We don’t often think of strict rules as comfortable. But the sound doctrine of the Gospel, rigid & inflexible with its truth that salvation is in Christ alone, and the summons to obedience to our respective duties is anything but confining. It is, in fact, a comfort. This is what we were made for, to glorify God & enjoy Him forever.

The Ascension of Jesus is one of the key glories of the gospel, and it really is part of the good news. Our Conquering King is our High Priest, and He has gone ahead of us, appearing in God’s presence for us.

One of the reasons Christians are not as bold as they ought to be is because they do not know what covenant they are of. We have heard the stories of saints who have smelled of heaven; they have sizzled with the aroma of angels. And this is just what we are after. Some, not knowing the kingdom of heaven, have looked upon such saints and mistaken their boldness for pride, their freedom for madness. Some believers, even, who have drifted too far from the Heavenly Father, have made this same misjudgment. Even so, this is what we are after: the full assurance of faith seen in the likes of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego before the fire, or Jonathan climbing up to the Philistine garrison, outnumbered.

2 Chronicles 13

The great Augustine once said that in the affairs of men, the dead are replaced by the dying. Isaac Watts memorably rendered Psalm 90 this way: “Time, like an ever-rolling stream/Bears all its sons away;/They fly forgotten, as a dream/Dies at the opening day.” “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Ps. 90:12).But there is more to this wisdom than simply recognizing how fleeting our lives are. We need something to compare it to, and that something is one in the order of Melchizedek, with the power of an indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). Without the baseline of eternal life, our earthly lives are not even fleeting.

We’re in the time of year where you’re likely to have attended a graduation. As parents and grandparents look on their children, the emotions in the arena likely range wildly. Pride, fear, hope, disappointment, maybe a touch of doubt. “He chose to major in Klingon?” The older generations are prone to be skeptical of the generation who is about to take their place. But in the Christian Church, we aren’t to simply wish that the next generation “makes it.” Paul lays out a plan for creating a culture of faith and good works that will last for eternal ages, because God said we should and promised it would work.

Genesis 2:18-25

As the saints gather for worship each Lord’s Day, we should think of it as the time signature of history. God set the the metronome “in the beginning” and from then on out, the week begins with God’s creative work. 

Text: Gen. 2:4–18

Scripture teaches us that envy is an insidious sin. It is a destructive and soul-rotting force, and has the ability to go anywhere. It is found with the lowly and among the mighty. Envy lurks in slums and struts in kings’ palaces. We need to be far more wary of this sin than we usually are.