The picture showcased on this blog is my front yard. It was "scorched," not by typical Texas heat,...
Suffering
Do We Fear God For Nothing?
Did you know that Satan and Job asked God a similar question? Of course, Satan’s questioning was...
Suffering for Glory
Author's note: After almost taking a year off of writing because of trials and transition from...
An Empty Seat on Christmas
I want you to consider your Christmas activities. For some of you, Christmas is a day filled with presents and joy, worshipping God, and visiting with loved ones. Maybe you’ve saved for months to get your children that perfect gift. My wife is making me one of my...
A Open Letter to Afflicted Saints
To my dear afflicted Saint, I write this with tears that have been recently mixed with emotional pain and grief. I know what it feels like to have people text, email, and call you, and still receive no comfort. I mean, it's nice to know that people are thinking and...
Truths on Suffering – Part 2
We are doing a bit of an overview of Romans 8 and considering what it has to teach us about suffering. Last time we acknowledged the reality of suffering in a fallen world and we saw that suffering cannot separate us from Christ and that all creation suffers. Let's...
Truths on Suffering – Part 1
Roman 8 is perhaps one of the greatest chapters in the whole Bible. Derek Thomas notes, “No chapter of Scripture reaches the same sustained levels or covers the same ground as Romans 8. It is a description of the Christian life from death to life, from justification...
When God Brings the Sun Burn
Here’s an old sermon outline that I touched up for a blog post. It’s from Jonah 4:5-11. It has to do with God’s patient providential work in Jonah’s life. Let’s consider God’s providence together today: Prevailing Providence First, consider the word ‘appointed’ in...
Ep. 037 | Exalted Above the Heavens: Interview w/Peter Orr — TAU Roundtable
George Alvarado is joined by guest, Peter Orr, author of Exalted Above The Heavens, to discuss his book. Why Christ's bodily presence in heaven important? What does Scripture teach about his absence and his presence? How does the Holy Spirit, the Church, gospel...
Daniel’s Defiance
"When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously." - Daniel 6:10...
Speaking Rightly of God
The book of Job is best known for Job's patience in enduring a multitude of difficult trials. The destruction of his property to the death of his children to his being inflicted with a skin disease and finally to the harsh rebukes from his friends. In the end, Job...
Jesus Wept. But Not For Lazarus
Jesus wept (John 11:35). Perhaps one of the most memorable verses in the bible next to John 3:16. Not because of content, but word count (and certainly not because of context). When teachers ask students to learn a memory verse, they humorously remove this one as an...
Reformation Day – Luther and the 95 Theses
October 31st, 2019 marks the 502nd anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. As confessional protestants, many of us recognize the Reformation as a recovery of the gospel. Here is a brief look at who and what sparked the Reformation and why it matters. Who was Martin...
God’s Sovereignty Over Evil
A typical atheist mantra seems to be something along the lines, "God doesn't exist and I hate Him." One of the reasons cited for this hatred is because we live in a world with pain, suffering, and evil. A few years ago British comedian Stephen Fry was asked what he...
Received Into the Number: A Theology of Adoption Part IV- Adoption in the New Testament
In this series, we have been looking at what God’s Word says about adoption as both an earthly call to care for orphans and as a picture of how He saves undeserving sinners in need of right relationship with Him. You can read Parts I , II, and III here. In this...
Suicide Thoughts
Thus, we need to be careful when we are talking about folks who committed suicide. Too often I think we skirt around the issue of calling it sin, or even murder. Most people who commit suicide do it as the result of some sort of depression and I think we almost excuse it a little in our minds. It seems rather callous to call a guy who was so depressed he took his own life a murderer. But truth is worthless if it is hidden (Matthew 5:15).
Psalm 119:73-76 — Sovereign Creator
The most fondly looked upon saints in history were built up in the faith (Jude 1:20) through their own suffering which led to earnest prayer. And they, like the faithful ones of Hebrews 11, looked forward to God’s promise to his servant to endure. It is the hope of Heaven that allows weak vessels to remain faithful during suffering. It is the promise that God will not lose any of His sheep that provides the strength to do good in the midst of evil. And it is the comfort we find in God’s steadfast love toward us that motivates us to be still and know that He is God when the only hope we have is that he will do all that He has promised, even when all earthly evidence appears to the contrary.
Will You go to Hell?
Hell is a real place filled with real people. It is a place of unceasing conscious torment. It is not an escape from God but a place where the wrath of our Holy God is justly endured for all eternity. It is a place where both the body and soul are constantly punished...
Received Into the Number: A Theology of Adoption Part III- The Suffering of Job and the Fatherless
In this series, we’ve been looking at what God’s Word says about adoption as both an earthly call to care for orphans and as a picture of how He saves undeserving sinners in need of a right relationship with Him. You can read Parts I and II here. In this article, we...
Psalm 119:65-68 — Afflicted by God
Here is where we arrive at meat and potatoes of Psalm 119: the Teth octave. Why do God's people suffer affliction? Are they not to be rewarded for their love and devotion to Him? What message does it portray to the unbelieving world when God cannot even protect His...
Ep. 018 | Persecution — TAU Roundtable
In this episode, the guys welcomed our newest TAU member, George Alvarado, and discussed the recent events concerning a Rugby player whose life has been altered because of some biblical comments he made. See the article discussed here:...
Psalm 119:41-44 — Answering the Taunter
Secondly, we are reminded that the God of the Old Testament is the same God as the God of the New Testament and that He is a God of love. But not only is God love, what is striking is that He loves me. It is God’s love that is on display at the cross, and David well knows that he has no hope of delighting in the path of God’s commandments (Psalm 119:35) or keeping God’s law (Psalm 119:34) unless God “makes the first move.” We love because He first loved us! In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and gave His Son to be a propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:19,10)!
Psalm 119:37-40 — Behold God’s Promise
Turn My Eyes Psalm 119:37 Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways. David has prayed throughout this Psalm, and particularly in the first half of the He octave, for a heart that truly delights in God's ways (Psalm...
Psalm 119:33-36 — Seeking The Way
Seek Him Psalm 119:33 He Teach me, O Yahweh, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end. As we begin the fifth octave, we find the psalmist repeating the desire to be taught by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Knowing that we have no hope apart from the...
When God Turns His Back On You…
Here is a sincere question from a person who is struggling with her faith: "Why does it seem like when people need God the most he turns his back on them?" Here is my answer to that question: When God Turned Away Let me preface it by saying it’s gonna seem like a...
Psalm 119:29-32 — Shame Shifting
Lying Lips Psalms 119:29 ESV Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law! In the first half of the “Daleth” octet, we saw the psalmist confess to God and ask the Lord to guide him to greater understanding, so that he might not continue to sin against...
Hey, About Your Prodigal…
The Scene John (in regard to "spiritual children") said that he has no greater joy than to hear that his children walk in the truth (3 John 1:4). Inversely, how great is the despair experienced by the parents of a son or daughter who follows the wide road? I have...
Psalm 119:25-28 — Thirst and Life
Thirsty For Life? Psalms 119:25 ESV Daleth. My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word! What is brought to your mind when you read this verse? What does it mean for a soul to "cling to the dust?" I think a good clue is in the second clause: "give...
Unfathomable Submission: STTA!
Something To Think About! When we study the Bible, we need to be very cautious about assuming things not stated in the text. Our best wisdom will fail us if we rely on it too much. But God has given us minds which are capable of intelligently asking questions of the...
Blessed!
In Psalm 32, David recounts the joy he experiences knowing that God has forgiven his sin. Psalms 32:1-2 ESV A Maskil of David. 1Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and...
Envy: Beastmode Gone Wrong
Beast mode refers to a state of performing something, especially difficult activities, with extreme power, skill, or determination (dictionary.com). For sports enthusiasts, this is most commonly understood when Marshawn Lynch famously has torn through opposing...
No One Understands Like Jesus
The idea that a shared experience is necessary for someone to be truly able to help another person is a pretty commonly held belief. It seems to be a truism that someone who has "been there" is able to empathize with an affliction you are suffering in a way others may...
Psalm 34:19-22 He Keeps All His Bones
In understanding Psalm 34:18, we came to understand that it is within the crisis that God is present. What this means is that God often allows His faithful to suffer and to face various trials. This is exactly what verse 19 tells us: [19] Many are the afflictions of...
Psalm 34:17-18 – He is Near the Brokenhearted
It never ceases to astonish me how similar suffering is from person to person, even if they are suffering for different reasons. The thing I hear most often with suffering believers is “I pray, but does God even hear me?” Our verses from Psalm 34 today put that issue...
5 People Not to Be During Someone Else’s Trial
We recently began a journey through the book of James at Perryville Second Baptist. As I studied through James 1:2-12, I thought about some of the unhelpful people I’ve encountered during a personal trial, or a trial that someone else was going through. In today’s...
Psalm 34:16 – God Has Chosen Sides
Psalm 34 has a definite structure. The first third of the Psalm is David recounting God's faithfulness. He rehearses it again and again: God answered him, God heard him, God encamps around him, and on and on it goes. There's a give and take, David exalts God and God...
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...
You Have Dealt Well with Your Servant (Psalm 119:65-72)
This week's pSaturday Psalm comes from Psalm 119:65-72. Psalm 119 is a wonderful psalm that is really a "love poem," so to speak, about God's word! It is the longest chapter in the Bible — composed of 22 8 verse stanzas where the first letter of each line in a stanza...
A 9/11 Survivor Tells Her Story
September 11, 2001 is a day many people will never forget. My friend Angela Braxton was in one of the buildings that was crashed into that day and survived the tragedy.
At the time she nearly died from the events of 9/11, she was a non-believer abiding in the wrath of almighty God. But God has different plans for her.
Do People Who Commit Suicide Go To Hell?
"What is the Reformed Baptist view regarding those who commit suicide?" This question was posted on Facebook. The answers vary between "never saved to begin with," to "Jesus' blood covers it." This is one of those questions that is likely to evoke an emotional...
Psalm 34:4-5 Never Ashamed
Verses 4-5 I sought the LORD, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces will never be ashamed. {Psa 34:4-5 NASB} Verses 4-7 start to develop the themes of brokenness that dominate most of the rest of...
Review: John Huss, The Goose
"Before Martin Luther there was John Huss, the Bohemian Goose whose gospel preaching set his country on fire. Huss was an early Reformer who was given the incomparable privilege of sealing his testimony with his own blood. His enemies seemed to triumph, but the joke...
A Guide to Family Worship
I did not grow up in a Christian family, so family worship was not something that was modeled for me when I was growing up. Additionally, my first decade as a Christian didn't include a lot of teaching or discussion on the topic of family worship. So a few years ago...
Sad Facts About Racism
Try to picture this in your mind. It's February 29, 2016. John Connell was stopping at the grocery store to pick up a few items. Seeing a lady exiting the store as he was about to enter, John rushes to the door and opens it for her. Bad move, John! The lady walks...
Do ALL Things Without Complaining?
My wife posted the quote below on Facebook in regard to complaining: If you are a sovereigntist, or one who believes in the absolute sovereignty of our God, and you gripe or complain about your circumstances, you're being a hypocrite; for you demonstrate, with your...
When the Elect Suffer
The problem of despair and depression is fundamentally a spiritual problem, even if the world and its systems disagree. Solutions will be found in Scripture; and when we examine God's inerrant Word we see that God treats these things exactly as we'd expect: a...