Dr Paul Allen

Psalm 77: When we are hit with suffering of all kinds, we find ourselves desperate for comfort. And we won’t find it in shallow platitudes or empty promises. God offers comfort in many ways, but one of the primary ways is through his word. The more we know God’s word, the more we know him. And the more we know him, the more we find him to be everything he promises. He is a father to the forsaken and forgotten. He is a refuge for those in distress. He is a healer of the brokenhearted and a defender of the oppressed. And he is the one who turns our mourning into joy. Throughout Scripture, we see stories of God’s sovereign hands at work. Sure and steady, he directs human history to fulfil his redemptive plan. When Joseph is sold into slavery, and Esther is taken to a king’s harem, God’s unseen hand is orchestrating it all. When it seems like evil wins, his justice reigns. When all seems hopeless, his promises prove true. He is a good and trustworthy God. When we saturate ourselves in Scri...

For the Christian, there is something to look forward to. Something we should feel great eagerness for. We are anticipating a time when all sorrows will be wiped away. We are anticipating a time when the kingdom will be consummated. We are anticipating the unity of all tribes, tongues, and nations. We are anticipating being with the Lord forever. In remembering that this earth is not our home, that we truly do have citizenship in heaven, we instruct our hearts and minds as we interact with the world around us. So we wait. And we wait—with anticipation. The Apostle Paul waited well and, inspired by the Holy Spirit, he gives us a vision for how we, too, can wait well. Paul’s story is told and retold, and for good reason. Early in his life, he terrorized the church. He describes himself during that period of his life as a Hebrews of Hebrews, a Pharisee, a persecutor of the church, and blameless according to the law (Phil 3:1–6). Paul’s conversion took away his worldly status among the Jew...

The “one-woman man” may seem like an endangered species today. In our over-sexualized and sexually confused society, it’s increasingly rare to come across married men who are truly faithful to their bride — in body, heart, and mind. It may be even more rare to find unmarried men who are on the trajectory for that kind of fidelity to a future wife. Jaws will drop when a handsome, eligible bachelor declares he’s a virgin waiting for the wedding night. Of the fifteen basic qualifications for the office of elder in the local church (1 Timothy 3:1–7), being a one-woman man may be the one that runs most against the grain of our society. We’re relentlessly pushed in precisely the opposite direction. Television, movies, advertising, and just about everything else conditions the twenty-first-century male to approach women as a consumer of many, instead of as a protector and servant of one. The models teach our men to selfishly compromise and take, rather than to passionately cultivate and ...

In 1 Samuel 8, Israel makes a most wicked demand of Samuel: “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations” (1Sam 8:5). Two verses later, Yahweh confirms that this is not a rejection of Samuel, but a rejection of God Himself as the King of Israel (1Sam 8:7; cf.  10:19 ). And though Samuel spends nine verses warning them that they’re replacing the Omnipotent  God  with a puny human (1Sam  8:10–18 ), they don’t back off. “No,” they shout, as defiantly as resolutely. “But there  shall  be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles” (1Sam  8:19–20 ). In chapter 12, Samuel demonstrates their wickedness to them by praying down a thunderstorm that destroys their wheat harvest (1Sam  12:16–18 ). Now, a thunderstorm at wheat harvest time in Israel is like getting six inches of snow in L.A. on ...