But the trouble is, if we put all our hope and faith in these things, instead of God himself, then we will get our spiritual priorities all wrong, and we will end up looking to men and not God to be our deliverer. As I say, fighting in the culture wars and the like is vital, but at the end of the day we must put our full trust in and dependency on the only one who is worth leaning on: God himself.

We live in exceedingly dark times. It seems wherever you look, wickedness and evil are in the ascendency, and it seems that this darkness is covering the whole earth. It can be overwhelming at times. One wonders if there is any way out of all this. One seeks for respite and a reprieve, but that seems to elude us.
The Christian is realistic. We know that sin abounds in this fallen world. Evil will always be with us. But we also know that there is hope, because God is not finished with us yet. God is working out his purposes, and one day all evil will end, and all darkness will disappear.
But right now we live in between the first and second coming of Christ. What Christ initiated 2000 years ago is now being partially realised, but will not be fully realised until he comes again. So we will see some victories, some breakthroughs, some real encouragement now, but we will also experience some losses, some setbacks, and some disappointments.
And as things get darker, it is so easy to concentrate on that darkness, and get our eyes off God. I know this is true for me. One of my main prayers of late has been to actually repent of my lack of faith, my lack of trust. I feel so overwhelmed at times, and the encroaching evil seems so palpable. I can focus too much on what is happening around me, and not on the one true God.
So I am asking God to help me increase my trust and my faith. I am praying the prayer of the father of the child healed by Jesus who said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). It is so easy to get discouraged and to lose all hope. And at times like that, when we take our eyes off the Lord, we can too readily look to other sources of hope.
We can look to the next election, or another politician, or a different set of laws, or a reformed education system, or a cleaned-up media, or a better country, or a more godly culture, and so on. Now do not get me wrong: all these things are important indeed. I have been working in all these areas, and we need to be engaged in this way.
But the trouble is, if we put all our hope and faith in these things, instead of God himself, then we will get our spiritual priorities all wrong, and we will end up looking to men and not God to be our deliverer. As I say, fighting in the culture wars and the like is vital, but at the end of the day we must put our full trust in and dependency on the only one who is worth leaning on: God himself.
This was a lesson ancient Israel kept needing to learn afresh. They so often found themselves in a real bad way, but instead of turning fully to Yahweh for help, they looked to others for their deliverance. That is why we have so many passages such as the following:
Psalm 20:7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
Psalm 33:16-17 No king is saved by the size of his army;no warrior escapes by his great strength.A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;despite all its great strength it cannot save.
Psalm 118:8-9 It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.
Psalm 146:3 Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.
Yet Israel so often did just this: they looked to other nations to help them out. They tried to make foreign alliances to keep them safe. In Isaiah 31:1-3 we read about this very thing:
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,who rely on horses,who trust in the multitude of their chariotsand in the great strength of their horsemen,but do not look to the Holy One of Israel,or seek help from the Lord.Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster;he does not take back his words.Read More

It’s hard to listen, and even counselors struggle with it at times, but listening pays great dividends in our relationships. Take the time to examine how well you listen, and refocus your efforts on listening more and talking less. You may be amazed that your frustration level will diminish, and your fondness will grow.

At one time or another, you’ve probably heard someone say in a dismissive tone, “I’m just not a good listener!”
Whether we get distracted by what we plan to say next, are easily offended by unfair criticism, or feel overwhelmed by needing to find the right words to reply, quality listening is complicated.
Add to that the fact that we tend to view ourselves better than we are, and we tend to view others as worse than they are, and quality listening becomes a complicated dynamic that many fail to adequately understand.
However, if we are going to pursue a habit of loving listening in our relationships, we must heed the many warnings about lousy listening from Proverbs. Failing to listen is not a laughing matter.
The previous post described four benefits of loving listening. However, Proverbs also gives us four warnings or results if we fail to listen. We undermine our effectiveness and damage our relationships when we don’t listen well. Lousy listening dishonors God and those around us.
1. Lousy Listeners are Prideful (Prov. 18:2)
Proud people don’t need the details; they already know the answer. In your conversations, how certain are you that you are right?
Some people go through life constantly correcting others, presuming to be an expert on almost everything, yet failing to realize they are more like the people they critique than they are different. Those around them feel unwanted and unneeded because their opinion is never heard; the proud person simply tells them what they should do.
Proverbs 18:2 says we imitate the fool if we don’t choose loving listening, and we allow our pride to disregard others around us. Pride becomes destructive in relationships, and most of the time, the proud person has no idea that the “proud” shoe fits them nicely.
If you are spending far more time talking than listening, pride is often at the root, and this warning may be one that you need to take seriously.
2. Lousy Listeners Look Foolish (Prov. 18:13)
In high school, I worked at one of the top restaurants in the country. They took great pride in their service, and their food was consistently excellent. It always amazed me how many of their top servers could go to a table, take 4-6 dinner orders with no pen or paper, and enter the order correctly, all from memory. It took extraordinary listening and memory in a noisy dining room of 400 guests. However, some servers took notes and wrote it all down. The owner didn’t care; he just wanted to ensure that the details were heard correctly and that the food reflected the customer’s wishes. Bringing out the wrong order or getting the details wrong made us all look foolish and was not tolerated.
When we are lousy listeners, we will often get the details wrong, and we, too, can look foolish. Proverbs 18:13 reminds us that a wise man will listen first and speak after.
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Thank the God of truth for each and every stirring sermon, instructive doctrine, family devotion and private reading – these are Gospel means by which the Holy Spirit brings us to our knees, draws forth earnest prayers, floods our souls with light, so we might be stirred to grow in grace in the knowledge and power of Christ.

If you could get rid of all the traditions and build a church from scratch what would it be like? Do you have one particular blueprint, template or model in mind? Would the principle focus be the pulpit, pew or program? I suspect there are as many different shades of opinion on that question as there are Gentle Reformation readers.
If the most biblically-minded, in seeking answers, tend to gravitate towards Acts, the resounding example Paul gives is that of the Thessalonian Church. He begins his letter with thanks for self-evident, genuine faith: he then continues a confident boast, in the election of these saints, with some marks of God’s “Model Church”. Let me just mention THREE:
Firstly, the Power of the Truth
If, by contemporary standards, Paul’s earthy expressions lacked rhetorical polish, this preacher packed a punch – his message, as 1:5 indicates, was Spirit-empowered, Scripture-unfolding, Christ-portraying, mind-enlightening, conscience-penetrating, guilt-inducing, soul-awakening and salvation-bringing.
Our Gospel came to you not only in word but also  in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.
Thank the God of truth for each and every stirring sermon, instructive doctrine, family devotion and private reading – these are Gospel means by which the Holy Spirit brings us to our knees, draws forth earnest prayers, floods our souls with light, so we might be stirred to grow in grace in the knowledge and power of Christ.
Secondly, the Pattern of the Cross
If Silas and Timothy remained for follow-up discipleship, sound foundations were laid in Paul’s initial, intensive, three-week, mission event.
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Psalm 128:2 mentions one of the many blessings of those who fear the Lord and who walk in His ways. The writer states, “You will eat the fruit of your labor.” This was written after or during a time of exile, when pagan nations swooped in and literally ate the produce that Israel had worked for. Once Israel returned to the land, they could enjoy the crops they raised. In general, what I see here is that job satisfaction seems to be a divine by-product of long, dedicated efforts.

Previously, I shared some observations about work from several of the minor prophets. Today, I thought it might be helpful to provide a brief summary of some of the observations about work from the Psalms that I have compiled in my book, Immanuel Labor – God’s Presence in our Profession.
The Psalms Show Us God as a Worker
We know that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and then rested from His work (Gen. 2:2-3). David declares that God’s work is reflected in His creation (Ps. 19:1.) (See also Ps. 102:25)
Moreover, God continuously works now to sustain His creation. Psalms 65:9–13 describes how God provides water, vegetation, and animals for His people through His care over the land He gave them.
Psalm 104:10-31 highlights in much greater detail all of the things that God provides for His people. In addition to what was mentioned above, he adds wine and oil, trees to build homes, temples, and other buildings, the moon and sun to mark off the seasons, and the sea which contains much food.
Additionally, in Psalm 111:2-7, we observe that God works to show His grace, mercy, providence, power, and faithfulness. In Psalm 143:5, David ponders all of the work that God has done throughout His own life. His deep understanding and experiences give him hope, causing him to continue to trust in Him.
The Psalms Take Us into the Work Environment
Throughout Psalm 107, we see God’s people stressed out by changes to the work environment. Some were looking for work. They wandered in the desert (vv. 4-5). God delivered them by providing for their needs in His unfailing love (vv. 6-9). Others made their living on the water. Storms at sea brought fears of losing personnel, boats, and goods (vv. 23-27). God delivered them by stilling the storm and bringing them to shore (vv. 28-32). In spite of these difficult situations that were beyond their control, God’s never-changing covenant love, faithfulness, and protection got them through.
Psalm 128:2 mentions one of the many blessings of those who fear the Lord and who walk in His ways. The writer states, “You will eat the fruit of your labor.” This was written after or during a time of exile, when pagan nations swooped in and literally ate the produce that Israel had worked for. Once Israel returned to the land, they could enjoy the crops they raised. In general, what I see here is that job satisfaction seems to be a divine by-product of long, dedicated efforts. I know that it is for me.
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If we focus all our attention on people and who they are and what they do or don’t deserve, we’ll never love our neighbour.  True Christian love is only possible as we think about our existence before the face of God and the grace we have received from him through Christ.

It isn’t easy to love a jerk.  Someone who’s quiet, meek, and kind – no problem.  But the person who annoys us, whether through habit or personality?  The person who pushes all our buttons, perhaps even intentionally?   The selfish and insensitive clod?
Yet the Lord commands us to love our neighbour as we do ourselves (Mt.22:39).  That Christian love is “not irritable or resentful.”  Instead, it “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:5-7).  This is the love that leads us to “do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal. 6:10).
But how do we do that with someone we might think to be unworthy of our love and good deeds?  How do you love a jerk?  You might say take a look in the mirror.  Humbly realizing that we’re all unworthy jerks could indeed be a good place to start.  However, in his epic Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin explored this practical issue in the Christian life from a different angle.  His advice, drawn on sound biblical teaching, is worth a listen.  If you want to look it up and read the whole section for yourself, it’s in Institutes 3.7.6.  I’ll be quoting from the Lewis-Battles edition.
Calvin begins by acknowledging that most people would be unworthy of our love if they were judged according to merit.  But that isn’t how Christians are to think.  Says Calvin, “But here Scripture helps in the best way when it teaches that we are not to consider that men merit of themselves but to look upon the image of God in all men, to which we owe all honor and love.”  He goes on to affirm that with members of the household of faith this obligation is intensified by virtue of the fact that God’s image has been renewed and restored in them by the Holy Spirit.  Nevertheless, what remains of the image of God after the fall into sin and before regeneration is itself reason enough to show love to all by doing good.  Calvin concludes, “Therefore, whatever man you meet who needs your aid, you have no reason to refuse to help him.”
Calvin then anticipates a series of objections.  Someone might say, “But he’s a stranger!”  To which Calvin would reply that this is irrelevant.
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Biblically and historically, a worship service is where God’s people respond corporately to what God has revealed about Himself. Yes, this response ought to be heartfelt, sincere, meaningful and unfeigned. In charismatic worship theology, one is not so much in pursuit of a response, as one is in pursuit of an experience: an experience of the presence of God that is intense, sensorily tangible, and emotionally or physically ecstatic. 

Christian worship has often had a remarkably similar shape across traditions. Bryan Chapell showed in his work Christ-Centered Worship that corporate worship (sans communion) in Roman, Lutheran, Reformed and Evangelical traditions had a very similar form: a Call to worship, a Kyrie or Confession, followed by Thanksgiving, an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading, a prayer for Illumination, a Sermon, followed by a Benediction or dismissal, with hymns or psalms interspersed. Communion services also followed a similar pattern: An Invitation, Preparatory hymn, a Consecration of elements, an Exhortation of preparation, the Words of Institution, Breaking of bread, Communion, a psalm or hymn, thanksgiving prayer and Benediction.
Friends and proponents of Pentecostal worship often do not realise how radically different charismatic worship is from this historic pattern. Pentecostal authors have written that praise is a kind of ‘path’ into the presence of God. That is, worship is not a series of gracious revelations from God’s Word with faith-responses from His people. Worship becomes a series of steps or stages, growing in intimacy and intensity. Charismatic worship writers speak of the importance of “flow”: a technique of uninterrupted, continual music, designed to emotionally transport the worshippers into the climactic experience of “worship”, which they deem to be more intense and focused than “praise”.
Charismatic theologians do not base this on any Old or New Testament narratives of worship, such as Exodus 19-24 or Isaiah 6. Instead, an entirely new model of worship, known as the “Tabernacle Model” or “Five Phase Model” is used, using fragments of phrases from the Psalms. First, there is Invitation, “songs of personal testimony in the camp”. This is followed by Engagement, “through the gates with thanksgiving”. Third comes Exaltation, “into His courts with praise”. Fourth is Adoration, “solemn worship inside the Holy Place”. Finally, there is Intimacy, “in the Holy of Holies”. Of course, this is a technique in search of a text, not any serious attempt to mimic biblical forms. Nothing that Israel did in corporate worship even vaguely corresponds to the pursuit of a heightening climactic worship.
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The struggle for sexual purity is real yet it is not impossible to attain. God has appointed different means (such as believing in the gospel, applying the Word and having the Word applied rightly by a healthy community, and marriage) that ought to be pursued and practiced in order to be holy. Yet, we must not forget that the goal is not purity for the sake of purity. Rather, the God-established end of godliness is to become more like Christ Jesus.

In the previous article, I wrote about two of the three principles that aid young men (and women) in pursuing and practicing sexual purity: Getting the gospel right, and applying the Word to your life by yourself and by others. In this second part, we will look at the third principle.
“Be a Man!”: Marriage as a Means to Christlikeness
The final principle that I want to suggest is probably the most overlooked and under-discussed solution on purity: get married. Now, I would readily grant and defend the fact that marriage will not solve or rectify your sexual struggles or loneliness. Without resting your identity and treasuring Christ as your end-all, your heart’s craving for intimacy and companionship will not be satisfied either with sex or with marriage.1
Yet, even with such a qualification, it cannot be denied that one of the means that the Lord uses to meet our need for intimacy and companionship is marriage (cf. 1 Cor 7:9b). After all, was it not God himself who, after making and declaring all things ‘good’, says “it is not good for a man to be alone” (Gen 2:18)? However, the question remains: how does this relate to sexual purity? May I gently suggest that one of the many, but important reasons for the radical increase in sexual struggles among young men and women is their inexplicable delaying of marriage.
The glamour of the extended ‘carefree single life’ is a cover for immaturity, self-centeredness, worldly ambition, and a lack of disregard for the biblical teaching on marriage. And, therefore, when young men and women seek to extend their “carefree, single life” they are actually modelling what homosexuals have popularized. So, what happens when young men and women disregard the God-given desire and drive for intimacy and companionship in pursuit of worldly goals? The desire and drive do not go away. Rather, they would seek ungodly avenues to fulfil God-given needs.R. R. Reno makes this startling but astute observation namely that, “Homosexuals, especially gay men, are…associated with scrupulous self-care and glamorous consumption. They pioneered the now upper-middle-class norm of extended adolescence, the carefree single life that extends for decades. Gay life also realizes the dreams of many feminists—professional success and self-realization without the burdens of fertility.”2 (emphasis mine)
Young Christian men and women, unless called by the Lord to a life of singleness in serving Him, whatever else they may pursue in life, they ought to get married, raise children and be godly parents. Marriage and parenting have the potential to enable men and women to sober down and mature. How much more so when done within the context of a church community! It truly enables one to grow in godliness.
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Jesus voluntarily plummeted into the chasm we had created so that we would not need to. In bearing the wrath due our sin on the cross, He gave us access to Himself; not just for the sake of eternal life with Him, but also access to Him from the deepest of life’s pits.

It has happened to the best of us. You’re walking along, mentally distracted by the task at-hand, when your foot lands on unsteady ground. You shuffle a bit to catch your balance or even trip altogether. Most of us get a bit red in the face, subtly look around to assure ourselves that no one saw what just happened, and go on our way with a bit of a lighter step.
Life can feel the same way: going about our routine and encountering circumstances that shake us or trip us up. Then, ever so often, there are life events where describing it as a slip does not seem to do it justice. It’s more like the earth opens up and we fall headlong into a circumstantial pit, out of which there is no easy escape…
The pit is a place all-too familiar in this broken world and it goes by many names. David called it “the valley of the shadow of death,” (Psalm 23:4) Jonah called it “the deep,” (Jonah 2:3) and Peter called it “the fire” (1 Peter 1:7). The pit is a place of suffering, longing, and hurt—it is dug by the shovel of fallen creation, sin, or Satan.
Scholars are not settled on what sort of pit Heman the Ezrahite had fallen into to produce a psalm like the one we read in chapter 88. It is one of the only psalms that does not seem to have a shred of hope in all its lines. Commentator Derek Kidner opens his insight regarding Psalm 88 with, “there is no sadder prayer in the Psalter…” Yet from its raw depths, we are able to mine five nuggets of pure gold that help us understand how to respond in a pit of our own.
I. Direction
The psalm begins with the line, “Incline Your ear, O Lord, and answer me.” From the midst of the pit, Heman looks to the Lord. He realized that when someone is in a pit, help does not come from within, help does not come from around; help comes from above.
Too often, our initial reaction from the pit is to rely on our own strength to claw our way out. We may also try to look around and elicit the help of those in the pit with us. Make no mistake: God calls us to be people of action and to bear one another’s burdens. However, the direction Heman exemplifies is that we are to first look up and cry out to the One who can help.
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If, in fighting the good fight, we begin to look like the world in our use of words—if we become saltless salt and lightless light—what purpose do we have in the kingdom? We may be fighting for Christ but not have the spirit of Christ.

Words are weapons. They are either weapons used in the service of God and His kingdom—weapons that are brandished in love for God and our neighbor—or they are weapons used in the service of the kingdom of this fallen and sinful world—weapons wielded in love of self and hatred of God and neighbor. This is simply the reality of what words are. In our current context, this reality powerfully confronts us, and we struggle with how to wield our words. We live in the middle of a swirling vortex of political conflict, social unrest, clashing values systems, a culture war, and a global pandemic, and the power of words as weapons through social media has been exponentially increased. Through the means of various forms of social media, words as weapons are used to mobilize, encourage, scare, advocate, anger, inform, judge, punish, reward, lament, and rejoice, and all on a massive scale and with dizzying speed. How do we navigate through this daunting and sometimes overwhelming reality, and how do we ourselves wield a weapon like this that is powerful and so easily and readily available?

The ninth commandment (Ex. 20:16; Deut. 5:20) speaks into this reality and shows us the way forward, and it shows us the gospel for life. It says, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” This is courtroom language, where one can serve as a witness who brings testimony that is false and brings harm and even death to another person. The commandment is stated negatively (what God calls us not to do) but it can also be stated positively (what God wants us to do). Throughout Scripture, God calls us to protect, build up, restore, and heal others with our words. Read through Proverbs (especially chs.12–14) to see how words are to bring life and not death, to be used by the wise in contrast to their use by the fool. Our words are to be gracious, seasoned with salt (Col. 4:5–6); they are to be truth and they are to build up, as fits the occasion, that they may give grace to those who hear (Eph. 4:25–32).

The way we use our words reveals our hearts, it reveals the kingdom values that govern us, and it reveals the principle of life that animates us and forms and directs our hearts. A saltwater spring or a freshwater spring, a good tree or a bad tree, a heart that is earthly or fleshly—operating according to the principles and practices of fallen Adam—or a heart that is heavenly and spiritual—redeemed in Christ and renewed by the Holy Spirit and operating by the principles and practices of the new life we have in Jesus Christ.

The closest you came to referencing Scripture is that we need to love our neighbor. But condemning Christians for not loving their neighbor because they refuse a vaccine is a rather tenuous application. In Lev 13:46 the man with an infection isolates himself from the camp by going outside the camp for at least 7 days. We don’t see a command for everyone else to glove up. But we see a principle that the one who has a contagious infection needs to isolate himself from the healthy and warn those who approach (Lev 13:45).

Dear David,I recently read your article, “It’s Time to Stop Rationalizing and Enabling Evangelical Vaccine Rejection”, I am concerned with the following statement castigating fellow Christians:
“But it is increasingly clear that many of the remaining holdouts need their hearts to change before their minds will change. It’s their moral framework that’s broken, and when that framework is broken, reason and virtue have difficulty penetrating a hardened heart.”
David, our moral framework is the Word of God. I appreciated your quote from Martin Luther. But as venerable as he is, his words are not the inspired, infallible, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God. The closest you came to referencing Scripture is that we need to love our neighbor. But condemning Christians for not loving their neighbor because they refuse a vaccine is a rather tenuous application. In Lev 13:46 the man with an infection isolates himself from the camp by going outside the camp for at least 7 days. We don’t see a command for everyone else to glove up. But we see a principle that the one who has a contagious infection needs to isolate himself from the healthy and warn those who approach (Lev 13:45).
Moreover, David, we have the following commandment in our moral framework: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Ex 20:16). I think it’s time we stop assuming that men have the ability to read the hearts of millions of people we have never met. Your anecdotal evidence is simply that: a minor compilation of anecdotes. They are not evidence of millions of hard-hearted Christians living in disobedience to their calling in Christ. In Acts 1:24 we learn that only the Lord knows the hearts of men. And in Prov 21:2 we read, “Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts.”
And speaking of weighing the heart, the Westminster Confession of Faith declares that “God alone is Lord of the conscience, and has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are, in anything, contrary to His Word; or beside it, in matters of faith, or worship” (WCF 20.2). And the Westminster Divines based this statement on James 4:12 and Rom 14: 4. No person may bind another’s conscience, not even one with the best of intentions.
Many have tried to replace God’s Moral Law with a man-made morality. The Pharisees were one such group. The Monastics were another. Today we have the Red-Letter Christians and fundamentalist theologies that add and subtract from the Word of God. I would caution you against this course of action. God’s Word is perfect, restoring the soul.
Let us strive for peace and unity among the brethren, David. And let’s leave it to the Spirit of God to lead each Christian as they seek to follow their Lord faithfully.
Al Taglieri is a Ruling Elder (RE) in Providence Presbyterian Church (PCA) in York, Penn.