is.

The Escape from Sin's Penalty

A Lesson From Bruce Lee

Given today's Bully Pulpit topic for the Mortification of Spin podcast, I thought it would be as good of time as any to share a fighting metaphor.

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God's Good, Pleasing, and Perfect Will - Part One

God’s Good, Pleasing, and Perfect Will
Romans 12:1-2
Theme: Trust and obey.
This week’s lessons teach us that our happiness is to be found in following God’s will.

Lesson

Our staff has prepared a brochure that compares the world's thinking and the Bible's teaching in six important areas: God, man, the Bible, money, sex, and success. The differences are striking, but what impresses me most as I read over the brochure is how right many of the world's ideas seem if we are not thinking critically and in a biblical way. It is because we hear the world's approach given out so often, so attractively and so persuasively, especially today on television.

Mind Renewal in a Mindless Age -- Part Nine

Mind Renewal in a Mindless Age, Part 2
Romans 12:1-2
Theme: The Christian doctrine of man.
This week’s lessons teach us what it means to be made in God’s image.
 
Lesson

Renewing our minds begins with understanding and applying the great Christian doctrines, and thus far we have at least touched on four of them: the doctrines of God, revelation, man, and the fall. These doctrines are not exhaustive, but they are important as well as being a proper starting place for our thinking if we are serious about what Paul is urging upon us in our text from Romans: "be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

The Path of Sin

A controversy once raged in the columns of a British newspaper as a result of an article by a well-known clergyman, who said that there are times when we have to choose a path of evil, that sometimes there is no right choice to be made. He gave several examples. "A close friend gives me a present for which I have no liking or use. Shall I wound his feelings by saying so, or shall I, if not by words at least by actions, deceive him? A trifling clash between the duty of truth-telling and the duty of love, but nonetheless a clash."

The Path of Sin

Racism, Adultery, and Donald Sterling

In which I throw in my two cents about the selective outrage over a jerk and his sin.

donald sterling2.jpg

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.

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Give her a good book

Mother's Day is coming up. How about you get mom a good book? Often times when we buy books for women we buy "women's books." Don't misunderstand there are a lot of terrific books written specifically for women. In fact, there are few on my list as you will see. But there are also books on doctrine which would be a blessing for any Christian to read.

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.

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Mind Renewal in a Mindless Age -- Part Eight

Mind Renewal in a Mindless Age, Part 2
Romans 12:1-2
Theme: The Christian doctrine of man.
This week’s lessons teach us what it means to be made in God’s image.
 
Lesson

If human beings are more important and more valuable than the humanists imagine, why is it that things are so bad? The answer is found in the Christian doctrine of sin, which tells us that although people are more valuable than secularists imagine, they are in worse trouble than the humanists can admit. We have been made in God’s image, but we have lost that image, which means that we are no longer fully human or as human as God intends us to be. We are fallen creatures.

The Sin of Willfulness

One of the worst of all sins, worse than theft, adultery, or murder, is the sin of wanting one's own way. It is the desiring of one's own way which leads to every other sin in the world. The shortest definition of sin is "I will," and when Lucifer spoke those words (Isa. 14:13, 14) sin thereby entered the universe. Whenever man says, "I will," with a desire which is in opposition to God's will, he, too, is in the midst of sin.

The Sin of Willfulness

Mind Renewal in a Mindless Age -- Part Seven

Mind Renewal in a Mindless Age, Part 2
Romans 12:1-2
Theme: The Christian doctrine of man.
This week’s lessons teach us what it means to be made in God’s image.
 
Lesson

If we are to have renewed minds, we need to stop thinking about ourselves and other people as the world thinks of itself and others, and instead begin operating within a biblical framework. But what does that mean? Well, when we turn to the Bible to see what it has to say about human beings, we find two surprising things. First, we find that, according to the Bible, man is far more important and more valuable than the humanists imagine him to be. But we also find that in his fallen condition he is much worse than the humanists suppose.

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