Members of Christ Church, the question was asked in last week's pastoral letter, "Is your marriage intentionally Christian?" Do you, as a couple, seek to cultivate a God-centered, Christ-dependent, Scripture-saturated perspective in your relationship? The first thing I mentioned as axiomatic to an intentional Christian marriage is the need to study, contemplate, and discus...

Is your marriage intentionally Christian? In other words, do you as a couple intentionally seek to cultivate a God-centered, Christ-dependent, and Word-guided perspective in your relationship? Or do you just hope and pray and let the chips fall where they may? While working with families in the context of the church for many years, I have observed that many Christian coupl...

The story never grows old. Jesus Christ, the Son of God and second person of the Trinity, becoming a man without ceasing to be God in order to rescue guilty sinners from the bondage of sin and its gruesome wages (Rom. 6:23). God the Father "delivered over" His only Son into the hands of sinful men to be crucified, to be a penal substitute and propitiation for sinners. Mo...

In general, evangelical worship in America has become radically informal, presumptuously innovative, and biblically impoverished. Much of this is largely due to the abandonment of God-centered, biblically regulated liturgy. The arrogance of modern evangelicalism has served to shelve a Protestant liturgical heritage which, for centuries, has faithfully led Christians to wor...

Beloved Christ Church, the winds of doctrinal controversy have picked up again over the subject of sanctification. Some well-intentioned ministers and laypeople are promoting a truncated view of the gospel, that is, one that heralds God's saving mercy in Christ, but greatly minimizes (or even disparages) God's call to Christian growth and holiness through biblical instruct...

Every Lord's Day, both in the morning and evening worship services, the liturgy calls for the giving of God's tithe and our offerings. During this time, the plates are passed amongst the congregation, gathering in the first fruits of all that God has faithfully provided His redeemed children. The generous, cheerful and sacrificial giving of God's people is one of the clear...

H. Richard Niebuhr, Professor at Yale from 1931-1962, described the liberal message of the Mainline American Protestant Church as "A God without wrath brought men without sin into a world without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross." (The Kingdom of God In America, 193) Sadly, the liberal mainline churches are not the only ones taking this Christ...

We have all experienced it the tremendous power of words. Indeed, all of us have been the recipients not only of encouraging words that swell our hearts with joy and strengthen resolve to press on, but also of harsh and discouraging words that momentarily cripple us, leaving us dejected and dispirited. Then there are the words that either take us by the hand and lead us t...

A few years ago I read a classic, skillfully written short story by Henry Van Dyke entitled, The Mansion. This delightful piece of early twentieth century literature, first published in 1910, is about a successful New York banker named John Weightman who lived in a beautiful, yet "reservedly opulent" mansion with his wife and two daughters. He is characterized as "a self-m...

It is no easy task in our day and time to raise children "in the discipline and instruction of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4). Not only is our culture becoming increasingly degenerate, many well-intentioned churches are abandoning serious discipleship in order to be more attractive to the lost. An emphasis on Lord's Day worship and family piety has largely been replaced by programs ...