Life's Inanities and Ironies

Beloved saints, fellow lovers of the old Book and the old paths, grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the hustle of daily life, it’s easy to lose track of priorities. We laugh at the classic Abbott and Costello routine—“Who’s on first? What’s on second? I Don’t Know’s on third”—because the confusion is hilarious on the baseball diamond. But when the same confusion creeps into our spiritual lives, it is no laughing matter. It is sin. It is idolatry. And it breaks the very first commandment God ever gave His redeemed people. Turn with me to Exodus 20:1-3 (KJV): “And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Notice the order. God does not begin with a threat or a list of rules. He begins with grace. He reminds Israel—and He reminds us—of who He is and what He has already done. “I am the LORD thy God… which have brought thee out...

In our recent reflections on John 21, we stood with Peter on the Galilean shore as the risen Lord asked, “Do you love me?”—then commissioned him with the sobering words, “When you are old, you will stretch out your hands… Follow me” (John 21:18–19). That prophecy was fulfilled under Nero’s brutal persecution. But Peter was not alone. The other apostles heard the same call. For conservative, Bible-believing Christians who hold the Scriptures as inerrant and authoritative, the historical deaths of the apostles are no mere footnote. They are living proof that these men did not invent a resurrection myth for personal gain. They saw the risen Christ with their own eyes—and they paid for that testimony with their blood. Only one apostle’s martyrdom is recorded in Scripture: James, the son of Zebedee. King Herod Agrippa “had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword” (Acts 12:2). He was the first of the Twelve to lay down his life. The rest of their stories come from early church trad...

In our last reflection we stood on the Galilean shore with the risen Christ as He prophesied Peter’s death: “When you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go” (John 21:18 ESV). That prophecy was fulfilled under one of the most infamous persecutors in church history—Emperor Nero. For Bible-believing Christians who take both Scripture and history seriously, Nero’s persecution is not ancient trivia. It is the historical stage on which the Lord’s words to Peter were dramatically fulfilled, reminding us that following Christ has always carried a cost—and that God’s sovereign purposes prevail even in the darkest hours. The Spark: The Great Fire of Rome, AD 64 In July of AD 64, a catastrophic fire swept through Rome. It burned for six days and nights, destroying or damaging ten of the city’s fourteen districts. Rumors spread like the flames themselves: many believed Nero had ordered the fire to clear land for his lavish Do...

In the closing chapter of John’s Gospel, the risen Lord Jesus delivers one of the most sobering yet triumphant prophecies in all of Scripture. Right after restoring Peter with the threefold question, “Do you love me?” (John 21:15–17), Jesus looks into the eyes of His once-impulsive disciple and says: > “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.” (John 21:18–19, ESV) This is no vague warning. It is a precise prophecy about the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. For a conservative, Bible-believing Christian who takes the text at face value, this passage stands as powerful evidence of Christ’s sovereign knowledge of the future—and of the high cost of following Him. What ...