Dr Paul Allen

Words (Photo credit: Southernpixel - Alby Headrick ) Think with me for a moment about when you started learning to read . After you had listened to your parents reading to you for several years, you started learning the letter sounds yourself. Then you started to learn to sound out two- and three-letter words. Then you learned to read those words in a short sentence. And then after a time of doing that, you learned to understand what you were reading. Reading really is amazing. What's most amazing about it is that God has  spoken to us  in such a way that we get to  read His words . Step by step, as God's little children, we need to learn how to read the Word, beginning the process from learning letter sounds to understanding what we are reading. In Deuteronomy 4, the Lord exhorts His dear children to hear, to know, and to do His Word. He exhorts them to "listen to [His] statutes and [His] rules" (v. 1) and not to "add to the word . . . that you may kee

God has spoken in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (2 Tim. 3:16). This is part of the basic Christian confession. Another part is that the God who has spoken speaks to us every time we read the Word, hear it read, or hear it preached (1 Thess. 2:13). Do you have that conviction? Sadly, I've found that many Christians either do not know this or have so rejected extremes in the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches of their past that it's as though God were silent to them. Did God speak in times of old? Absolutely (Heb. 1:1–2). Does God still speak? We should be able to say the same: "Absolutely!" But how is this the case? The answer is the Holy Spirit . As one standard states, "The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means . . ." ( Westminster Larger Catechism , Q&A 155).  As the Apostle Paul described it, "The sword of the Spirit . . . is the word of God" (Eph. 6:17). It&

Image via Wikipedia Matthew 5:27-30 "I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart" ( v. 28 ). Note that the antitheses found in the Sermon on the Mount do not say that all sins are equal in degree. For example, ungodly anger and the act of murder both violate the intent of Exodus 20:13 ( Matt. 5:21-22 ), but the hot-head and the murderer do not get the same punishment ( Num. 35:9-29 ). Both sins make men guilty before our Creator and bring eternal death if there is no repentance ( Rom. 3:23 ). Nevertheless, God punishes sinners in hell in proportion to the gravity of their sin and what has been revealed to them ( Matt. 11:20-24 ). Furthermore, Christ 's teaching on anger also shows us that we must not only refrain from forbidden acts, we must do all we can to encourage their opposite. It is not enough to keep from being angry unjustly with a Christian brother or sister; we must do all w