Fear and Trembling

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...

“…most Americans believe that their major problem is something that has happened to them, and their solution is to be found within. In other words, they believe that they have an alien problem that is to be resolved with an inner solution . What the gospel says, however, is that we have an inner problem that demands and alien solution – a righteousness that is not our own. Once we begin to understand how that dichotomy comes together, we can see better how we can think we are talking about the gospel, yet people in this culture will hear it as merely a new form of therapy.” – R. Albert Mohler (“Preaching with the Culture in View,” in Preaching the Cross , Dever, Mark, et. al. p. 81) Recent events in my personal life have brought me face to face with my biggest problem, and I stare at him in the mirror every morning when I shave. I am my own worst enemy. I can’t blame Satan, or the media, or the moviemakers, or the magazine publishers, or the boss, or my wife. I am the one whose desi...

Justification may be defined as that act by which unjust sinners are made right in the sight of a just and holy God. The supreme need of unjust persons is righteousness. It is this lack of righteousness that is supplied by Christ on behalf of the believing sinner. Justification by faith alone means justification by the righteousness or merit of Christ alone, not by our goodness or good deeds. - R. C. Sproul in Essential Truths of the Christian Faith My life has been a study in contrasts. I have proven time and time again that I can sin with the best of them. I am in the midst of cleaning up “another fine mess I have got myself into” right now. I often get discouraged as a Christian. I feel that I am not making progress. I know that I often face set backs in some key struggles in my life with sin. I know I sin, and the more I learn about Christ’s requirements, the more aware of each sin I become. Should I despair of my salvation? Should I doubt that Christ has changed my heart? Sometime...