In group Bible studies generally, participants are led to look directly for personal devotional applications without first contemplating the writers’ points about the greatness, goals, methods, and mystery of God. In putting together Christian books and magazines for popular reading and in . . . Continue reading →
Author: Christopher Smith
Christopher Smith is originally from Bellevue, Nebraska. A graduate of Westminster Seminary California (M.Div 2019; MA (Historical Theology) 2020). He is associate pastor of Phoenix URC in the United Reformed Churches of North America. He is currently pursuing a ThM in systematic theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary.
Review: What It Means to Be Protestant: The Case for an Always-Reforming Church By Gavin Ortlund
Not many dates are worthy of remembrance over a century-and-a-half later. The beginning or end of a war or the death of a nation’s leader might be on people’s radar for a few decades, maybe a century, but eventually the slow decay . . . Continue reading →
The Value Of Self-Examination In The Christian Life
Another means to be used diligently for the promoting the life of faith, is, examination of our state and ways, according to the word of God; whether we be, at present, in a state of sin and wrath, or of grace and . . . Continue reading →
Calvin On Purity
Ever since God revealed himself Father to us, we must prove our ungratefulness to him if we did not in turn show ourselves his sons. Ever since Christ cleansed us with the washing of his blood, and imparted this cleansing through baptism, . . . Continue reading →
Review: Grounded In Heaven: Recentering Christian Hope And Life On God By Michael Allen
I remember seeing my first one. It was beautiful, and I could barely take my eyes off of it. There before me on a simple piece of paper lay the answers to so many of my questions. This was the secret, the . . . Continue reading →
The LORD Is With His Pilgrims (Psalms 120–122): O Jerusalem!—Psalm 122
Have you ever been called home? It may be after a long vacation or a business trip. Or maybe you are going home to spend the holidays with family after moving to the other side of the country. There is just something about home. Continue reading →
The LORD Is With His Pilgrims (Psalms 120–122): Help From The Hills—Psalm 121
As we saw in Part 1, the Songs of Ascent (Psalms 120–134) were songs the Israelite pilgrims sang on their way to Jerusalem for the annual feasts of Passover, Weeks, and Booths. These fifteen songs are in cycles of three, and Psalm 120 began the first cycle with the psalmist far from God, dwelling in the tents of warlike, deceitful pagans. Continue reading →
The LORD Is With His Pilgrims (Psalms 120–122): In My Distress—Psalm 120
“Are we there yet?” Who among us has not either heard or voiced these words on a long family road trip? The trees fly past in the slightly foggy windows, the road signs mark the distance to our destination, and a small voice pipes up from the backseat. Children are generally (and notoriously) impatient. Continue reading →
Review: The Lord of Psalm 23: Jesus Our Shepherd, Companion, and Host By David Gibson
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Thus begins Psalm 23 in the old King James Version. In an age of ever-decreasing biblical literacy, Psalm 23 remains one of the most well-known passages in Scripture. One gets the sense that, besides being . . . Continue reading →
“Come, My People”: The Blessed Hope Of Isaiah 26 (Part 2)—From Tombs To Bedrooms
The city of God awaits the people of God. This was a comfort to the faithful inhabitants of Judah in Isaiah’s day, even as they heard about God’s impending judgment on the earthly Jerusalem. It is also a comfort to Christians today . . . Continue reading →
“Come, My People”: The Blessed Hope Of Isaiah 26 (Part 1)—A Tale Of Two Cities
I remember the thought popping into my head as if it were yesterday: “Why are we doing this?” I was eight or nine, sitting in the back of the family minivan on the way to church. I think this was the first . . . Continue reading →
The Voice Of The Lord: Our Mighty Savior—Psalm 29 (Part 2)
In Part 1 we saw that Yahweh is the only true God, the one worthy of worship. He is the true storm god, and Baal is nowhere to be found. The LORD is the great King over all things, and his voice . . . Continue reading →
The Voice Of The Lord: God In The Storm—Psalm 29 (Part 1)
There are few books in the Bible more well-known in the church and the world today than the Book of Psalms. Even unbelievers have Psalm 23 memorized. Psalms 95 and Psalms 100 are mainstays as calls to worship in Reformed and Presbyterian . . . Continue reading →
Comfort in the Chaos: How Psalm 77 Helps Pilgrims on the Way (Part 3) — Their Exodus and Ours
At this point in Psalm 77, Asaph begins to see things in a different light—Yahweh acted to save His people in history, which brought the psalmist comfort in the midst of his present chaos and pain. Specifically, the LORD rescued His people . . . Continue reading →
Comfort in the Chaos: How Psalm 77 Helps Pilgrims on the Way (Part 2)—The Deeds of the LORD
Asaph was desperate, looking to Yahweh for help in his day of trouble. That is how Psalm 77 begins, but in this second installment, we see things begin to change. The psalmist was looking in the right direction: his desperate cries for . . . Continue reading →
Comfort in the Chaos: How Psalm 77 Helps Pilgrims on the Way (Part 1)—The Day of Trouble
“Now what?” It is the question we would rather not ask. We still find ourselves asking it in different contexts, of course. Sometimes we have acquired knowledge but do not know how to put it into practice, or we have finally obtained . . . Continue reading →
Review: Lane Tipton’s The Trinitarian Theology of Cornelius Van Til
We live in an age that has lost the plot. In this case it is not the world at large, but rather the broadly Protestant/evangelical world in the West—many things taken almost for granted by previous generations of Christians are met with . . . Continue reading →
Review: Vos’ Natural Theology
No one can deny that we are living in strange times for Reformed theology. For example, we are hard-pressed to find enough professing Christians theologically astute enough to be actual Arminians. What is a Reformed person to do when there are not . . . Continue reading →
Obedient From All Eternity? 1 Corinthians 15:20–28 (Part 2)
What Do We Do With All of This?
If what we saw in part 1 is what the ecumenical creeds and Reformed confessions teach, and if this is where the biblical data point, then what do we do with all of this? Continue reading
Obedient From All Eternity? 1 Corinthians 15:20–28 (Part 1)
Introduction
I will never forget that Sunday. I was about thirteen years old—or maybe a little younger. Continue reading