The following is an excerpt from my book, From Death to Life: How Salvation Works (you can order this at our shop here at ThingsAbove): Affections, Actions, and Attitudes Here’s a helpful alliteration to assist in discerning whether or not the gospel has actually taken root in a person’s heart: affections, actions, and attitudes. Essentially, all […]
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A Simple Gospel Tract Text
The Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. The most important question everyone must answer is “Who do you think Jesus Christ is?” If you answer incorrectly, you will die in your sin. But God grants eternal life and peace to those who confess that Jesus has come in the […]
Witnessing to Mormons
A couple of Mormon missionaries stopped by my house when I was particularly busy early this week. I invited them back and they showed up right at the time we agreed upon. I spoke to them on my porch and thought the conversation may edify others. There are some editing points where a few seconds […]
Everything Wokeness and Gospel (But Not the Conference)
We had a total of three current and former Things Above Us authors at the Wokeness and the Gospel conference this past weekend. It was truly a joy meeting new people, catching up with old friends, and digging into some solid teaching! I plan to have more later concerning the conference itself. For now, please be in […]
The Pilgrim’s Progress by Rogue Valley Fellowship — Movie Review
This is my second review of a The Pilgrim’s Progress movie, and I’m glad to share this movie with the Things Above Us readers. When my friend posted on YouTube that he and his family watched this adaptation of John Bunyan’s classic allegory, I was at first a bit skeptical. But I’m glad I sat down […]
Rightly Understanding John 3:16 — Applications
In a previous post, I wrote a little on understanding John 3:16. In today’s post, I’d like to walk through a few applications of understanding this verse rightly. There are negative applications for both the non-Calvinist and the Hyper-Calvinist. There are also positive applications for those who desire to be consistently Calvinistic, or biblical. First, […]
Go, Therefore: Family Worship
“Go, Therefore” posts are quick tips to help Christians live lives of evangelism. Family Worship As Evangelism Daily family worship ought to be observed by families for many reasons. To name a few: God is worthy to be worshipped, it is a way men ought to lead their homes, it’s good preparation for church, it […]
Rightly Understanding John 3:16
It seems some Calvinists get so concerned about John 3:16 being used as a “gotcha” against the Doctrines of Grace that they can go too far in overcorrecting. Some work so hard to show what all the verse does not mean that they fail to eagerly embrace all that it does mean. Certainly, John 3:16 […]
2021 Resolutions
One of the reasons we make resolutions is that we are people who do better with some type of regimen or schedule. We rarely naturally drift into a variety of positive habits for our lives, so we need a plan. Think about it, do you need to commit to eating poorly, or does that just […]
3 Most Important Parts of a Marriage Ceremony
There are truckloads of webpages about how to officiate a marriage ceremony. And for the most part, what the couple wants may dictate the majority of those details. But I believe there are three essential parts of a marriage ceremony where I encourage every Bride and Groom, and Officiant, to focus the majority of their […]
Psalm 96:10-13 God Will Judge!
Do you know that feeling when you start to tell someone about the Lord and you realize they do not already know Him? Do you get a pit in your stomach sometimes—a warning not to go there? Our natural response to difficulty is sometimes “flight.” Telling your neighbor that God will not only judge him or her but that God is right to do so can be frightening! It is no wonder we fail so many times in our evangelism—it is truly counter to our flesh’s desires for comfort!
Psalm 96:10 Jesus Reigns!
Jesus Reigns! Psalm 96 is like a lot of passages of the Bible—this chapter isn’t simply written about a single topic. Psalm 96 references our need to sing to the Lord Jesus Christ (Psalm 96:1-2), evangelize the nations (Psalm 96:2-3), fear the Lord (Psalm 96:4), recognize Him as Creator and everything else as an idol […]
Are You Reaching Out To Your Neighbors?
Last week, new neighbors moved into the house across the street from us. I wrote them a note and I thought other people may benefit from it. If you are not actively trying to reach your neighbors with the gospel, why not? What is holding you back? Here is the letter. Feel free to copy […]
Ep. 035 | Submit to the Government or Civil Disobedience? — TAU Roundtable
George Alvarado, Michael Coughlin, and Chuck Ivey discuss what it means to submit to the government or practice civil disobedience. Is there a balance? Does submission to the government mean you’re a statist? If you call out the injustices and practice civil disobedience, does that mean you are not practicing Romans 13? How do we […]
Why Spontaneous Baptism Sunday is Not a Good Idea
Here I am, a Baptist writing a post against baptism. That might be like Michael writing a post dogging the Big 10 or something. But actually, this post isn’t actually against baptism. Rather, it’s because I love baptism so much that I write today’s post. Now originally, this post was a response to J.D. Greear […]
Psalm 119:173-176 — Seek Your Servant Like a Lost Sheep
Jesus, the lamb of God, became sin for His people that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus was the lamb who never strayed from the pasture, yet he took on the penalty deserved by foolish and rebellious sheep. Jesus is the lost sheep when he is suffering the penalty for our sins. Jesus is the one who cries to God to be sought after in this state. And Jesus is the one who never forgot God’s commands.
You Must be Born Again: Make Regeneration Great Again
In God’s kind providence, it was a biblical understanding of the great doctrine of regeneration that birthed (I’m not sure if I’m intending the pun or not) the evangelical movement of the 18th century. Sadly, it is also a misunderstanding and underemphasis of this doctrine that has contributed to the unraveling of evangelicalism in the […]
Is Male Headship a Gospel Issue?
Men, mean, and misogyny all start with the same letter. Obviously, guys are jerks and need to calm down. And women need to be filling the pulpit because the resurrection of Jesus was first announced to women. Believe it or not, that’s the sort of argumentation you get in the Twitterverse when you say anything […]
Psalm 119:169-172 — Eruption of Praise
Pray Like Jesus Psalms 119:169 Taw Let my cry come before you, O Yahweh; give me understanding according to your word! As we begin to close the longest chapter of the Bible, we might be tempted to think that God has already said everything that can be said. We must put away any thought that […]
Psalm 119:165-168 — Cause → Effect
It has been said that there are two religions in the world: the religion of grace and the religion of works. A distinguishing characteristic of the religion of works is that somehow the good deeds a man does are what pleases his deity. This is true whether that religion sees man as inherently good or as innately sinful. Since this is an affront to the gospel of grace, our Scriptures go to great lengths to destroy any hope men can have to save themselves by proclaiming the gospel of grace (Romans 3:24,25; Ephesians 2:8, 9). But wicked men will always twist good religion to their own ends and many a man has proclaimed the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ apart from works as a license to sin.
One of the ways God helps us to walk in his ways while we strive to imitate Christ is by granting us awareness of His immanence. Nothing can be hidden from the anthropomorphic eyes of God. For the heathen, this truth is blatantly denied as they fancy themselves into thinking they will escape judgment. It’s not always because men think they are good that they shall escape judgment, but sometimes it is that they think no one knows of their crimes. The child of God whose heart has been quickened earnestly desires obedience to God’s precepts and adherence to God’s testimonies, yet he or she still finds it difficult to obey. The spirit and flesh are opposed to each other and the battle rages, and sometimes the flesh wins.