Beyond the Classroom

If you are a faithful pastor you will suffer rejection. But as you persevere in serving others with God’s power, truth and love, like Jesus, you win by losing.

Psalm 119 provides an extended insight into the psalmist’s spiritual experience as a suffering sojourner looking ahead to God’s mysterious but sure deliverance.

Any preacher today could be tempted to regard his main obstacle as a modern one, namely the incredulity and cynicism of a secularist world. Be there is an ancient one as well—the recurring doubts of God’s people in the supernatural world. Preachers have long served as God’s agents to help those who struggle to walk by faith and not by sight, and continue to look to the things that are unseen, which are eternal. 2 Kings 6:8-23 reveals an example of God’s prophet being used to open the eyes of others in order to see what is truly real.

President’s Chapel Fall 2024

This Psalm teaches us about life’s travails, and that Israel fails, but that Christ prevails.

The Psalm is not a reflection focused on the pre-fall position of humanity in God’s creation but on God’s continued use of mankind in redemptive history.

Like me, many seminary graduates wish they could return to seminary and do it all over again. The time spent exploring the Bible, history, and theology while in conversation with professors and classmates is difficult to recapture once you graduate.

College freshman, you are about to step onto a bustling campus. Your heart will be tugged in different directions as excitement and anxiety rush through your veins. You will have new subjects to learn, events to attend, and friends to meet.

“This world is no friend to grace.” With these words, Eugene Peterson begins his book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society.

Scripture is sufficient for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Our Reformed Confessional tradition is clear that all things necessary to glorify and enjoy God are taught in Holy Scripture, either directly or through good and necessary consequence. The Holy Scriptures are the foundation of life and ministry.

The monk Martin Luther wasn’t looking for a gracious God but the real God.

Even though our praise cannot actually make God greater or higher than He is, the Lord is pleased for our praise to exalt Him in our minds and hearts.

Living in the joy of the Son setting you free.

In our passage Micah extols our incomparable God for his wondrous grace in forgiving us all of our sins and casting them all into the depths of the sea.