Welcome good news to be encouraged, and also be a sharer of good news to be an encourager. And when Sunday comes, don’t stay away from God’s people. Go to church on the Lord’s Day. Our hearts need joy and our bones need refreshed. There’s no greater good news than gospel news.

As Dane Ortlund once put it, people are not going around overencouraged. There are plenty of discouraging things happening in the world, and our hearts are affected by tragedy. Everyone we meet is carrying burdens, struggling with sins, dealing with disappointments.
From Solomon’s wise words we read, “The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones” (Prov. 15:30).
This proverb is about the effect of good news. The “light of the eyes” probably refers to the demeanor of the speaker who is coming to tell someone something, and the effect on the listener is a joyous heart (“rejoices the heart”). Parallel to this is the second line: someone comes with good news, and the effect on the listener is refreshed bones.
Solomon mentions the “heart” and “bones” in order—with these parts—to represent the person. We know the toll that life in a fallen world can take. Our inner life needs strength, rejuvenation. And in the providence and kindness of God, the arrival of fresh strength and joy can come through news.
Imagine you’re sitting by yourself and feeling low when, suddenly, you get a call from a friend who wants to share news that they know you will want to hear.
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Written by M. R. Conrad |
Thursday, March 14, 2024
The exclusivity of the gospel is not a new doctrine created by a modern fanatical sect. From the beginning of the church age, Jesus proclaimed that He is the only way to God (John 14:6), and He gave the authority and the command to share this exclusive gospel with every creature of every nation (Mark 16:15).

Have you been there? You’re just trying to obey God and be a good witness for Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8). But suddenly, your pleasant conversation turns combative. This was not your intention, but there you are. The friend you care about is upset, and you feel like it is your fault. All you did was share truth from the Bible, but now you are the bad guy. How did this happen?
Now, the tension could be your fault. Your approach could be abrasive, condescending, or even rude. But, then again, the trip line could have been the message itself. Those set on going their own way stumble on the exclusivity of the gospel.
Jesus stated in no uncertain terms that there is only one way to God: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Why does the exclusivity of the gospel often provoke such a vehement response?
Exclusivity Eliminates Your Own Way
If there is only one way to God, then one’s own way is futile. Trusting one’s own good works instead of trusting in Jesus Christ alone is going one’s own way. A life of good deeds done for God and others goes to waste when considered to be merit that earns favor with God. All the credit one labored for a lifetime to accrue ends up like Monopoly money—the amount is high, but the eternal value is nil.
In the minds of those attached to their own way, a loving friend’s words pointing out such truths becomes a personal attack. What is meant in love sounds like judgment. Instead of hearing a plea to come to safety, those set on their own way hear only condemnation that they feel they could not possibly deserve.
Yet, God clearly warns those who cling to their own way: “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12). That death—eternal death—is not inevitable. The prophet Isaiah explains, “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him [Jesus] the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Going one’s own way is sin, but Jesus Christ paid for that sin by dying on the cross. To benefit from His sacrifice, those going their own way must submit to the only way to God by putting their faith in Christ alone (Acts 4:12).
Exclusivity Demands Humility
Few who cling to their record of personal morality view this as insisting on their own way.
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Written by John E. Taylor |
Saturday, July 20, 2024
I tremble for Christians who can read the prophets without fearing for our country. God called it “great wickedness” to look to a human deliverer years ago. What will He say to us if we do the same and expect Him to bless our plans?

Our country is in crisis. As election day approaches, I am reminded of a crisis in Israel’s history from the prophet Samuel’s day. Israel sinned greatly by seeking a human deliverer instead of God. Are American Christians in danger of doing the same?
Trust God, not man!
Samuel served as Israel’s last pre-monarchic judge and then anointed her first king. This made Samuel a major transitional figure in Israel’s history. When he was old, the Ammonites on her southeastern border seriously menaced Jabesh Gilead, the first major city within Israel. Her elders demanded that Samuel give them a king, a government military champion (1 Samuel 8:4-5, 12:12).
Samuel was displeased, but God told Samuel to obey their voice. He also told Samuel to relay to them His accusation that they’d sought other gods ever since He delivered them from Egypt. Note also that Samuel, with opportunity to observe royal abuses all his public life, needed no divine revelation to warn the people they’d be unhappy, but they refused to listen (1 Samuel 8:7-19).
After heeding their wishes, Samuel summarized the familiar pattern that we can follow in the Book of Judges: Whenever Israel sinned and God gave her over to an enemy, she cried out and God raised up a deliverer, a judge (1 Samuel 12:6-12).
Sometimes Israel didn’t repent when crying for deliverance. The book of Judges mentions only one such instance (Judges 10:10). Samuel was more generous. He cited three (1 Samuel 12:9-11), the last one under his leadership, within many of his hearers’ living memory (7:5-6).
This time, however, Israel’s elders worsened their rebellion against God. They replaced that ca. 400-year tried-and-true formula, from the wilderness wanderings to their own lifetime, with a monarchy. Never mind that this form of government, Samuel warned, had failed the nations they wanted to emulate.
Samuel was blunt. He told them, in their new king Saul’s presence (!), “Your wickedness is great”. He then immediately called on God to witness His anger with an out-of-season thunder and rainstorm (1 Samuel 12:17-18).
Saul, with the help of God’s Spirit, decisively solved the problem for which the elders had demanded a king (1 Samuel 11). Nevertheless, he soon proved unworthy, and God replaced His Spirit upon Saul with an evil one (1 Samuel 16:14).
Who wants a president or governor harassed by a demon?
Then Saul murdered all the priests (except one who escaped) and wiped out their entire city, including babies and animals, over an irrational treason charge (1 Samuel 22:11-19). This left no official priest to intercede for king or country, or to offer the sacrifices that prefigured Christ.
Finally, Saul’s insane rift between him and his best general David proved disastrous – his Philistine archenemies overwhelmed him in battle at Mount Gilboa. They not only killed the very king Israel had wickedly sought, but also occupied significant territory captured in the battle.
Did Israel learn?
Did subsequent Israelite generations learn the lesson? No! David, the man after God’s own heart, succeeded Saul but sinned greatly by ordering a census. He wanted to know how large an army he (not God) could count on to deliver Israel (2 Samuel 24, especially v. 9-10). God drastically reduced that force with a plague (v. 15).
Judah’s King Ahaz was a far worse king. He sought the superpower Assyrian king’s deliverance from Judah’s small neighbors, Syria and Israel (2 Kings 16:5-9). Assyria solved Ahaz’ immediate problem but at the price of invading her with a massive occupation army (Isaiah 7:17-20).
Ahaz’ son Hezekiah was a far better king, but his foreign policy was no better. He allied with Egypt to free the country from that mess his father had left him, but Egypt failed to prevent Assyria from a massive invasion. It was God, not Egypt, who destroyed 185,000 of that army (Isaiah 37:36).
Isaiah severely chastised Hezekiah indirectly by chastising his envoys:
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses,Who trust in chariots because they are many,And in horsemen because they are very strong,But who do not look to the Holy One of Israel,Nor seek the Lord! (Isaiah 31:1; see also 30:1-3)
Our Upcoming Elections
How can we think biblically as we prepare to vote in November? Yes, the Old Testament theocracy is finished, but the New Testament informs us that the Old was written for our admonition (1 Corinthians 10:6, 11). How can that not include Israel’s “great wickedness” in demanding a king?
Politicians routinely promise that we will be better off if they win. That reminds me of a lady who told her granddaughter, “Not all fairy tales begin with ‘once upon a time.’ Most of them begin with ‘if elected, I promise’.”
How can we believe any such promises when we consider our nation’s immoralities, violent crime, divorce rate, and widespread addiction to sports, materialism, drugs, and alcohol? Not to mention homosexuality, 70 million abortions, transgender folly? How can any presidential candidate realistically fulfill such a promise in light of the prophets?
To cite just one example: “Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: ‘There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed upon bloodshed’” (Hosea 4:1-2).
I tremble for Christians who can read the prophets without fearing for our country. God called it “great wickedness” to look to a human deliverer years ago. What will He say to us if we do the same and expect Him to bless our plans?
God redeemed Israel’s mess
But God be praised. He took Israel’s wickedness and raised up King David. He penned those wonderful Messianic Psalms and sired King Jesus.
God can redeem the American church despite our folly; but how much more effectively can we pray “Thy kingdom come” if we don’t repeat the wickedness of our Israelite fathers?
“Do not put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help…Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God” (Psalm 146:3, 5).
John E. Taylor is a lifelong Presbyterian, first by birth (to missionary parents in Japan), then by conviction. He currently is a member of Coddle Creek Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Mooresville, NC. He blogs at blog.thetaylorhome.org.
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