The Joy of Being Reformed (10): Experiencing & Enjoying Everything Around You to the Glory & Enjoyment of Jesus Christ

Each day our gracious Lord bestows upon us countless blessings, and we tend to either miss them entirely, as in we enjoy them without even thinking about enjoying them, or to enjoy them without thinking about the Lord who gives them, as in we’re not consciously thankful to God for them. We don’t give much thought to our heartbeat throughout the day. It works, and we don’t really think about it. Similarly, it’s easy to experience and enjoy many things throughout the day without giving...

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The Joy of Being Reformed (2): How Knowing the One True God Fills Your Heart with Happiness & Thankfulness

This past Sunday evening we had two families over. They stayed for hours late into the evening. It was wonderful. Our connection began years ago at Grove City College before any of us were married. We don’t get to see them often, so when we’re together it’s memorable and sweet. Sunday night was just that. My heart was filled with happiness and thankfulness as I enjoyed our friends. Even our children—all twelve of them—who don’t know each other well, really connected and had a...

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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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Gas Prices & the Riches of God’s Grace in the Resurrection (HC LD 17, QA 45)

Gas prices. It’s criminal to pay $437 per gallon. You’d come into a small fortune if you struck oil on your property. Imagine there is oil beneath the surface of your backyard, you just have to dig deep enough to get it, but you don’t know it’s there. One day, you think to yourself, “I don’t want to take out loans anymore to fill my car with gas. I’m going to do something about this craziness. I wonder if there is oil in my backyard.” So, you go out and start digging. You dig...

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The Comfort of Creation, Redemption, and Sanctification (HC LD 8, QA 24-25)

I took German in 9th and 10th grade. I thought it would exempt me from taking a foreign language in college, but Grove City College, my alma mater, required three years of a foreign language. I had fallen short. I ended up taking two full years of French. I wish I’d taken Spanish. Anyway, at Grove City College we had dinners called “language tables.” Students and their language professors ate together and spoke foreign languages. I had to go and was quickly lost in simple French...

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