Musings of a Seminary Grad

Understanding Jesus As we are in the midst of Advent season, I find myself frequently meditating upon the wonder that is the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Perhaps this truth can be conveyed in no more striking terms than those of the fourth Gospel, which we celebrate at Christmas: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:1-3, 14) The moment the Incarnation ceases to amaze us is the moment our faith loses its wonder, luster, and impact on our daily lives. God became human – what wondrous love is this! Additionally, while studying church history, and especially the early councils and heresies, I have been meditating on a statement from A. W. T...

This is a sermon I preached in chapel at Maranatha Baptist University on 2/14/2022 as part of a series on Psalms called "Planted and Productive: Living a Blessed Life." Introduction Before we can delve into this closing section of Hebrews 11, I think we need a reminder of the historical context surrounding this book. The epistle of Hebrews was most likely written to Jewish believers, probably in Rome, during a time of great persecution; to escape that persecution, the Jewish believers were tempted to turn back to Old Testament Judaism and away from Christ, since the Jews were not being persecuted severely. In this context, the author of Hebrews urges them repeatedly to “Hold fast to the confession” (3:6; 4:14; 6:18; 10:23), pointing out the superiority of Christ to everything in the Old Testament system. This is why I chose the song “His Robes for Mine” for us to sing today: it rehashes for us the major tenets of the Gospel and urges us as a result to “cling to Christ” and li...

Introduction This is the final post in my series on biblical friendship. In some ways, writing it has felt like the consummation of several years of study, and in other ways I feel as though I am still but scratching the surface on the topic of Biblical friendship. I have read what feels like many books over several years in an attempt to narrow down what biblical friendship is all about, and rather than the world’s answers of camaraderie, affirmation, encouragement, or improvement, I have found that God’s purpose is higher than these: God plans for friendship to draw us closer to himself. Since friendship reveals truth about who God is, and since biblical friendship that is centered on God and his word will both encourage and challenge us with truth, the ultimate goal of friendship is sanctification. The ultimate goal of friendship is sanctification Maybe that needs to be qualified. Really, the ultimate goal of friendship is glorification, when true believers in Jesus Christ are ...

Introduction I hope that this series has been as exploratory for you as it has been for me. I love doing biblical and theological study on major aspects of life, since Scripture speaks to every area of the Christian life and provides the wisdom we need to live successfully in God’s world. Thus far, we have seen that friendship is “moving toward God together.” Friendship is God’s idea in that it springs from his nature and is part of our identity as his images; friendship is also God’s gift to us, an immense blessing with many benefits. Among those many benefits lies the primary benefit and purpose of friendship: sanctification. I propose that the primary purpose for all human relationships is sanctification. Why? Because we are God’s images that exist in relationship because our eternal God has always existed in relationship. Therefore, every human relationship teaches us something about who God is. But why so many different kinds of relationships? Just as each person displays dif...