Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

Written by: April J. Buchanan

There are those who create a “safe place” for questions and for “testing” beliefs. They are open and welcoming. They are friendly and have some “convictions” formed by their testing, yet they are often marked by an openness to being challenged and “corrected.” When you come out of bad theology and are fearful to enter another place where convictions are strong and unyielding, formed by the Word, tested, approved, sound, and proclaimed with authority, you may find yourself more comfortable in a place where you can test everything.

This place is often apologetics from a biblical worldview that encourages testing everything using Scripture and learning how to give a defense for what you believe. I use all that language in the beginning firmly and positively because as you grow in testing your beliefs against Scripture, this place often becomes less convincing and eventually a place that must be outgrown. A place that sets itself up as safe for testing beliefs and ideas against Scripture can, over time, reveal itself as a place where few real convictions are ever formed from Scripture itself.

As much as it sets itself in opposition to progressive Christianity that is open, inclusive, and welcoming of questions and different beliefs based on subjective experiences and ideas, with Scripture treated as merely another helpful tool rather than authoritative and sufficient, this increasingly popular apologetic world often has its own dangers as well. It is not all bad. There are some there who hold firm convictions based on the authority of Scripture. Yet this newer apologetic culture often feels compelled to remain perpetually “open.” Its foundation becomes the idea that one could always be wrong and must always remain willing to be shown otherwise. At first this sounds humble and careful. Yet if we never arrive at firm convictions grounded in Scripture, we become like those tossed to and fro.

When beliefs like evolution are introduced into the Christian worldview, when doctrines such as annihilationism are treated as acceptable possibilities within Christian orthodoxy, and when popular apologists insist they remain open to multiple positions on such matters, many begin to view foundational doctrines of the faith as matters of little importance.

There is a tendency in this world to stand outside of Scripture and never truly land in settled conviction based upon it, but instead to remain perpetually open, appearing humble, careful, and concerned for truth, yet never actually formed by it, convinced of it, changed by it, or able to proclaim it and let it speak. Scripture becomes something continually examined by man rather than unleashed as authoritative, powerful, transformative, and able to humble sinners and lead them into truth.

Apologetics have their rightful place in the Christian life, but if they become a world unto themselves they can become dangerous. Every Christian should be encouraged and strengthened in learning how to test beliefs and defend them according to what Scripture says and means. Yet many today are entering a world of apologetics where there is constant learning, engagement with competing worldviews, and increasingly blurred lines. What presents itself as wise, discerning, and impenetrable begins revealing susceptibility to deception through persuasive arguments, exposing a lack of settled conviction grounded in Scripture and a lack of being shaped by sound doctrine.

Apologetics are not inherently bad. It is biblical. They are good and useful in their proper place. Yet if we are not careful, we can create a place that sounds safe and open, welcoming every idea for examination, where regenerate and unregenerate alike gather in such a way that over time many who once appeared discerning begin themselves to be shaped by the very worldviews they once opposed. They begin mixing truth with error. They begin questioning doctrines long held within the Christian faith and biblical worldview. They cannot easily be pinned down as denying these doctrines because they remain “open.” They neither clearly reject foundational truths nor openly affirm what opposes them. Yet how can one truly defend convictions he himself remains unconvinced of them? And how can the heart and mind be shaped by sound doctrine while remaining perpetually open to error?

If one creates a safe place for testing beliefs, welcomes all ideas, encourages every man in his own way, and says he believes what he believes yet could always be convinced otherwise, not from humble submission to Scripture but from an unwillingness to arrive at settled conviction, he is not a safe guide. He is unstable. He is always studying yet never anchored. He holds positions only so long as they appear convincing, remaining perpetually open to abandoning them should something else appear more persuasive.

Friend, if our studying, testing, and searching of Scripture are not done in humility, with a sincere desire for truth, with minds and hearts convinced, shaped, and submitted to it, but instead from a posture that continually stands outside of Scripture and weighs it against competing worldviews to determine what sounds best to us, then how are we different from the world?

We must come to Scripture in pursuit of truth. The world of apologetics is often a mixed bag, and mixtures rarely end well. We do not purify error by mingling with it. We are called to proclaim the truth, not merely as participants in a battle of ideas, but with conviction of the truth and love for those in error, while also understanding our own weakness and susceptibility to deception.

Much of the apologetic world is not truly “safe.” It presents itself as a proper foundation where competing worldviews are challenged and Christians maintain fellowship despite disagreements. Politics have entered this arena as well, and even foundational doctrines are now regularly treated as open questions. There is a massive difference between testing and perpetual questioning. One goes to Scripture seeking truth and stands firmly in what it says. The other remains perpetually unconvinced, always “open” to being persuaded otherwise.

When I came out of bad theology, I found refuge among many apologists. I learned much from them about why we can trust our Bibles, how to test what is being said, how to recognize fallacious arguments, and similar helpful tools. Yet what I did not learn from them was settled conviction grounded in Scripture. I learned how to ask questions and conduct research, but I did not learn how to truly study my Bible or grow in sound doctrine.

Their tools and methods helped me learn not to blindly believe whatever I was taught simply because someone claimed authority, anointing, or special revelation. Yet they did not teach me how to rightly handle Scripture itself or how to grow in sound doctrine through its faithful exposition.

Then I found discernment ministries. These ministries helped me learn how to test sermons and teachings against what Scripture actually says. In different ways they helped expose how deeply deceived I had been and how blindly I had followed false teachers for so long. I learned that I had formed an entirely wrong way of hearing God and reading my Bible. It was deeply humbling as I listened to sharp and often well deserved rebukes that once described me as well. Yet even as I learned discernment and how to test all things, I still needed faithful exposition of Scripture itself in order to truly know what I was testing everything against.

Then came the pastors I had always been warned about, men said to be dull, dry, lifeless, lacking the Spirit, Pharisaical, or possessing a “religious spirit.” I began listening to them.

I approached their teaching ready to test everything against Scripture. I was ready to apply everything I had learned about discernment and testing. What I found instead were men opening the Scriptures in a way I had never encountered before. Nothing was obscured. The text itself was laid open plainly so that every man’s teaching could be examined in its light. These men were not claiming new revelation. They simply opened the text and let it speak.

All those years I thought I was “hearing God,” yet as these men preached verse by verse and book by book, I heard the voice of God in Scripture more clearly than I ever had before. My heart and mind were being changed and shaped by the Word itself. I did not abandon discernment under their teaching. Rather, applying what I had learned drove me deeper into Scripture, where I beheld the beauty and glory of God more clearly than ever before. There I encountered the true work of the Holy Spirit. There my love for God, His Word, His people, and His Gospel grew. I began to love the true voice of God in Scripture, the very voice I had once learned to silence and obscure.

As years have passed and I have spent more time under sound teaching, learning and testing all things so that my beliefs are anchored in Scripture, I remain grateful for apologetics in the life of believers, that we may give a defense for what we believe. I am grateful for faithful discernment ministries that help many learn to test all things according to sound doctrine. Yet most of all I am grateful to God for faithful pastors who preach the Word, warn against error, and whose ministry is not fragmented into isolated categories because under the authority of Scripture they rightly divide the Word of God and in doing so faithfully accomplish it all.

I find the most faithful work to which every believer should be pointed is that of sound churches, healthy churches being formed through the faithful exposition of biblically qualified elders. Find a doctrinally sound church and join it.

Grace and peace, dear precious saints.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

When we misunderstand perseverance, much like when we confuse justification and sanctification, men once again begin to trust in works or merit alongside faith in order to complete the race and stand before God.

Yet Scripture makes clear that it is He who began a good work in us, and it is He who will complete what He has begun.

This does not mean we sit back and do nothing. Rather, it means that from beginning to end salvation is all of grace. And if it is all of grace, then even our good works, our sanctification, our obedience, our repentance, our overcoming, and our finishing well are evidences of grace at work within us, empowering us to obey, to walk worthy of the calling, to repent, to believe, to overcome, and to finish well.

These things are not works we accomplish so that we may keep ourselves saved. To think this way is to add something to what Christ has done. It suggests that His work is good but incomplete, sufficient to begin salvation but insufficient to bring His people safely to the end.

This does not mean that perseverance occurs apart from the means God has ordained. God preserves His people through His Word, through prayer, through repentance, through the ordinary means of grace, and through the Spirit’s continual work in them. Yet even these are gifts of grace and not grounds for boasting.

We are justified by faith in Christ. We who are in Christ are declared righteous before God. We are righteous by the righteousness of Another. We are righteous in Christ.

We are positionally sanctified, and we are progressively being sanctified. We must be careful not to confuse these truths. When we feel unworthy, when we feel the weight of our sins, and when we wrestle with assurance, we ought indeed to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. Yet if we are in Christ, then we are justified. We have been declared righteous. It is a forensic declaration. We cannot become more or less righteous before God, for the righteousness of Christ is perfect.

This must not be confused with progressive sanctification. As we hear God’s Word, grow in knowledge, and mature in faith, we are being conformed more and more into the image of Christ by the gracious work of God within us. This adds nothing to our justification and takes nothing away from it. Rather, sanctification is evidence that our justification is real. God has declared us righteous in Christ, and He is sanctifying us accordingly, conforming us to the image of His Son.

We feel our sin more deeply now and become increasingly sensitive to it as we mature in the faith because we know Him, love Him, and long to put off these sinful bodies and be with Him. Yet we remain here for the glory of God.

That we finish well is no cause for boasting, as though we had contributed something to our salvation. From beginning to end it is all of grace. Our sanctification and glorification are as much works of divine grace as our justification. Our faith, our repentance, our daily dying to self, our growth in holiness, our putting off the deeds of the flesh and putting on what is holy and pleasing to God, our overcoming, and even our breathing our last in Christ are all of grace.

If at any point we begin to think of perseverance as our own efforts added to faith in order to keep ourselves saved, then we must return to the reality of our once dead hearts and remember that our beginning in Christ was entirely a work of grace. So it has always been, and so it will be to the end.

The man who believes he began in Christ by his own power, imagining faith to be something naturally existing within himself rather than a gift of grace, will always be unstable and fearful. He will constantly seek something to reassure himself that God still loves him. He will not deal honestly with his remaining sin, nor will he behold the beauty of the Word that sanctifies him, because he lives in fear that he may yet lose his salvation. He needs the Gospel. It is possible he has not begun well and neither shall it be possible for him to end well.

He disciplines himself, not from the freedom of grace, but from fear. He strives after holiness, not as one being transformed by looking into the perfect law of liberty and being conformed to Christ, but as one attempting to preserve himself. Such a man will often live either in pride or despair.

Yet the believer who understands grace rightly does not become careless toward holiness. Rather, he fights sin all the more because he loves Christ, because he has been set free, and because the Spirit of God is at work within him conforming him to the image of the Son.

If he were to read men like Martin Luther, he might come to see more clearly what kind of man he is, seeing in Luther something of his own striving. A man who disciplined his body, labored after holiness, and sought righteousness before God, yet found it impossible to attain. From there he came to know a grace he had not known, sufficient for all of life. A righteousness imputed through faith in Christ, whereby he is justified. The same grace also empowers godliness in Him. There can be no assurance or comfort in continuing where one has not begun well.

Many men are exhausted professors of faith, laboring endlessly to sustain what they have never truly understood: grace that not only brings life to dead hearts, but grace that results in faith and repentance, whereby men are justified, are being sanctified, and will one day be glorified.

For Christ, who began a good work in His people, will complete it. It is His power at work in those who belong to Him. He will not fail.

And if men fall away finally, they do not prove that faith has failed or that Christ has failed, for He cannot fail. Rather, they reveal that their faith was never genuine.

But where men persevere, that perseverance is the ongoing effect of God’s preserving grace working through faith, and it will be evidenced in sanctification, demonstrating that what has been declared about them in justification is true, and that it is God Himself who began and who will finish the work He began.

He has promised. He is faithful. It is all of grace.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

Following is what I’ve learned and how I study my Bible. I am confident those better trained and who have been rightly handling Scripture longer than I have will have improvements to make upon my process. I do not say that with feigned humility, but with a settled awareness that it is true. My hope is that this process invites you into your own study with an open Bible and a renewed desire and discipline as you approach the Scriptures.

Buy a large pack of highlighters, notebooks you are most comfortable with, and prepare to give yourself fully to the work. There is no time for shallow presentation or attention seeking display. This kind of study requires time, and it is deeply worth it.

Pray. This step must never be neglected. It is essential for fruitful study. We are dependent upon God to illumine His Word to us, to conform our hearts and minds to it, and to help us retain what we have learned. We are quick to forget and even quicker to assume we can rightly understand divine truth apart from divine grace. Prayer is not preparation for study as much as it is the posture of study itself.

Read the entire book at least once before beginning the interpretive process, and return to it repeatedly throughout your study. Begin by forming your own outline, even if it is imperfect, and then compare it with reliable external outlines. Note the themes that appear in the text, recognizing that your initial observations may be partial or in need of correction. Compare what you see with the work of trusted sources, allowing them to correct misunderstandings or confirm what you have rightly discerned.

It is also helpful to write the entire book yourself if possible, preferably with pen and paper. As you move slowly through the text multiple times, reading and then writing it out, you will begin to notice patterns, connections, and emphases that are easily missed in casual reading. The discipline of writing trains the mind to see what the eye might otherwise overlook.

You are not a scholar by training, yet you are called to approach the text with reverence, diligence, and care. Your goal is to understand what the passage means within its immediate context and within the broader context of all of Scripture. This requires time, patience, and discipline. What may seem exhausting to a distracted mind becomes life-giving to one trained in endurance and devotion to truth.

As you study, attend carefully to historical, theological, and redemptive themes. Consider the setting, the author, the original audience, and the historical circumstances of composition. Observe repeated words, structural patterns, and the assumptions the author makes about his readers. Seek the intended meaning of the text as it would have been received in its original context.

Where possible, engage with the original languages, while recognizing your limitations and the value of those who have been trained in them. There is a humility and gratitude that grows as you listen to faithful laborers who handle the text with precision and care. Discern the genre of the passage, knowing that poetry must not be read as narrative, nor wisdom literature as law, nor historical description as moral instruction. Pay attention to hermeneutical distinctions such as imperative versus narrative, descriptive versus prescriptive, as well as comparisons, contrasts, and literary structure.

Add to your study faithful commentaries, but do not rush to them too early. Give yourself time first to read through the text multiple times, develop your own outline, and work through these foundational steps before comparing your observations with the work of others. At that point, you will likely find areas that need correction, whether small or significant. Yet this is part of the process. Just as important as learning what the text says is learning how to rightly handle the text in faithful study.

One very important and invaluable method of learning how to study your Bible rightly is to sit under the preaching and teaching of those who are expository preachers. This cannot be recommended highly enough. It is not only what you are learning from what is preached, but also the example, pattern, and discipline being set before you in how the text is handled. Watching faithful exposition trains the mind to think in terms of context, structure, and meaning, and it teaches you, often more quietly than you realize, how to approach Scripture with care and reverence.

Your outline may be imperfect at nearly every point, but you are being formed in the discipline of careful engagement with God’s Word. You are learning to receive the text rather than impose upon it your own conclusions. You are learning to care more about what it actually says and means than about defending your initial impressions or demanding agreement from others. The more you learn how to study and the more you see God revealed in the text, the more you will grow in love for faithful study, and the more your love for God and others will deepen.

Lean back. A discipline of John MacArthur that he shared with others pertaining to his time of study is the practice of “leaning back.” There is a posture of reflection that is just as important as careful reading. After studying, take time to sit with the text and think on what has been read. This is not imagination or speculation, nor the pursuit of new revelation, but the slow meditation upon what God has already said. In this space, the mind is not creating meaning but considering it, allowing the weight of the text to settle.

Memorize portions of the text. This becomes more beautiful when the meaning is rightly understood and not detached from its context. Scripture stored in the mind with understanding becomes a source of worship that is informed by truth rather than emotion alone. In remembering it, you are not extracting isolated phrases, but recalling living words within their intended meaning, leading to deeper praise and stability of soul.

Above all, resist the impulse to read yourself into every passage. Instead, allow the text to speak on its own terms. The aim of study is not immediate application but faithful understanding. Application flows rightly only from rightly understood meaning.

Scripture is not primarily about us but about God, His character, and His unfolding redemptive purpose in history. In every portion, we are being shown the glory of God revealed in Christ from beginning to end.

As you study, you come to know Him more truly. And in knowing Him, you are changed. This transformation is not merely the result of technique but of the living Word working through the Spirit in those who receive it in faith.

Therefore, study with diligence. Study with care. Study to know God.

This process will likely move you away from the practice of highlighting entire passages in a single color simply because you love all of Scripture. Instead, it will lead you toward a more intentional and discerning method of marking the text.

Over time, you may develop a personal system of annotation, using different colors, symbols, and markings that correspond to specific themes, structures, or observations within the passage. Each color or symbol will carry meaning that becomes familiar through repeated study. When you return to the text, you will be able to recognize patterns of emphasis, doctrinal themes, literary structure, or redemptive connections at a glance.

This kind of disciplined marking does not diminish reverence for the text but deepens engagement with it. It trains the eye to observe carefully and the mind to think theologically and contextually, rather than flattening everything into a single undifferentiated emphasis.

Develop your own system of color-coded and symbolic annotation, carefully and consistently applied, so that your Bible becomes not a record of emotional reaction but a map of thoughtful, repeated, and prayerful study.

Grace and peace to you in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

If a Christian widow later remarries in the Lord, and other believers scrutinize her or gossip about her dating or remarriage, the problem is not with the widow but with those who speak against a fellow saint who has submitted herself to Scripture. She is free to marry in the Lord, for Scripture says, “A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:39, LSB). Who are we to speak against what God has permitted or to impose standards He has not given?

I may be an outlier here, but I have always told my husband that if I go before him, I would want him to remarry. I cannot bear the thought of him being alone. He jokes, “I made that mistake once. I’m not doing it again.” I will not bind his conscience with words he may carry after I am gone, should I go first. I do not know God’s timing, and I trust it completely. If it were my desire, we would grow old together and go together. But it is not my will, and I am glad it is not. God’s will is best.

Some feel the need to conceal their intentions when they begin to date or consider remarriage after the loss of a spouse. Families sometimes speak harshly about those who remarry, often without knowing them or understanding the circumstances. They hold to standards that are not found in Scripture, and when those expectations are not met, they justify unkind words against those they claim to love. Yet such judgments are unbiblical. God permits remarriage for the widow, and Scripture does not bind where He has given liberty. “So then each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12, LSB). Who is man to forbid what God allows, provided it is in the Lord?

Written by: April J. Buchanan

Sin loved and meditated upon in the heart is never hidden from the eyes of the sovereign and holy God. The unregenerate man not only indulges sin in secret, but often finds delight in speaking of it, exposing it to others, and drawing satisfaction from their reaction, whether approval or shock. His boasting reveals a heart that treasures what God hates.

Yet when such a man comes into contact with one whose mind is shaped by the Word of God, whose own sin is being exposed and put to death daily, there is often a different aim. He seeks affirmation. He desires that the one who claims conviction might soften, might stumble, or even join him in his boasting. But when he is instead met with truth, with love that refuses to affirm sin and stands ready to speak of Christ, he retreats. He hides behind weakness, behind excuses, and often behind others who claim love yet refuse to deal honestly with his sin or his unregenerate condition. They shift the focus, silence the matter, and insist that all is well.

But it is not well.

It is not well for the one who boasts in sin, nor for those who encourage him in it while claiming the name of Christ. Sin is not merely against man, nor only against earthly authority. It is ultimately against God, who is perfectly holy and will judge with perfect righteousness. What men dismiss as insignificant is often a mercy from God, a lesser exposure meant to reveal the heart and warn of a greater judgment to come.

Men may mock parents, governing authorities, and even the church, which God has established as means of order and grace. They may even seem to escape consequences through the failures or corruption of others. Yet such distortions do not reflect the God of Scripture. God is not corrupt. He is not partial. His judgment is perfect, and even the best judgments of men fall infinitely short of His.

Men mock and do not tremble because they do not yet see. They do not yet feel the weight of the holiness they have offended. But God will not be mocked. Every careless word, every cherished sin, every act of rebellion is known to Him.

And yet there is hope. Our hope is in Christ alone, the only mediator between God and man. Flee to Him. Repent, for your days are short. You may forget your sins, but God does not. You are born in Adam, under sin and judgment, and you must be born again in the second Adam, Jesus Christ. He is truly God and truly man, born of a virgin, without sin, who died in the place of sinners, who was raised on the third day, and who will return as King.

None will stand before God on their own merit. None will enter His presence apart from His Son.

Repent, O sinner. Flee to Christ.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

This is a subject I have returned to again and again. It is not one settled easily, nor one on which all who hold fast to sound doctrine, the authority of Scripture, and careful exegesis are agreed. Biblically qualified men differ here. Men I respect. Men whose handling of Scripture I continue to trust. Even among fellow believers in the pew, there is disagreement, and I find myself standing alongside some while differing with others.

I do not rejoice in that. I grieve it. It is no small thing to find yourself in even minor disagreement with those you know and love.

What I’m sharing here is not an exhaustive treatment of the subject, nor an attempt to argue it at length. It is simply an overview of my conclusion and the convictions I hold.

Yet I must be convinced by Scripture if I am to change my convictions. I cannot give verbal assent to what I do not truly believe the text teaches. And so, after revisiting this issue, and after reading and listening to what I understand to be the strongest arguments on both sides, I remain unconvinced that women may hold the office of deacon.

“Having revisited this issue and considered the strongest arguments on both sides, I remain unconvinced that women may hold the office of deacon, not because the arguments have not been heard, but because the text has not persuaded my conscience.”

There are clear distinctions between the office of elder and the office of deacon, and those distinctions matter.

In 1 Timothy 3:8, the word “likewise” cannot mean that everything stated before concerning elders now applies in the same way to deacons, or else deacons would also be required to be able to teach. The word carries the sense of similarity, not identity. It speaks to character, not to identical function or qualification. If we press “likewise” too far, we begin to blur the very distinctions the text itself maintains.

That becomes important when we come to verse 11. If “likewise” there is used to introduce women into the office of deacon, then we have already opened the door to arguing backward and confusing the qualifications of the offices altogether. The passage does not support that kind of reading. The more consistent understanding is that verse 11 refers to the wives of deacons, addressing their character because of their proximity to the work and the trust required in it. If anything, this sets my heart to prayer all the more for the wives of both elders and deacons.

Romans 16:1 is often used to argue that women may hold the office of deacon, but that is not what the text is saying. This is not a didactic text. It is not teaching or prescribing something. It is a descriptive passage and we must read it as such. The word diakonos is used in many places throughout Scripture to describe servants in a general sense. It is not always referring to the office of deacon. Phoebe is rightly commended as a servant of her church in Cenchrea, and that should not be minimized. But to move from that to saying she held the office of deacon is to import more into the text than is actually there.

Acts 6:1–7 gives us the clearest early pattern of what would become the diaconal role. Those tasked with the ministry of the Word were burdened with the practical needs of the widows and could not faithfully do both. So seven qualified men were chosen to serve in that official capacity. If there were ever a situation where women might have been appointed to such a role, it would seem to be here, given that the need concerned widows. Yet seven men were chosen. While the word “deacon” is not used in that passage, the pattern is consistent with what we later see in 1 Timothy 3.

Ultimately, the case for women serving in the office of deacon leans heavily on one verse in 1 Timothy 3:11 and an interpretation of diakonos in Romans 16:1 that is not inherently technical. I remain unconvinced. Not because I want to be difficult, but because I do not see a clear text that establishes it.

I know women who, if this office were open to them, would show themselves qualified and faithful. That is not the issue. But if I go against my conscience and what I understand to be the clear reading of Scripture, I would not only be violating that conscience, I would not be serving my sisters well by encouraging them toward something I believe Scripture does not permit.

If I wanted to argue in favor of women as deacons, I could do so by pressing verse 11 in that direction. But Scripture must not be made to affirm what we desire. It means what it means and says what it says.

As I read the immediate context and consider the whole of Scripture, including the clear distinctions in roles given to men and women, I do not see sufficient support for women holding the office of deacon. Women ought to serve, and they do, faithfully and indispensably in the home, in the community, and in the church. But the office of deacon, as I understand it from Scripture, is not one that is given to them.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

It is not that men do not speak of God. On the contrary, many speak much of Him. Yet their understanding is not informed by the clear and plain sense of Scripture, but by their own imagination of who they believe Him to be.

Have you ever sat outside a conversation and heard it unfold, where God is much spoken of? Your ear is drawn in, as the heart of the believer is naturally inclined toward such things. For a moment, it sounds as music to the ears. And then you hear it, that once beautiful sound now hits a wrong note and becomes a matter of discernment.

You just want to hear the truth playing beautifully but far too often the sound is not a little off but strikes a false chord and never returns to its once beautiful sound. Each man speaks of God in a way that is meaningful and personal to him, yet not as He has revealed Himself.

Have you ever sat among those who invite you to their table? You are their guest. It is not your table. They are kind, warm, and hospitable. Then they open a supporting text meant to aid in your understanding of who God is. You follow along with your Bible open, yours the only one visible. As you do, you pray for God’s help to see what the text says and means.

There, the text reveals the beauty and glory of God, and your heart rejoices. The words are read aloud. Every man agrees. And then, in the next breath, what was clear is filtered through each man’s heart, through what he feels about God. What stood firm in the text is quickly reshaped in conversation. God is brought low, and you feel the need to steady yourself again upon the text, as though regaining footing in a room that has shifted beneath you.

You are guided according to a god so low you could almost sit beside him, not clothed in the righteousness of Christ, but accepted as you are, as though your sin were no offense. No longer an enemy, but simply one already embraced. Not loved with an eternal, sovereign love, but pitied and remedied, as though God merely saw the problem of man and moved to fix it. What was true in one breath is obscured in the next. The clarity of the text gives way to confusion.

When you speak, some listen as though your words are foreign. Others take offense. Some agree, yet uneasily. Others agree quickly, though it is not clear they understand. And so you find not only error, but uncertainty, truth acknowledged, yet not firmly held.

Many will hear the reading of Scripture. They may even affirm what is plainly taught. Yet their hearts have already determined who God is to them. What they hear is not received with submission, but filtered through what they already believe. Their familiarity is not with the text itself, but with conversations about it, what they think it means, rather than what it says.

You have been trained, as many have not, to go into the text and draw out its meaning. To begin with God, not man. To see that the text does not bend toward the reader, but stands over him. And yet many have not been taught how to approach the Word in this way. They are given methods that subtly move them away from the text itself, so that they do not discover its riches by careful attention, but drift into error. You once were taught like them and even worse than them.

Even the simplest believer, even one of low estate, even the plow boy, may understand the truth of God when the Word is rightly handled. This is no small mercy. The Scriptures are not hidden in complexity but revealed in clarity to those who submit to them.

And yet, though access to the Word is abundant, many have been taught wrongly how to approach it. There is a real struggle in the task of making known the truth, not only because the world resists it, but because confusion often sits within the visible church itself. The bride is often taught to know God by methods that obscure rather than clarify, so that men do not dig for truth in the text, but drift toward error while believing they are near it.

They do not know how to go into the text and draw out its meaning. Instead, the text becomes a starting point, and from it they move quickly into reflections on life, experience, and feeling. What enters the ear as truth comes forth from the lips altered, sometimes subtly, sometimes plainly, because the heart has not yielded. They agree outwardly, yet remain inwardly unmoved.

Guided discussions quickly devolve into error once the words from the page are no longer guiding the discussion but the man who moves away from the guided text, with a closed Bible, speaks from his heart. Many men are not trained in sound doctrine and depend heavily on guided material and once that support is not there and it is on them to lead the way, error is soon to expose the man’s ignorance.

A man may hear, affirm, and even repeat sound doctrine. Yet when it passes through his mind and heart, it is not received as truth that reforms him. It is reshaped to fit what he already believes. When he then tries to teach it he can only distort it for his heart guides him and not the clear and plain meaning of the text.

Thus many hear and agree, yet what a man truly believes about God often proves resistant to Scripture. He will affirm truth in general terms, but when brought closely to the text, he reveals either ignorance or quiet resistance. His agreement is shallow because it is not governed by submission.

A man may improve his speech while his heart remains unchanged. The truth must first be rightly understood in the mind if it is to take hold in the heart. If a man loves God and grows in that love, it is not apart from sound doctrine, but by means of it.

God is who He is. He does not yield, change, or conform Himself to our understanding. We must yield. Our minds must be renewed according to His Word. And it is there, in the truth of who He is, that we find true comfort, peace, and assurance. Joy, grace, mercy, and hope do not follow from imagining God, but from rightly knowing Him.

He does not bend to our beliefs about Him. He reveals Himself. Where our thoughts align with His Word, they are confirmed. Where they do not, they must be cast down, humbly and without delay, lest we deceive ourselves and others.

Therefore, we must cast down our imaginations and set our minds plainly upon the text. There, and there alone, we behold His glory.

We cannot improve upon perfection. As He reveals Himself, He humbles us. He brings us low, and from that place causes us to behold Him rightly. True knowledge of God does not inflate the man, it lays him low and leads him to worship.

He is worthy of more than what we so often ascribe to Him. Praise Him, not for who you have imagined Him to be, but for who He is. Let your mind be instructed and your heart transformed by His Word, that your praise may be true, and that you may ascribe to Him the glory He alone is due.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

Grow quietly. Grow slowly. For in this way you will grow deep, deep in character, deep in truth, alongside saints whose roots run far beneath the surface, whose wisdom has been proven over time.

Many are eager to proclaim what God has done. Their zeal is great, but it is not yet tempered by knowledge or shaped by character. They love the Christ who died and rose again, yet they know little of His sanctifying work within His people. They rush ahead in fervor, often to their own ruin, when they should instead sit among faithful saints who have long walked the path they are so eager to run.

Wisdom grants a man his place. It gives him a seat where his words are few, yet his counsel is of the Lord. His roots are deep. His scars are visible. His eyes may grow dim, yet his counsel remains steady, and his hands are faithful to the work God has given him. He has learned that there is greater fruit in quiet obedience than in chasing the things his passions once urged him toward, things that might have led him to think more highly of himself than he ought.

Many foolish men chase platforms and seek an audience. In their haste, they run past wisdom, past truth, past love, past godly counsel. They overlook men of deep character and instead gather around those marked by pride, ambition, and outward success, men ready to pass down not wisdom, but error, to the next eager voice in the race.

Friend, if your eyes are drawn to position, influence, and power, take heed. You may pursue these things and even attain them, only to find yourself empty, restless, or against God. Such desires are not from God when they are rooted in self-exaltation. A man may convince himself that he seeks these things for the glory of God, while all the while deceiving his own heart.

Beware the man who speaks much Scripture, yet whose heart is set on power, position, and influence.

Do not run after him. If you do, you will pass by those whom God has placed in your path, men of true wisdom, sound doctrine, and godly character.

Those who love the truth are rarely found in places of prominence. They are often hidden, faithful, steady, and planted by God in the paths of many who rush past them. Their warnings go unheeded. Their counsel is despised by those chasing what appeals to the flesh.

Many run after men who promise what their hearts desire. They follow those who are young, untested, and eager to make a name, and though such men may begin well, the platform often reshapes them. Over time, their message becomes more pragmatic and shaped by what appeals to and attracts man. What was once sound becomes compromised, then corrupted. In many cases, the decline is first seen in their doctrine long before it becomes evident in their lives.

Do not be dazzled by prominence. Sit instead with those whose roots are deep in sound doctrine. Grow in godly character. Learn from those who have watched many rise and fall, men whose platforms expanded while their character decayed, whose doctrine slowly shifted to preserve their influence.

Sit with the faithful. Learn from those whose roots are deep and whose lives have endured testing. Watch closely what time reveals, for both character and doctrine are proven there.

Be content to be unknown if God so wills it. Better to be hidden and faithful than seen and found wanting.

Grow where God has planted you. Endure. Bear fruit. And finish well.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

Surrounding yourself with “positive people” who only speak about their love for Jesus, how much God loves them, and the great plans He has for them, who speak as though He is smitten with them, constantly thinking of them, how He just loves to shower them with blessings, and making them the center of all things, is not the same as being among those who are informed by Scripture, whose minds are shaped by truth, and who speak rightly of the love of God.

Such people have fashioned a god around themselves. Everything revolves around them. He exists to answer their desires. He created all things for them. He cannot imagine heaven without them because they believe His love has found something so worthy in them that He must set His affections upon it.

The sappy, weak, and impotent Jesus that many speak of and build one another up with is not the God of Scripture. It is a distorted, sentimental version of love, far beneath even what men would call shallow affection.

To hear some speak of God’s love provokes revulsion in anyone with a biblical understanding of that love. God does not love because there is something in us that attracts Him or draws Him to us. He is not compelled by something in us. He is not moved by human worth. Yet many will affirm this with their lips and deny it in every other word, bringing God low and presenting a god that is mocked by the world and rejected by those who refuse the true God of Scripture.

The issue is that many love certain attributes of God that they can twist to suit themselves. They reshape them according to their own desires and then encourage one another in the worship of what is nothing more than an idol. They love a god that His attributes can be brought low, manipulated and added to their human effort to achieve their desires. They love a god that serves them and delights to do so. They love scripture so long as they can manipulate it to serve their desires. They love putting words in His mouth that He did not say and they love claiming an intimacy with God that allows them to hear Him speak to them all the time what their sinful hearts desire. They take the desires of their hearts, isolated verses of scripture, and listen for God to speak to them confirming all their hopes and dreams. Why wouldn’t He? Their god is an idol. He bends and conforms to their will, their desires and lives to bless them and reward them for their “faithfulness” to what they are told they must do to receive what they desire. They take what is beautiful and holy and desecrate it. They fashion a god by the name of the God of scripture into their own idols and they know not that they are deceived and deceivers.

The attributes of God, His perfections, are not divided. He is not holy at one time and gracious at another, setting aside His justice, His wrath, or His righteousness. He is perfectly all that He is at all times. Yet men take the truth that God is love and redefine it according to their own affections. They imagine a god who is consumed with them, eager to give them everything they desire, eager to bless them as they define blessing, eager to fulfill their plans. This is not the God of Scripture. It is an Americanized gospel and a sentimental Christ.

They begin with themselves and bring God down. Scripture begins with God.

It is true that God has good purposes for those who are called according to His purpose. He does bless His people. He has set His love upon a people, predestined them, called them, made atonement for them, saved them, and is conforming them to the image of His Son. He will bring them to glory. He does all of this for His own glory. His decrees stand. He rules and governs all things. His providence extends over every detail. Even trials, suffering, loss, and persecution are not outside His sovereign will but are part of His perfect and purposeful plan.

It is not about us. It is about God, His rule, His reign, His sovereignty, His perfections, and His glory. And yet He does love His people. But that love is not drawn out by anything in them. It is a love set before the foundation of the world, a sovereign love by which He determined to display His grace, His mercy, His power, and His goodness upon an undeserving people. Those who understand this are humbled by it. They do not exalt themselves. They marvel that they have been made recipients of such undeserved favor.

The man-centered religion produces songs, sermons, and words that many love because they elevate man. They speak of a god who is trying his best to bless, who is hindered, who waits upon human effort, who needs men to speak things into existence or to act in order for him to move. This presents a god who is weak and dependent. This is not the Lord of Scripture.

The God of Scripture is sovereign. He accomplishes all that He purposes. His will is never frustrated. His decrees cannot be overturned. He does not attempt. He does not hope. He ordains and brings to pass.

Do you not despise the weak and pitiful Jesus of the modern pulpit? He is not the sovereign Lord who rules and reigns. He is a fabrication, embraced by those who prefer a god that serves them rather than the God who commands them.

Is your God the God of Scripture, or the powerless god proclaimed in man-centered pulpits, praised in emotional gatherings, and adored for how he makes men feel?

Friend, return to the God of Scripture. The whole counsel of God, from Genesis to Revelation. See His love rightly. It is not sentimental. It is not indulgent. It is a love that commands repentance because He is Lord. It is a love that sent the Son to take on flesh, to live in perfect righteousness, to die under the full weight of divine wrath for His people, to rise in victory, and to return in judgment and glory.

It is a love that draws sinners out of darkness, clothes them in righteousness, and conforms them to the image of Christ. It opens blind eyes, grants new hearts, and produces a hunger for holiness, truth, and righteousness. It is a love that does not set aside justice but satisfies it. Every man will either bear the judgment for his sin or have it borne for him in Christ. That is love.

Any man who sets one attribute of God against another reveals his ignorance and stands in need of correction. If the Spirit of God dwells in him, he will submit to the truth. If not, his profession is empty.

Do you know Him? Or do you possess a form of religion, speaking the language of Christianity, speaking of Jesus, the cross, and love, while holding to a Christ of your own imagination?

Many claim to love Jesus. But they do not love the Jesus of Scripture.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

In 1998, I lost my second child to miscarriage. I was not saved. I had no theology to ground me, no understanding of God’s sovereignty, no framework by which to process such a loss. I was surrounded by voices that did not help, and in some cases, only deepened the wound. One person had even expressed a desire that my baby would die. Another attempted comfort by saying, “At least it wasn’t a baby yet,” as though such words could lessen the grief of a mother.

My own mother bought flowers and placed them in the hands of my son, who was not yet two years old, and had him give them to me. Even now, that memory remains. The card attached to the flowers is a reminder of that very sweet moment my almost 2 year old son gave me so precious a gift in my grief.

Years later, after the Lord had saved me, I came alongside a friend who lost her little boy near the time of his birth. Her grief was deep, yet there was a light in it. At the time, our theology was not sound, but it was then that I began to bring such loss to Scripture. I began to search the Word of God for answers, for truth, for something more than what the world offers.

It would be years later, after the Lord brought me out of error and into sound doctrine, that I came to see more clearly that Scripture is not silent on these matters. In His Word, God has not left us without hope or understanding.

During that time, I read Safe in the Arms of God by John MacArthur. Through it, the Lord brought a measure of comfort into a sorrow I had never truly dealt with. It helped me to think rightly about the character of God and the hope that one day, I will enter into the same glory in which I believe my child now dwells.

Recently, my husband gave me a small gift as a remembrance of the child we lost and whom we trust is with the Lord. It was a quiet kindness, but one that speaks to a reality we both hold with conviction.

Today, many women are taught that the child in their womb is nothing more than a clump of cells. They are encouraged to end the life of that child if it is inconvenient, unwanted, or interferes with their plans. This is not merely error. It is a suppression of truth. Scripture is clear: God forms life in the womb. He is the author of it, and every child bears His image.

At the same time, many women who suffer miscarriage or infant loss are told that their babies are with the Lord, and that they themselves will see them again, regardless of their standing before God. While I do believe these little ones are with the Lord, it is not loving to turn that truth into a false assurance. A mother’s loss is not her entrance into heaven. At some point, as wisdom permits, she must hear the Gospel.

We do not need movements or awareness campaigns to address this kind of grief. What women need is the Word of God. They need the truth about the life within the womb. They need the truth that confronts sin and speaks to the conscience. And they need the Gospel, the only message that brings forgiveness and reconciliation with God.

Women are not served by being shielded from truth. Nor are they too fragile to bear it. Our souls depend upon it.

We need those who will come alongside women in both truth and love. We need those who will speak honestly about sin, while also pointing to Christ, who saves sinners. We need faithful men who will preach the Word of God without compromise, who will trust that God works through His Word as it is proclaimed.

As Mother’s Day approaches, it will be a time of joy for many, and a time of sorrow for others. Some will feel the weight of infertility. Some will remember children lost. Others will seek to suppress the memory of children they have chosen to murder while the world supported and celebrated them. In all of these cases, the answer is not sentimentality or carefully crafted messages designed to comfort without truth.

There is forgiveness. There is hope. But it is found only in Christ, and it is applied only through the true Gospel.

We do not need sermons tailored to flatter or soothe. We do not need to be set apart as though we require something different from the rest of the body. We need Christ.

Give us the Gospel.

Give us faithful exposition of Scripture.

And trust God to do His work through His Word.

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An additional resource is by Tim Challies, Seasons of Sorrow: The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God