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On December 8, 2019 By In Counseling/Piety, Theology, Worship

Glorifying God

At the top of the Mt of Transfiguration, Jesus is glorified. The Father and the Spirit transfigure him, altering his face and making his clothes brilliantly white. This glorification is a gift from the Father through the Spirit to the Son. This gift is a responsibility, a mission, that will entail Jesus taking up his cross and be raised so as to redeem the created order. Jesus will take this gift, make it more than it is in the present—glorify it—and then return it to the Father. This sequence is basically what Paul outlines in 1Corinthians 15.20-28.

What is happening between the members of the Trinity on the Mt of Transfiguration is a glimpse into the eternal life and family culture of the Trinity. This mutual glorification, this giving-glorifying-and-returning sequence, is not unusual or something specific only to the incarnational ministry of Jesus. What we see is the revelation of the character of the Trinity. In his words and works, God reveals his eternal, immutable character.

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On December 2, 2019 By In Culture, Theology, Worship

Why the Church Year?

There was a time when time was not. God began to speak. The heavens and earth came into existence. The rhythms of life within the eternal Trinity began being imaged in the rhythms of the creation. Day one. Day two. Day three. Day four. Day five. Day six. Day seven. A steady, twenty-four-hour rhythm turns into the rhythm of the week. The rhythm of weeks turns into the rhythm of months. The rhythm of months turns into the rhythm of seasons. The rhythm of seasons turns into the rhythm of years. What started as a slow steady beat has turned into a symphony of layered rhythms; some consistent, some syncopated, but all moving the creation relentlessly forward.

In order to conduct this symphony, God put the sun, moon, and stars in the firmament-heaven. They separated the day from the night and were for signs and festival times. The heavenly lights were God’s authoritative clock to tell the world the time (Gen 1.14-19).

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On October 27, 2019 By In Theology, Worship

You Are The Christ?

The Twelve have been walking with Jesus for a while now. They have heard him proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. They have seen him heal diseases, cast out demons, and feed multitudes with five loaves and two fish. Jesus has even granted them authority over diseases and demons. But do the Twelve know who Jesus is? Do they understand his true identity and, consequently, his vocation?

In Luke 9, on the heels of the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus inquires. First, he asks the disciples who the crowds say that he is. They had been mingling through the crowds (9.11) passing out and collecting food. People were talking. What were they saying about Jesus? The disciples tell him that they believe that Jesus is one of the prophets risen from the dead. But then Jesus turns to the disciples and asks, “And you, who do you say that I am?” Peter answers, “You are the Christ of God.” (9.20)

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On October 11, 2019 By In Books, Politics, Theology, Worship

Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism: Calvinism and Religion

This is the second part of a six part article series on Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism. He gave these lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary over a series of days in October 1898. Happy International Abraham Kuyper Month!

Religion is For God

In this second lecture, Kuyper argues that Calvinism has a religious energy that other theological camps do not. This energy is found in how Calvinism places God and God’s glory at the center of all religious life. This energy restores the true nature of religion and this restoration in turn sets out the full task of man before God.

What is this religious energy in Calvinism? It is that all of the Christian religion must be for God. Kuyper says, “The starting point of every motive in religion is God and not Man” (p 46). God should be our primary and ultimate goal. We must love and worship God for His own sake, not because we are trying to get a reward out of Him. Kuyper says this is our goal: “…to covet no other existence than for the sake of God, to long for nothing but the will of God, and to be wholly absorbed in the glory of the name of the Lord, such is the pith and kernel of all true religion” (p 46). The true demand of the Christian life is that we must spend all our energy following God’s will. 

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On September 19, 2019 By In Worship

A Brief Letter to Union Theological Seminary

Dear Union Theological Seminary,

I am a gigantic supporter of seminary education. I think our expectations of ministers who handle God’s Word should at the very least include formal training. Seminaries continue to be the place where a combination of scholarship and dialogue with world-class scholars in their field all come together. My training was fantastic! I thank God daily for it! I would walk into John Frame’s office to talk about Kuyper and then run into Simon Kistemaker and talk about Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, then pray with Mark Futato. Thank you, Reformed Theological Seminary!

You see, there is one thing that holds a good Christian institution together, and that is loyalty to their mission. If an institution is to remain faithful, she must submit to the God of all knowledge. God guides the mission of theological and biblical training. If you are to train future ministers and theologians, they must uphold the traditional and classic virtues of Christendom. However, if you choose the changing theological winds of the day, your legacy will perish.

In the early 1930s, Dietrich Bonhoeffer graced your facility. But even back then, almost 90 years ago, he was not impressed. He wrote concerning your institution:

“A seminary in which numerous students openly laugh during a public lecture because they find it amusing when a passage on sin and forgiveness from Luther’s de servo arbitrio is cited has obviously, despite its many advantages, forgotten what Christian theology in its very essence stands for.”

Congratulations! You have been a joke to many for almost a century. You have laughed at sin, and now sin openly laughs at you. It was only a few months ago that your president, Serene Jones, observed that heaven, miracles, and resurrection of Jesus as Greek mythology. Here is the truth: the idea that you still dare call your yourself a “seminary” institution is the real myth. You are no such thing. But here is where I think you are being consistent and applaud your efforts: I believe that confessing your hopes and dreams to plants is precisely what you need to do from now on. Let’s be honest: God does not hear the cries of the unrepentant wicked, so confessing anything to plants is your only refuge and strength. Once the Creator God is forsaken, the only thing for you to identify with is the created thing. May the plants guide your future!

Yours truly,
Rev. Uriesou Brito

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On August 13, 2019 By In Worship

Indwelt Reading: A Proposed Model for Reading the Bible

The great Michael Scott once said: “I am optimistic, but every day I get a little more desperate.” I don’t wish to play into the apocalyptic cheerleaders’ game, but I do want to say there is a crisis of biblical literacy in our culture. It’s not for lack of Bibles. “Almost nine out of 10 households (87 percent) own a Bible, according to the American Bible Society, and the average household has three.”a We have come a long way from Gutenberg. We have so many Bible translations that I am afraid to update my Bible Software for fear they will give me six more translations I won’t read. With the progress of linguistic studies, we are living in an age where a tribe without any written language can actually have a language developed and written for them by gifted missionaries. It’s the modern-day gift of tongues.

Yet, I get a little more desperate, especially when I consider the methodologies for Bible reading. As LifeWay Research concludes:

Americans also differ in how they approach reading the Bible. Twenty-two percent read a little bit each day, in a systematic approach. A third (35 percent) never pick it up at all, while 30 percent look up things in the Bible when they need to. Nineteen percent re-read their favorite parts, while 17 percent flip open the Bible and read a passage at random. A quarter (27 percent) read sections suggested by others, while 16 percent say they look things up to help others.


It’s not for lack of trying. Every major Bible site has some kind of Bible reading plan. Pastors encourage their people to read the Bible in one year and for the weak, there is even a three-year plan. There are Bibles designed so you can read through it at a certain length of time. I applaud such efforts and I know many who have conquered the limits and distractions of every day. But in my eleventh year of pastoral ministry, what I have found are frustrated Bible readers, defeated Christians who have tried so much and failed to achieve the prize of finally reading Revelation 22:21.b

A Proposed Model

I want to propose a Bible reading plan for you. It’s likely not new.c I am not going to ask you to read through the whole Bible in 30 or 365 days. If you wish to go that route, I encourage you. But for those who have tried and returned empty, I am not going to bind you to any sort of commitment that will likely leave you feeling guilty when you do not achieve the desired goal or find yourself 18 chapters behind the schedule. I have seen this too often.

I propose something I call “Indwelt Reading.”d Here’s the way it goes. Instead of seeking to read the Bible chronologically, you dwell in a particular book or section of the Bible for long periods of time. As a family, you may wish to read through James in a month. It’s highly practical and short. Another example is Ruth with 85 verses. You can read this book in 7-8 minutes. If you decide to dwell in Ruth for a whole month and succeed at reading through it 20-30 times, you will have a remarkable knowledge of its details and themes.

If every book of the Bible is truly a miniature Gospel, then you can sit and ponder anew passages that you often overlooked. Instead of viewing Bible reading as a 5K run, you should view it as a long marathon where you stop every few minutes to enjoy for a considerable time the lovely vistas of nature around you. The Bible is not a competition, it’s an experience of learning and growing in the very words of our Lord; it’s the composition of heaven’s music given to men.

What about longer books? I have taken the task of reading through Genesis in 2019. My goal is to read it at least four times. It’s doable and provides an incredible framework for studying any future book since the basis of everything else in the Bible is formed in that first book. With the Psalms, one can take the Psalms of Lament for a whole month or something similar.

Further, this model will help you to see words and ideas you never stopped to ponder in your hurry to finish the 5K in the past. You allow the Word of God to dwell in you richly instead of dwelling in it for a quick hotel stop or water break at a run. One of the benefits of this is that you will become highly comfortable with the furniture and layout of a particular book. In this process, I would urge you to read from one Bible. I like the idea of knowing where verses and ideas are found on a particular page.

Let me know your thoughts after you try it for a few weeks and please let me know what book or section you chose. I hope it’s as beneficial to you as it has been to me.

  1. https://lifewayresearch.com/2017/04/25/lifeway-research-americans-are-fond-of-the-bible-dont-actually-read-it/   (back)
  2. In a liturgical congregation one will have the opportunity to hear three lessons; a vastly more sober model than most evangelical churches that barely read any Bible except the sermon text.  (back)
  3. One reader said that John MacArthur proposed something like this  (back)
  4. The idea simply stems from Colossians 3:16 where Paul says that the word of God should dwell in you richly  (back)

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On July 21, 2019 By In Family and Children, Theology, Worship

A Baptism Exhortation

But why do you call Me `Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say? “Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: “He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. “But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great. (Luke 6.43-49)

Prayer: Almighty God, who formed the earth out of water and through water by your word, who saved Noah and his family through water while destroying the wicked, who delivered your people Israel through the Sea while defeating Pharaoh and his armies, all of which are types of baptism into Christ Jesus, we pray that you will look mercifully upon Diana, saving her with your people while destroying sin and death. May she, throughout her life, relying upon the grace you give to her this day, continue to mortify sin so that at the last day she may participate in the resurrection of the just and reign with Christ Jesus eternally. Amen

At the end of what is commonly called “the Sermon on the Plain,” Jesus speaks a parable to the great crowd of disciples. This parable is a contrast between two different people. These people aren’t different in what they hear or in the fact that they will face floods in their lives. Both hear, and both will be assaulted by floods. The only difference between these two people is what they do with the words of Jesus. One person lives according to Jesus’ words, and the other one doesn’t.

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On June 23, 2019 By In Worship

Re-Creative Praying

The night before Jesus chooses twelve men from his disciples to be apostles, he ascends a mountain and spends all night in prayer (Luke 6.12). The scene has echoes of the story of Jacob and his all-night wrestling match with the angel of Yahweh at the ford of the brook Jabbok (Gen 32.22-32). When the day dawns upon Jacob, he is a new man: Israel, the one who wrestles with God and prevails. When Jesus emerges from this night of prayer, a new Israel will be formed around him.

When Jacob wrestled with God that night, it was the culmination of all of his wrestling from the time he was in the womb. He wrestled with Esau in the womb and through their lives. He wrestled with Isaac. He wrestled with Laban for twenty years. What he discovered at the Jabbok that night was that God was the one with whom he had been wrestling the entire time.

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On June 17, 2019 By In Family and Children, Worship

Summer Vacation and the Necessity of Worship

As summer heats upon us, many of us will be vacationing all over the country. As a pastor, I have noticed that church members generally don’t think much about the role the summer season has on us as Christians. I am particularly troubled by Christians who treat vacation as not only a break from work but also a break from Church. To some, if vacation happens to involve a Sunday then so be it. It becomes the ideal day to travel to your favorite summer destination. After all, you are not missing work; you are only missing Church.

Hebrews does not treat this subject lightly. a  The author forbids the non-assembling of ourselves. He treats it as a kind of schism; division. Hebrews calls us not to forsake the gathering. The angels and archangels engage in heavenly worship day and night, and we are invited to join in this duty of worship each time we are gathered together on the Lord’s Day. After all, God has made us one.

Vacation is no substitute for worship. Missing the Lord’s Day gathering on vacation for any trivial reason is to mock the tearing of the veil, which gave us access to the heavenly throne of grace. It belittles the work of Christ who conquered our divisions and united us to Himself.

With that in view, here are a few things I recommend for those going on vacation this summer:

First, avoid falling into the trap that a few good Christians gathered at a camp or a resort constitute the Church on Sunday. You may enjoy Christian fellowship, be challenged by an exhortation, but this does not constitute heavenly worship. It may be simply a Bible study, but worship is not a Bible study; it is the very entrance of God’s people into the heavenly places through the work of the Spirit.

Second, before going on vacation google churches near the area. If you are not able to find a church that resembles yours, look to explore a bit outside your tradition. Learn to love the universal church. Find an evangelical congregation that loves the Bible.

Third, avoid making Sunday morning plans. Let your family–especially those who are not Christians traveling with you–know that Sunday worship is non-negotiable. If they are nominal Christians or unbelievers, let them know beforehand that their Sunday morning plans will not include your family. b There is no need to theologize about these issues with other family members or feel you have to offer a treatise on the matter (since it may lead to unnecessary arguing). Let them know if they insist, that this is a commitment you made as a family long ago.

Finally, when visiting other churches, teach your children (and yourself) to avoid criticizing the Church’s practices that differ from your own. Use this time to explain to the little ones about the beauty of the universal church.

The Lord’s Day is a day of rest. It is the feast God has prepared for you. Under normal circumstances,c there is no other place for you to be.

  1. Calvin reviews the nature of coming together that naturally ensued when the walls of partition were broken down: “It is an evil which prevails everywhere among mankind, that every one sets himself above others, and especially that those who seem in anything to excel cannot well endure their inferiors to be on an equality with themselves. And then there is so much morosity almost in all, that individuals would gladly make churches for themselves if they could; for they find it so difficult to accommodate themselves to the ways and habits of others.  (back)
  2. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord  (back)
  3. Of course, there are too many obvious reasons to not be in church like sickness, childbirth, and emergencies of every kind, though I argue that these are rarely the reason people do not come to church during vacation  (back)

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On June 5, 2019 By In Worship

What is Pentecost?

Many Christians know little about the Church Calendar, which means that many evangelicals will treat this Sunday like any other day. This Sunday marks the beginning of the Ordinary Season (not in the mundane or common sense, but the term comes from the word “ordinal,” which probably means “counted time”). This season is composed of 23-28 Sundays, and it fleshes out the mission of the Church. To put it simply, Pentecost is the out-working of the mission of Jesus through his people.

Some pastors–myself included–usually take these few months to focus on passages and topics pertaining to the specific life of the Church, and how the Church can be more faithful and active in the affairs of the world. The Pentecost Season emphasizes the unleashing of the Spirit’s work and power through the Bride of Jesus Christ, the Church.

Liturgically, many congregations wear red as a symbol of the fiery-Spirit that befell the Church. The Season brings with it a renewed emphasis on the Church as the central institution to the fulfillment of God’s plans in history. As such, it brings out the practical nature of Christian theology. Joan Chittister defines Pentecost as “the period of unmitigated joy, of total immersion in the implications of what it means to be a Christian, to live a Christian life” (The Liturgical Year, 171).

Pentecost as Spirit-Work

There is a Spiritlessness in Reformed teaching and worship today. Pentecost exhorts us to be spiritual (Spirit-led) while emphasizing the titanic role of the Third Person of the Trinity in beautifying the world to reflect the glory of the Father and the Son.

Calvin was known as the “Theologian of the Spirit.” This is hardly manifested in many of his followers who tend to flee from the implications of  Spirit-led applications, choosing a mental overdose of theological categories. However, the Spirit is crucial to the forming and re-forming of any environment. It communicates our thoughts, emotions, and prayers to our Meditator. The Third Person of the Trinity intercedes on our behalf in the midst of our ignorance (Rom. 8:26-30).

Further, the Spirit draws individuals (John 6:44) to enter into one baptized community of faith. The Spirit, in the words of James Jordan, is the “divine match-maker.” He brings isolated individuals into a Pentecostalized body, a body that has many parts, but one Head.

So, let us embrace this Season! Let us join this cosmic Pentecostal movement and embrace the mission of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

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