In Genesis 11 we read a story that is the carbon copy of history from garden onward. With the goal of making a name for themselves keenly in view, the descendants of Noah settled in the land of Shinar and started building a tower to reach to the heavens. Just like our ancestors, we are no different, except for the fact that we don’t use bricks to build our towers.   Inward Legalism In his book How the Gospel Brings Us All the Way Home , Derek Thomas defines legalism as, “being asked to obey in order to win God’s favor”. Just like Adam in the garden, we must cover ourselves with whatever we can find, and just like Adam we typically take things that were created by God and twist them for our own purposes. Just like the fig leaves, we make ourselves respectable robes of our own righteousness, fashioned by the very laws of God designed for our good. Outward Legalism Thomas his definition also stated that it will present itself in, “being asked to obey a command over and above that whi...

If you have ever read through the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, you have probably found it somewhat depressing. After all, when the author starts out of the gate telling you that everything is meaningless you can’t help but calling the local Party City to order balloons for the pity-party that is getting ready to ensue.   Life Is Meaningless? According to Ecclesiastes everything in life and even human existence itself is “vanity’ . The Hebrew word used here is ‘Hebel’ has  been treated in many of the major translations as vain / vanity and by a few others as meaningless or pointless. The concept of  Hebel  can be explained by the analogy of making it one’s life purpose to building a sandcastle on the beach. That would be pretty dumb, right? But, in a sense, that is exactly what the author and many of us do. Maybe not literally, but we consume our life’s with temporary things that have no eternal significance. While the ...

Excerpts from John Newton's "A Letter to a Friend in Trouble" Read the inscription, " As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." No wonder that weave often sorrowing in such a world as this; but to be always rejoicing, though in the midst of tribulation, this may seem strange, but it is no more strange than true. When I want witness to this truth in open court, I may confidently subpoena you to confirm it. They who would always rejoice, must derive their joy from a source which is invariably the same, in other words, from Jesus. Oh, that name! what a person, what an office, what a love, what a life, what a death, does it recall to our minds! Come, madam, let us leave our troubles to themselves for a while, and let us walk to Golgotha, and there take a view of his. We stop, as we are going, at Gethsemane, for it is not a step out of the road. There he lies, bleeding, though not wounded, or if wounded, it is by an invisible, an almighty hand. Now I begin to see w...

John’s gospel is unique from the other three gospels, in that his approach to the account of Christ is different than any other. While the other three gospels cover many miracles and parables, John only records a select number of miracles and no parables. What makes John’s account more direct, is that he records each of the miracles for with an intention of no just showing us what Jesus did but who Jesus was. John chapters 2-11 are dominated by seven miracles, which he calls signs, and are tied intentionally to the discourses that Jesus gives about Himself. 1  The first of the seven signs mentioned by John is the changing of water to wine at the marriage in Cana. (John 2:1-11) While this sign may not have seemed to be the majestic entry that some may have expected, John states that Jesus did this that He might for the first time in His ministry, “reveal His glory”. (John 2:11) It was here that Jesus begins to show Himself for who He was and bring people into belief. Fulton Sheen st...

As we look at Jeremiah as a whole we see a number of different narratives that play out, and a number of different sins that are to be judged, but the over arching theme of the book is a theme of judgement.  If we were to look for somewhere to find this theme in all of its glory, we need look no farther that chapter 7. It is here that we can find every hope that the people of Judah had dashed to pieces like a piece of china on a tile floor. It is chapter 7 that really sets the tone for the entire book when Jeremiah gives not a ‘feel-good’ sermon, but a sermon of coming judgement. One of the main issues that Judah had against them could almost be considered was a problem that would haunt the Pharisees in the gospels. They thought that their religion was enough even without the fruits of religion. It is the same religion that the New Testament writer of James, would call worthless. (James 1:26)   Judah had even got steps beyond this treating the Temple as some type of ‘good...