The Joy of Being Reformed (9): Finding Confidence & Comfort in Each Person of the Trinity

What gives you confidence in life? What comforts your heart in life? It’s quite common for people to draw their confidence from what they do or accomplish or produce. Do you ever do that? People often work very hard, achieve success, and then feel confident about themselves based on the level of success they’ve achieved. Their confidence and comfort are tied to their attainments. I struggle with this. Think about it. Don’t you feel like life is more fulfilling and brighter when...

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The Joy of Being Reformed (8): Trinitarian Theology Is Directly Linked to Intimacy with God

Along with the Apostles’, Nicene, Athanasian, and Chalcedonian Creeds, Belgic Confession Article Eight is insightful commentary on the Trinity. We need a clear doctrine of God today, a clear doctrine of the Trinity. Why? Well, in order to rightly know God, love God, and praise and glorify God. We won’t get very far in knowing, loving, praising, and glorifying God if we have idolatrous and errant conceptions of Him. Throughout history, there have been soul-condemning heresies like...

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The Joy of Being Reformed (7): Do Charismatics Believe in the Sufficiency of Scripture? The Reformed Do!

As Christians, we love God, and we want to hear from Him, to know His will, and to know that He loves us, is with us, and is guiding us through this difficult journey of life. We want His reassurance. Communication with God is essential to our confidence and comfort. And Christians are divided on how we hear from God today. Some Christians believe that God gives new and direct revelation to believers today. They believe God speaks directly to believers and reveals new things that the Bible...

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The Joy of Being Reformed (4): Talking Out of Both Sides of Your Mouth, Andy Stanley, & the Bible

To talk out of both sides of your mouth is to say something that contradicts what you said before. A person might give one opinion to one person and turn around and give the opposite opinion to another person. That’s talking out of both sides of the mouth, and sometimes preachers do it in their sermons. For example, if a preacher said at the beginning of his sermon, “Jesus is the Son of God,” and then a little later in his sermon added, “Jesus’ miracles are simply myths,” you’d...

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The Joy of Being Reformed (3): God Is Revealing Himself to You Every Day

About 22 years ago, I took a trip to France. While there, I visited the famed Louvre Museum in Paris, the home of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. I stood before this small but renowned painting housed in bulletproof glass gazing at its mystery, intrigue, innovation, and beauty. It’s not my favorite painting, but it’s remarkable, nonetheless. It’s remarkable because da Vinci was remarkable. Though we haven’t met him, we do know something about da Vinci by seeing his artwork. The Mona...

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The Joy of Being Reformed (1): The Belgic Confession of Faith

Are you Reformed? Am I? How would we go about answering that question? And if you were looking for a church home, and you visited a church that claimed to be Reformed, what might you expect them to teach and practice? Before we could say, “I’m Reformed” or “I’m not Reformed” or “I go to a Reformed church,” we’d need to know what it means to be historically Reformed. We’d need an honest and historically accurate definition of Reformed, right? And this isn’t very easy to...

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Strengthened by the Supper (7): The Lord’s Supper Strengthens You to Truly Love  

Let’s say it’s a beautiful day outside and you’re taking a stroll in the park. You study your shadow, and you notice just how much it looks like you. It’s an image of you. It’s connected to you. You start to run, and it follows you. It does what you do. Your shadow is affixed to you. Your shadow cannot be detached from you . . . unless you’re Peter Pan. Keith Mathison uses this helpful illustration in his little book titled The Lord’s Supper to explain the spiritual presence of...

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I Belong (14): The Fruit of the Gospel in Your Life

We’ve been working our way through Article 29 of the Belgic Confession which gives much encouragement about local churches and our membership in them. Article 29 gives the three marks of the true church—the pure preaching of the gospel, the pure administration of the sacraments, and church discipline—and the says: In short, it governs itself according to the pure Word of God, rejecting all things contrary to it and holding Jesus Christ as the only Head. By these marks one can be...

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I Belong (12): True & Good Churches Give Us the Sacraments because We Need Them

Months ago, I got reclaimed white oak wood from Creekside Lumber in the small town of Ephrata, PA. I’ve been making a three-foot by 12-foot tabletop, and it’s turning out beautifully. To fill in the knots, deep grooves, and holes, I used a two-part epoxy resin. In order for the epoxy to be effective, to get hard and clear within the open spaces, you need both the base resin and the curing agent. You mix the two substances together and you get a hard and clear epoxy filler. If you simply...

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I Belong (11): Where Have All the Preachers Gone?

In March of 1997 during my senior year of high school, Paula Cole released her song “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone” which became her only top-ten hit. It’s a sad song of a failed relationship and an unfulfilled dream of western-style romance. The song repeats the fretful question, “Where have all the cowboys gone?” If the church in the US was to write a sad song about lost love today, perhaps it would be titled “Where have all the preachers gone?” Much preaching in the US is...

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