Latest Articles on Guard the Deposit
Expectant Prayer in the Psalms
Prayer requires that we expect something. Unless we expect that God both hears and acts on our prayers, prayer is impossible. To speak of "expectant prayer" is redundant. The Psalms teach us to pray in many ways, but perhaps one of the most important lessons from the...
Christ Reigns at the Lord’s Supper
In volume 2 of Arnold Dallimore's George Whitefield biography, Dallimore describes Whitefield's interactions with Scottish Presbyterians. In regard to the way in which these Scottish Presbyterians received the Lord's Supper, Dallimore quotes this fantastic passage...
Why I Baptized My Infant Daughter
On July 29, 2012, I had the privilege of baptizing my infant daughter, Evelyn Christine. I have believed in infant baptism, but I only came to understand about six years ago....
3 Ways the Holy Spirit Gives Christ to Us
Immediately in the opening of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, the apostle launches into robustly theological praise to God for the love that he has lavished upon his people in and through Jesus Christ. When Paul focuses his praise on the Father (Eph. 1:3-6), Paul's...
How to Reform Church Planting Mistakes
A couple of weeks ago on Kevin DeYoung's blog, Josh Blunt wrote four guest posts that I thoroughly appreciated. Blunt describes the journey his own church plant took from being an attractional church ("metro") to becoming a church marked by God's Word, sacraments,...
The Centrality of the Blood of Jesus in the Christian Gospel
For Paul, the gospel of Jesus is a message first and foremost of our redemption and forgiveness through the blood of Jesus: 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8which he lavished upon...
Natural Disasters, Repentance, and the Voice of God
As I mentioned earlier, D. A. Carson's has probably been the most influential Bible study tool of my life. Very often I realize that a theological idea that has become very important in my thinking probably originated...
Your Prayer Life and the Holy Spirit of Adoption
Growth in my prayer life has been, by far, the most practical result of . This past weekend, I preached on Romans 8:12-17, where Paul insists that we have received something far greater than the...
The Filioque Controversy, The Holy Spirit, and Christ’s Incarnation
The Filioque Controversy is the long-standing division between the Eastern and Western Churches, where the West added the phrase filioque ("and the Son") to the Nicene Creed, so that the creed explains that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son." The...
Reformed Theology and the Holy Spirit – The Holy Spirit as Treasurer of the Trinity
Many Christians who embrace Reformed Theology have a serious problem with the Holy Spirit. At least, I know that I, as a Christian firmly committed to Reformed Theology, have had a serious problem with the Holy Spirit for much of my life. We Reformed Christians love...
Bible Study Tool: For the Love of God by D. A. Carson
In my own life, I do not think that I have come across a more valuable tool than D. A. Carson's two volume Bible Study Tool For the Love of God (see Vol. I and Vol. II). If you click the "For the Love of God" tag, you will find many posts over the years where I have...
Mediated Worship and Unmediated Worship
...the worship service is not an exercise in worship but a practicing of worship. It is not, of course, that the practicing of worship consists exclusively in going to church. Rather, it must be the one, grand, royal action of our whole life, in all our thoughts,...