In his classic, The Odyssey, Homer's hero, Odysseus, must make his journey home past the isle of the Sirens. Hypnotizing sailors with their irresistible melodies, the Sirens drew the unsuspecting into destruction. Those sailors who thought they were up to the challenge soon discovered that they did not possess the powers of resistance required. Knowing […]
The second petition of our Lord's Prayer is a simple and yet dramatic one: "Thy Kingdom come." Our Lord tells us that we are to pray that God's kingdom (literally, God's rule, or reign) come in some sense in which God's kingdom is not already present. Here we catch a glimpse of one of the […]
After robbing a market, one of the arrested youths involved in the crime simply replied, “If you don’t look out for yourself, who will?” The root of theft is the failure to trust God as a provider. “But how can I trust God?” asks the homeless person who lost everything in a bad business deal, […]
"Oh, I forgive you as a Christian, of course; but there are some things one can never forget!" This line comes from C. S. Lewis's book The Great Divorce. While it is spoken in heaven, the character who speaks it is from hell. Lewis's point is that in heaven no one dares to think like […]
In order to get a proper understanding of this or any of the petitions contained in "Lord's Prayer" it is necessary to understand the context in which Jesus is offering these prayer instructions. From the very outset of his instruction Jesus uses the medium of contrast in outlining our relationships with God. Therefore, we see […]
"Prayer is not some battering ram by which we gain entrance to God's treasury," wrote H. Hobbs, in his Matthew commentary. "It is a receptacle by which we receive that which He already longs to give us." So far, our Lord, in such simple profundity, has given us a systematic theology of prayer. We have […]
Amillennialism: A belief that the Bible does not predict a period of the rule of Christ on earth before the last judgment. According to this outlook there will be a continuous development of good and evil in the world until the second coming of Christ, when the dead shall be raised and the judgment conducted. […]
Of the Lord's Prayer, Calvin wrote: For he [Christ] prescribed a form for us in which he set forth as in a table all that he allows us to seek of him, all that is of benefit to us, all that we need ask. From this kindness of his we receive great fruit of consolation. […]
There ought to be little wonder why God's name is not hallowed in our society, for much of popular preaching and evangelism is conforming to the mentality of the bumper sticker that sports, "God is my co-pilot." God's name is simply not hallowed in our churches. Our prophets and priests have falsely handled the Word, […]
MR: Dr. Packer, you've done a great deal of writing and speaking on the subject of the need for a new reformation, a new awareness of the sovereignty and grace of God in our day. How do you assess the condition of the state of evangelicalism as it presently exists, and what do you think […]
