Fear and Trembling

(This article was originally written for my local newspaper.) In our last article, we looked at the reason for and the permanence of our adoption in Christ.   If we have true faith in Christ, God is our Father in heaven.   This week we will look briefly at some of what that means.   As J. I. Packer says in Chapter Nineteen of Knowing God , The prospect before the adopted children of God is an eternity of love.”   Our adoption is permanent, and it depends on the love of God for us and the grace of God to save us.   God will not let us go.   We are his.   We can also have hope.   Christianity is “a faith that looks forward.”   For Christians, “the best is always yet to be.”   We have the hope of an everlasting inheritance in Christ.   That was the reason children were adopted in the Roman Empire during Christ’s time: “to have an heir to whom one could bequeath one’s goods.”   In just that way, our adoption as God’s...

(This article was originally written for my local newspaper.) Last week we looked at what J. I. Packer calls the heart of the gospel, propitiation. Propitiation is the fact that “The wrath of God against us, both present and to come, has been quenched.”   The idea is that the wrath we deserved because of our sin Christ suffered on our behalf.   If you have repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ, God is not mad at you anymore.    This week we will briefly look at one outcome related to propitiation: adoption.   The idea here is that God has become the Father of those who place their trust in Him.   As John 1:12 says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”   Packer defines the very essence of the message of the New Testament in three words: “adoption through propitiation.”   He says, “…I do not expect ever to meet a richer or more pregnant summary of the gosp...

These are the last two articles I wrote for my local paper on J. I. Packer's book Knowing God .  These were written for a series of articles on Packer's book by members of my church.  The other articles can be found at this link. Knowing God , Chapter Nineteen: Sons of God, Part One by John K. Jones Last week we looked at what J. I. Packer calls the heart of the gospel, propitiation. Propitiation is the fact that “The wrath of God against us, both present and to come, has been quenched.” In essence, this Scripture means that the wrath we deserve due to our sin was transferred to Christ. If you have repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ, God is not mad at you anymore. This week we will briefly look at one outcome related to propitiation: adoption. The idea here is that God has become the Father of those who place their trust in Him. As John 1:12 says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become chi...

On this 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade I felt it was important to post on the topic. First, I would like to provide some links on the subject: Greg Lucas: Four Women I Would Like to Thank on the 38th Anniversary of Roe vs Wade (Best blog post I have read on the subject!) R. C. Sproul on: Experiencing God’s Forgiveness from Guilt Connected with Abortion (Important for all of us to remember: God’s grace is bigger than all of our sins.) Justin Taylor: The Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade, and Abortion Law George Grant’s comments and statistics passed on by Ligonier. Kevin DeYoung: Jesus Loves The Little Children (a startling look at the similarities between our culture and ancient ones) Scott Klusendorf: Clarity Not Gadgetry: Pro-Life Apologetics for the Next Generation Justin Taylor: This is Abortion (Warning: the video on this page is extremely graphic and not for the faith of heart.) A book by Francis J. Beckwith: Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Aborti...

Russell Moore has a post up over at The Resurgence that convicts me for ingratitude (follow this link ).   His post really hits home for an adoptive parent like me. [Side note: This is my 400th post.  Blogging has been fun so far.]

I was raised in a fundamentalist Baptist church. That means several things, good and bad. I can’t dance. At all. I am horrible at poker. No practice. I’m pretty good at Rook, though. When growing up an “adult beverage” meant coffee. After all, it was hot and you could burn yourself if you spilled it. Gospel quartet music makes me smile. My heart sings! I like to pretend I am a bass like George Younce, but I’m really a baritone. I placed my faith in Christ when I was seven. I did not yet know just how selfish my own heart was, but my faith was real. I turned from my sin to Christ. I understood that “Christ died for our sins…” (1 Corinthians 15:3b). God has never let me go. He has taught me to repent, forgive and love. He’s still teaching me today. I’ve understood the meaning of “penal substitutionary atonement” since I was in the fifth grade. That was about the time I learned the meaning of omniscient, omnipotent, eternal, spirit, love, truth and some other attributes of God...