loving God

How to Know the Holy Spirit is at Work — Part 4

December 7, 2020 by Allen Nelson IV

In 1741 Jonathan Edwards preached his sermon, The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, from 1 John 4 for the commencement ceremony at Yale. We’ve seen four of these distinguishing marks so far: esteeming Jesus, opposing Satan, loving Scripture, and embracing truth. In this blog post, we look at the final […]

George Alvarado

George Alvarado is an almost retired member of our Armed Forces (yes, he's older than he looks). He has a beautiful w...

A Open Letter to Afflicted Saints

Tim Bates

Tim lives in Akron, Ohio with his wife, Melanie and two children, Calvin and Caroline. He serves as a deacon, teacher...

Reflections on a World Without Sports

Chuck Ivey

By God’s grace, Chuck Ivey grew up in a Christian home and came to know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior at a y...

The Living Logos and True Mythos: A Response to “Satanic Panics and the Death of Mythos”

Allen Nelson IV

Allen S. Nelson IV is the pastor of Perryville Second Baptist Church in Perryville, Arkansas. He and his wife Steph...

Rightly Understanding John 3:16

Michael Coughlin

Michael Coughlin lives near Columbus, OH, and leads local outreaches to glorify our Lord and reach the lost with...

“The Rank Game” Review

Garrett O’Hara

Garrett appears to have originated the term, but not the theology, "dispybapticalvinistic-expialidocious." He ...

“Antiracism” Deserves a Capital Letter: A Preview of Voddie Baucham’s Fault Lines

Walking with God — Part 4

Currently, I am preaching through Genesis 1–11 at Perryville Second Baptist Church. In our 33rd week through the series (no, I am not recommending everyone go that slow!) we came upon the curious case of Enoch in Genesis 5:22–24. This series of posts (see part 1 here) fleshes out some thoughts on Enoch’s walk with […]

Psalm 34:15-22 – A Moment of Reflection

Before we begin the final third of Psalm 34, it seems right and good to take a step back and soak in the passage before we dissect it. The first third, verses 1-7, is about simple truths. The second third, verses 8-14, is about instructions for godliness. Now, in the shadow of truth and instruction […]

How Far Might Deception Go?

In his classic work, The Doctrine of the Law and Grace Unfolded, John Bunyan contrasts the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace. In his discourse upon the Covenant of Works, he considers how far one might go and still be under the Covenant of Works and lost in his or her sin. The […]

Psalm 119:161-164— Do You Hate Falsehood?

Christianity is thought of by many as the “religion of niceness.” Whoever came up with that idea knows very little of the scripture. Yes, Christians are called to be kind and should be known by their kindness and meekness. But too often we mistake kindness for fake-virtues like “never disagreeing with anyone,” and “never hating anything or anyone.” But as David speaks here, so does the Christ, “I hate and abhor falsehood.” Jesus Christ is the Truth and falsehood is a lie. Thus it is fitting that we should hate the opposite (falsehood) of that which we love (Christ). God chooses more than one word here to denote His holy hatred for lying. God personally hates lying and morally detests it.

ThingsAbove.Us Christmas Giveaways!

In an effort to get our Things Above Us Shop up and running (ThingsAbove.Us/shop) we are offering Christmas giveaways each Friday between 11/15/19 and 12/20/19! You will receive an entry for EACH item purchased. All you have to do to enter is to order through the store by Friday, December 20 at 12 pm CST. […]

Summer 2019 Ministry Reflections

I remember a few months after my first son was born that I was going to school 40 hours a week (I was student teaching to finish my undergrad). In addition to that, I worked 3-4 days every week at a Community Center and was a bi-vocational youth pastor. That was probably the busy season […]