Thoughts on Theology

A triumphant ride into the townJesus was greeted with the cheersHosanna! proclaimed the peopleOur king is finally here. Now he stands in front of PilateNo longer came the CheersNow changed to Shouts of crucify!The Angry crowds did jeer Then, on the cross, our Lord did hangIt is finished! His last cryHe suffered unimaginable agonyAll for you and I For three long days and three long nightsIn the grave, his body layThose who loved and knew himThought he was there To…

Read Part I An unbelieving person clicks “send” on his screen, and submits a prayer request to God. What will you say happens next? Does the email come through into God’s inbox? Does God even see the “unread” email? If God sees the email, does he open it? If he opens it, does he read it? If he reads it, what does he do with it next? Is God aware that the email came from an unbeliever, and therefore he…

As most of you know, Jenny and I became proud first-time grandparents last year. Oliver (Ollie) was born at 27 weeks. He has spent already four months in the NICU, and is still in a NICU today. Jenny and I are so grateful God has given us a church family so we don’t have to walk on this journey alone. You have not stopped asking either of us about Ollie every Sunday. You have prayed, and continue to pray for…

Read Part I Read Part II Read Part III The words, “idol” and “idolatry”, appeared in the Old Testament. But they didn’t disappear from our Bibles when we moved over to the New Testament. I take this to mean that idols and idolatry are still alive and well in our world today. Our God is a God who does not change. If what provoked God to anger, a lot, in the Old Testament was idol worship, then I want to…

Read Part I Read Part II God said to the Israelites they were not to even dabble with playing with idols. He also said in no uncertain terms that if they were to engage in worshipping idols, the penalty would be severe. Exodus 22.20 He who sacrifices to any god, other than to the LORD alone, shall be utterly destroyed. Deuteronomy 17.2–5 If there is found in your midst, in any of your towns, which the LORD your God is…

Read Part I If you recall, there was a time when Hezekiah became King of Judah, and the Bible said he was a good king. He did right in the eyes of God. He removed idols and destroyed idols. And it said right there in 2 Kings that he also destroyed the bronze serpent that Moses had made. Apparently, the Israelites burned incense to Moses’ bronze serpent, and I take this to mean that the Israelites were worshipping the bronze…

We are now well into the third week of the new year. I cannot speak for you but for me, this year is unlike any other year in the past I can remember. I say this because I have not heard in the news nor on the television about making new year resolutions. No one on our staff has talked about them either. What about you? Year after year around January 1st, I hear people talk excitedly about their determination…

As a young man in my twenties, there was a time when I sent Christmas cards to my family to wish them a Merry Christmas. I didn’t write “Merry Christmas”. I wrote “Merry Xmas” instead. I don’t think I did that because I wasn’t a believer in Christ at that time, and I wished to avoid making any reference to Christ, or Jesus, or God. You see, even though I wasn’t a believer, I was also not someone who opposed…

Read Part I Read Part II Read Part III Forgiving another person is hard You know by now that forgiving another person is not easy. Forgiving others is hard work. It is supposed to be hard. If we are doing this right, forgiving others is hard because it costs us something. It requires us to cast aside our selfishness. It requires us to restrain ourselves from taking revenge on, and slander, those who have offended us. It requires us to…

Read Part I Read Part II So, to forgive is, to me, more than to think or say or act as though what had happened was not a big deal, and less than forgetting what that someone has done to offend us. It is somewhere inbetween the two. I know that doesn’t really help you – we all can use a little more definition. So, I wish to share in here some of what I am thinking about forgiveness. Keep…

Read Part I Giving a definition of what is forgiveness is a huge undertaking because of its many complex aspects. How do you define what is forgiveness? The Minister John MacArthur writes, “Forgiveness is a verbally-declared, personally-given promise, a statement of undeserved, unearned love that affirms that though I have been offended, there is no anger, no hatred, no desire for vengeance, no bitterness, no retaliation.” The person who has forgiven another has done all those things. Some say to…

You and I are not very different from each other. I know I am not wrong. Each of us has stepped on someone’s toes. Maybe not all the time, but enough times. I know, because you and I are sinners, and it is only a matter of time before we step on each other’s toes. We have been guilty of saying insensitive things to another person, and offended them. We have said the wrong things and have done things we…

Read Part I Adam and Eve, however, did not die only physically. That is only part of the story. When a sinful being collides with a holy God, something else is happening. Colossians 2.13–14 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has…

We all know the story. In the beginning, God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Genesis narrative seems to say there were many trees inside this garden. God told Adam he may eat from any tree in the garden. But there was one tree in the garden where its fruit he may not eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat…

You already know this but the Bible teaches the Christ believer to give to God. This includes resources of all types such as our time, our gifts, our energy, and our talents. One of the most distinctive practices of the Christian life is, however, that he or she also gives financially to God. Not everyone in the world understands this behavior. We especially cannot expect those who do not understand what is the Christian faith to understand why Christians give.…

Read Part I. When we hear that the Levites did not receive a land inheritance like all the other tribes, it is easy for any of us to think they were, in some way, less than the other tribes. But that would be a mistake. It would be wrong for us to think God did not care for them as much as he cared for the other tribes or love them as much as he loved the other tribes. Why…

Do you remember that as a little boy or girl, what did you want to become when you grew up? A musician? A scientist? A writer? What did you dream about? I don’t remember how old I was, but I do remember that by the time I was in middle school, I dreamed about studying automobile designing in Italy to become a designer or about becoming a meteorologist, not one of those meteorologists standing in front of a camera at…

Read Part I Read Part II As the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, God made a promise to them he would surely go before them into the Promised Land. He would always care for them, come to defeat their enemies, and they would live securely. They would finally enter into their rest in the Promised Land. He also said to them that after they had settled into the Promised Land, they must observe the Sabbath. They must keep it holy,…

We know that the commandment to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy came to the Israelites in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. Before this, there was no commandment to the Israelites anywhere in the Bible to remember the Sabbath day, and to keep it holy. But I don’t want you to think that God introduced the concept of rest for the first time in Genesis, and he didn’t bring up the concept of rest, or more…

The Ten Commandments is one of the most recognizable sections in the Bible. I first heard about them when I was still a little boy. Hollywood even made a movie with the same title in 1956. But what if I were to tell you the words, “Ten Commandments” are not found anywhere in the Bible? It’s true. That is because in the three places where “Ten Commandments” appear in the Bible, it does not say, “Ten Commandments”, but “Ten Words”…

In the opening chapter in the Book of Hebrews, the author wasted no time firing off on his agenda. He set out to begin to talk about angels right out of the gate. But he didn’t just begin to give a systematic theology on angels. His purpose was more specific than that. His main thesis was on how Christ is superior than the angels. Of the many directions he could have gone, it is remarkable to me the first thing…

Do you know what is prosperity theology? You may not know the term, but you may already know the theology. Prosperity theology is sometimes also called the prosperity gospel, the health and wealth gospel, or the gospel of success. It is an unbiblical theology that says if a person becomes a Christian, it is God’s will for him to receive financial blessing, physical well-being, among other “prosperous” things. For the past two weeks, I was in Taiwan visiting my parents…

The Lord taught the Israelites to observe the Passover once they entered into the Promised Land so they would always remember how the Lord killed every Egyptian firstborn to deliver them. Year after year, the Israelites observed the Passover, and they became more and more familiar with the Lord’s teachings on the firstborn—the firstborn belongs to the Lord, the firstborn must be redeemed, and redemption always required blood. Then came one day many years later, a Passover unlike any other.…

After refusing nine times to let the Israelites go, it is remarkable that on the tenth time, Pharaoh told them to get out, and that in the middle of the night. He couldn’t even stand to wait until daylight. It took the murder of all the Egyptian firstborns to bring Pharaoh to his knees and to let the Israelites go. The tenth plague was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Every one of the nine plague struck the Egyptians,…

How many of you are the eldest among your brothers or sisters? Are you a firstborn in your family? According to some studies, the oldest in the family are usually high achievers, excellent problem solvers, born leaders, independent thinkers, and the brains in the family! If you are a firstborn, have I just described you? How many of those things I listed are true of you? On the flip side, as with many things in life, being the firstborn comes…