by Matthew Borgstrom | May 12, 2020 | Uncategorized
In light of the love Jesus calls his people to in Luke 6:32-36, what is the disposition of your heart towards those who boast over you or who trample your kindness or who constantly misinterpret your words and motives? Are you able to turn from and eradicate unloving...
by Matthew Borgstrom | May 4, 2020 | Uncategorized
As we continue to refresh our thinking about what is fundamental in the life of the church, here is a helpful question to begin with: What does Jesus point to as the key factor in identifying a group of his disciples?—”Others will know that you are my disciples...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Apr 27, 2020 | Uncategorized
It’s likely that because of our lengthy time away from each other, we might feel the sacrifice of gathering together more than we have in the past. What kind of sacrifice exactly? There are at least 3 kinds: 1) The sacrifice of preparation–It takes great...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Apr 20, 2020 | Uncategorized
In Psalm 25:20, David asked the Lord to guard him and then in v.21, he uses a synonymous verb to say that his integrity and uprightness guards him. Which is it that guards him?—God or his character. Both! We know that God’s power is ultimately the cause of any...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Apr 14, 2020 | Uncategorized
We can begin with a conclusion after working through vv.1-6 of Ps.24: Due to God’s holy requirements, it’s only God’s who can enable a sinner to draw near to worship. Now what’s so important for us to understand is the magnitude of might that it takes for God...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Apr 7, 2020 | Uncategorized
Does our definition of acceptable worship unto God include what is found in Psalm 24:4, namely having clean hands and a pure heart? It’s very sad, highly detrimental and incredibly deceiving that we have wrongly defined worship as getting a multitude of people in a...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Mar 31, 2020 | Uncategorized
When thinking about the all-encompassing shepherding Christ supplies His sheep, the question that should be on our minds is: What took place to gain sinners this kind of privileged status? For that answer, we can go to the end of John 10:15 to find a restatement of...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Mar 24, 2020 | Uncategorized
As David thinks over who the Lord is for him and what the Lord has done for him, he comes to one conclusion at the beginning of Psalm 23:6—most certainly goodness and mercy will pursue him all of his days. Goodness is anything that enhances someone’s welfare,...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Mar 16, 2020 | Uncategorized
The ridicule Christ experienced while dying on the cross was not only cruel, but it contained the most twisted and perverted assessments of reality, coupled with some of the greatest expressions of unbelief ever to be uttered on the face of the earth. For example, in...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Mar 9, 2020 | Uncategorized
As we study David’s life-threatening circumstances in Ps. 22, we will probably be provoked to raise this question: What’s the purpose of the waiting and the human sensation of distance from God? Does our God just enjoy suspense, while watching his people squirm? OR...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Mar 2, 2020 | Uncategorized
In other to prepare us for a major theme we will study in the final portion of Psalm 19, consider this question: Why has God revealed himself in Scripture? In other words, what is the intention of his revelation based upon all those wonderful attributes of truth that...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Feb 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
Apparently, the author of Ps. 119 prizes the word to the same extent as David does in Ps. 19:7. Listen to this sampling—Ps. 119:25 My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!…28 My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Feb 17, 2020 | Uncategorized
An implication which proceeds from Ps.16 is that it’s impossible to trust in God for an eternal security of our souls if we aren’t trusting in him for a present security of our souls. In other words, there is no way to have certainty that God will be our refuge when...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Feb 11, 2020 | Uncategorized
If we think over David’s words in Ps. 8:3-4, here’s what we walk away with: In comparison to God’s expansive universe, man is pretty small and insignificant. Has any thought like that come across our minds this past week or even since the turn of the new year? ...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Feb 3, 2020 | Uncategorized
Ultimately, Psalm 2 challenges us to consider how we honor God’s Son, Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives. And then after we engage in a self-assessment, we must consider how others in our sphere of influence treat the Son. The NT tells us that…Whoever believes...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Jan 27, 2020 | Uncategorized
We would all do well to consider if we living the blessed life according to Psalm 1. In other words, do you have true happiness; an abiding, joyful contentment? Some might respond: “Not really, but I can’t fathom how that can happen by following what this Psalm...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Jan 20, 2020 | Uncategorized
How do the Praise Psalms intend the sanctification of God’s people? It’s always humbling for us to acknowledge God as the source of our deliverance. The more we refuse credit for anything in our lives, the more useful we will be to him. Moreover, the Bible says that...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Jan 13, 2020 | Uncategorized
After discussing the parenting paradigms from Ephesians 6 and various Proverbs, there is one, final, critical truth to discuss: Just because we adopt these paradigms does not mean there is a guarantee of our children’s salvation or even that our kids won’t make...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Jan 6, 2020 | Uncategorized
It’s not debatable that we must protect our children from bad influences, which is a noble desire, for 1 Corinthians does say that bad company corrupts good morals. That means that an overexposure to those who are bent on doing evil can influence others to such an...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Dec 23, 2019 | Uncategorized
As Thomas Watson so aptly worded it in his book, The Doctrine of Repentance, “confession must acknowledge the source.” The source of all our sin is, of course, our own sinful nature. To embrace this truth even more, it’s often helpful to consider that...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Dec 16, 2019 | Uncategorized
In order to pursue the Lord and fight the fight of faith as we should, we are going to have to dive into, perhaps, the greatest biblical tension in the NT. This tension I am referring to is captured in these statements: On the one hand, we are informed that our old...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Dec 9, 2019 | Uncategorized
It’s a sad reality that the truth just bounces off some people like a ball off of a brick wall. How so? It’s because they have a built-in tuner that when the conviction comes, they tune it out by thinking about other people whom they think are worse offenders than...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Dec 2, 2019 | Uncategorized
Jesus’ words in the following text are particularly counter-cultural in evangelicalism—Matt. 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Nov 24, 2019 | Uncategorized
We must understand that our accountability is largely based on our stewardship of the truth. For instance, to hear the word of God and not do anything about what you hear is like playing with fire, because you can become more hardened by the only thing that can...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Nov 22, 2019 | Uncategorized
As we think about the truth that our time is limited, one of the immediate implications is that our lives and everyone else’s lives are fleeting–James 4:14…What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. This is why Moses...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Nov 16, 2019 | Uncategorized
Even though the Isaiah 6 quotation in Acts 28 has a very specific purpose and application to the people of Israel, the principle carries over to all Christian ministry. We have hit this theme many times throughout our study of Acts, so it is fitting that we would...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Nov 8, 2019 | Uncategorized
Upon reaching v.10 of Acts 28, Paul had continued to trust in God, despite a seemingly hopeless situation and a seemingly irrational pathway to safety. This led to expansive ministry among a previously unreached people. God loves to do this. He loves to open up...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Oct 30, 2019 | Uncategorized
The sailors may have believed in what Paul said in Acts 27:24, that they would make it safely to land, but they certainly didn’t believe what he said in v.26, that in order to be spared, they must run the ship aground into some island. This is a denial of the means...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Oct 21, 2019 | Uncategorized
So having heard Paul’s charge to be encouraged in Acts 27:21-25, the people on the ship now have a choice whether to listen to the guy who has an amazing confidence in the midst of this great and prolonged danger OR they can remain dejected, just sitting there...
by Matthew Borgstrom | Oct 14, 2019 | Uncategorized
Acts 26:31-32 are in our Bibles because it makes it obvious that there are no legitimate charges against Paul, and because the reader of Acts is well aware of the divine intentions of the furtherance of the gospel, we know that getting Paul out of chains was not God’s...
