Reformed Christian Studies

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms: Good Morning, Two words we don’t usually associate with each other are: death and comfort. Yet, in today’s catechism lesson that is what we are going to focus on. For the passing away of believers is a blessed time of grace and love where we are able to see with unveiled faces the glory of God grounded in the promises of His Son Jesus Christ. Sometimes when ministers get talking about things like justification, adoption, sanctification, or things like perichoresis or supralapsarianism it can sound like theological navel gazing, yet there is nothing more practical than getting the gospel right. It makes all the difference to life, from the new birth to death itself. One of the more affective portions of the Bible for me personally is the story of the internment of Joseph’s bones into the land of Canaan, at Shechem in the tomb of Jacob, hundreds of years after the former’s death. (Joshua 24:32). There is such a lesson for

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms: Death and the Christian Howdy! A pressing issue which is on the heart of all men, regardless of time, place, or circumstance is death. Of the things that separate us from the animals there is nothing more central to our identity than that we are aware of death in a way cats and dogs are not. We are haunted by it. There is some irony to that fact that even in our modern technological culture where life is so antiseptic, where the difficulties previous generations faced are not immediately present the way it may have been for them, we are without doubt even more afraid of death than they were. We see it in how our media in its content and marketing is consumed with figuring out what to do about it, how to delay it, or how to prevent it altogether. However, the truth of the matter is barring the imminent return of Christ (Matt. 24:36-44) we will all die. The grave will be our home at some point in the future. Yet for beli

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms: Finding Hope in the Midst of Darkness Howdy! Well, we have some encouraging and happy stuff to talk about today…not really. Whenever sin is on the menu it’s going to be a bitter meal. A common question many Christians have is why people choose freely to commit idolatry and wickedness and then seek to promote it among impressionable souls. How can an honest person be in favor of murdering children in the womb or where is the mindset grown which can think that God would approve of the bodily mutilation of underage teens? It can be hard to comprehend, but the situation isn’t new. Whether it be the Babel folks building a tower to challenge the LORD or the Israelites thinking they could make an idol and somehow Jehovah would be proud of them our catechism questions this morning point us to an answer. Also when we think of the punishment due to sin our minds are likewise drawn to illness, disasters, and other more physical re

 By Rev. Trevor Baxter - Posted at Sermon Audio:  1 Corinthians 15: 15 - 20 (KJV) 15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. 16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. 18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

By Octavius Winslow - Posted at Grace Gems : "The Lord is my portion, says my soul" "The Lord Jesus Christ, who is our hope."--1 Tim. 1:1 What a precious possession of the believing soul, springing from the Lord as his Portion, is hope. Rob the poor worldling of his--though it be but earth-bound, and fading as a midsummer's evening sun--and you have plunged him in the dark and deep abyss of despondency and despair. Man without hope is the most miserable being in the universe. But with the hope of the Christian glowing in his heart--a hope of which God is the Giver, Jesus the Foundation, the Spirit the Author, and heaven the goal--and there lives not among the happy, a happier being than he. Thus the believer is "saved by hope." Look, my soul, for a moment at this inestimable part of your portion, and learn more thoroughly in what it consists--what the sweet soothing it imparts, the holy obligations it imposes, and the splendid revelations it