This is part two of our very brief look at prayer. It will also be the last blog of 2025. I will return to this space in January of 2026. [Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss a blog.] In my previous blog I outlined a brief theology of prayer and what we can expect when we pray. In this blog I want to draw a few conclusions based on what we learned. There are a lot of conclusions we could draw but I will only make a few here. The first conclusion I need to draw is base

Brett McCracken may be a new name to some of you but he has been writing books and articles for the Gospel Coalition, where he is the senior editor and director of communications, for some time. This book is, in fact, almost 10 years old. But that does not make it irrelevant. In fact, what he speaks about has been and will continue to be an issue within the church until Christ comes again -- the local church is a necessary, though not perfect, and often uncomfortable place to

The men have just finished discussing the Reformation Triangle for spiritual formation in our Men’s Theology book, A Heart Aflame for God: A Reformed Approach to Spiritual Formation by Matthew Bingham. I’ll spare you the details (ask a man in the church for them if you like) but the triangle includes Scripture, meditation, and prayer. The topic of prayer has been on my mind for some time and our discussion of Tuesday night got me thinking that I should write about it. [I wil

Mental health issues have become part of the zeitgeist of our culture. We are bombarded with labels, diagnoses, and drugs and therapies to respond to them. Sadly too many Christians are too quick to embrace secular culture and secular brain science without filtering what they are being told through the truth of God’s word. Thankfully there are many very good resources from a Reformed perspective which will help us sort out the ever-present mental health obsession of our Weste

NOTE:  I have invited the contributions of Stu Reimer to write in this space on the issues of marriage and family. If you follow CRC at all you will know Stu to be my frequent substitute in the pulpit and I am looking forward to his work as my substitute from time to time in this space. Expect his blogs to appear every 6 weeks or so. Stu is no expert on the things on which I have asked him to write (Just ask his wife and children), but he is a committed reformed Christian and

I really enjoy writing and podcasting as a part of my ministry at CRC (and beyond). But there are times the well of ideas runs a bit dry and I have trouble coming up with topics about which to write in the blog or talk about on the Here I Sit podcast. So I’m asking for a bit of help. If there is anything you would like me to discuss -- a bible passage, theological topic, social or ecclesiological movement, whatever -- follow the link below to send your idea to me. https://doc

In a future episode of the Here I Sit Podcast I will be diving into the much neglected but exceedingly important doctrine of Union with Christ. It is a foundational doctrine for understanding how we were saved, how we are saved, how we will be saved, and thus it offers us deep insight into how we are to live in light of being saved. But for now I offer a review of a short, sweet, and excellent book by Sinclair Ferguson on the topic entitled, Union with Christ: The Blessings o

Israel‘s transgression — Gentile salvation — Israel’s jealousy/salvation — Gentile blessing

What does it mean to be a Jew if it doesn’t gain salvation from God?

The doctrine of God’s unconditional individual election / predestination unto salvation is ever-present in Scripture.

The doctrine of election is not obscure; it is not hard to prove. It is only hard, for some, to accept.

We don’t like verses like Romans 9:13. They make us feel uncomfortable.

For one to be a part of spiritual Israel one must be chosen by God of his free grace and come to Jesus in faith.

I would like to take some time introducing and exegeting Romans 9 in anticipation of preaching through Romans 9-11 in February.

This is blog number six in the series on why I am not a dispensationalist. In short, as I hope has become clear, I believe...

Let me remind you of where we have come now that we are 5 blogs into this series. In my previous blogs, I outlined why a dispensational...

In my last two blogs, using Christ’s Prophetic Plans as my guide, I outlined why a dispensational hermeneutic (point 1) and why a...

In my last blog, I outlined why a dispensational hermeneutic is in error. In this article, I will show that the dispensationalist view of...

In my last blog, I left you hanging. I stated, quite boldly, that I am not a dispensationalist but did not give any reasons as to why....

We have begun a sermon series on Revelation which will last until mid-June. We are only into chapter 2, but I’m sure it has already...