The Tulip Driven Life

  Matthew Henry on the great duty and value of Family Worship and making the home a little church: "The pious and zealous endeavours both of magistrates and ministers for the reformation of manners, and the suppression of vice and profaneness, are the joy and encouragement of all good people in the land, and a happy indication that God has yet mercy in store for us: If the Lord had been pleased to kill us, he would not have shewed us such things as these. Now I know not any thing that will contribute more to the furtherance of this good work than the bringing of family -religion more into practice and reputation. Here the reformation must begin. Other methods may check the disease we complain of, but this, if it might universally obtain, would cure it. Salt must be cast into these springs, and then the waters would be healed. Many a time, no doubt, you have been urged to this part of your duty ; many a good sermon perhaps you have heard, and many a good book has been put into you...

This is from Ursinus's commentary on the 5th commandment of the Heidelberg Catechism (which should count for something since, you know, he wrote the catechism): "The duties of magistrates may be reduced to these heads, 1. To require from their subjects obedience, and external propriety according to both tables of the Decalogue. 2. To enforce the precepts of the Decalogue, by defending those who yield obedience to it, and punishing such as are disobedient. 3. To enact certain positive laws for the maintenance of civil order. By positive laws, we mean such as determine and prescribe those circumstances which are necessary for the preservation of the order and honor of the state, and which contribute to the obedience which the law of God requires. 4. The execution of the laws which they prescribe from time to time. There are two extremes in opposition to the duties of magistrates. The first is remissness, or a want of proper attention to their duties, which shows itself, either i...

A Wedding Homily on Genesis 1, Titus 2, Ephesians 5, and other passages: “A Faithful Marriage” Our message from God’s Word is titled “A Faithful Marriage”. The true purpose and picture of a faithful marriage is not popular today, sadly even in many of our churches and among some of our ministers. We live in a day when many are not even sure what a man or a woman is. No wonder, then, that we do not know what a husband and a wife are to be in the bonds of holy matrimony. Thankfully, our Lord has made clear in the Scriptures that He has created mankind in His image and according to His likeness, as male and female. He said in Genesis 1 the purpose of creating man in His image was for them to have dominion over His creation. God blessed us and commanded us to “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” But God did not create man and woman to have thi...

  I was asked recently what "Christian Nationalism" means. Well, for me, to be fairly simplistic, it means we want God's law/righteous government in our nation(s). God has ordained civil magistrates, per Romans 13, 1 Peter 2, and other passages, to promote/praise what is good and punish what is evil. It has been given the sword of justice by God to do this, not the keys of the kingdom of heaven. But just as the rod of correction is given by God in the home to the parents and father especially, and is used by God and conducive to the child's learning of the dangers of sin/law-breaking, pointing to the need of redemption as the Gospel is taught in the home, so even civil government can be used by God to not only curb evil to uphold justice in a land, but by that very action, also point the people of a nation toward righteousness, by deterring them from committing crime/evil and praising those who do good (who worship God, repent and believe in Christ, who honor the Sabb...

  Matthew Henry on the Apostle Paul pleading his Roman Citizenship Privilege in Acts 22: "Paul pleaded his privilege as a Roman citizen, by which he was exempted from all trials and punishments of this nature (v. 25): As they bound him with thongs, or leathern bands, to the whipping post, as they used to bind the vilest of malefactors in bridewell from whom they would extort a confession, he made no outcry against the injustice of their proceedings against an innocent man, but very mildly let them understand the illegality of their proceedings against him as a citizen of Rome, which he had done once before at Philippi after he had been scourged (ch. 16:37), but here he makes use of it for prevention. He said to the centurion that stood by, "You know the law; pray is it lawful for you who are yourselves Romans to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?" The manner of his speaking plainly intimates what a holy security and serenity of mind this good man enjoyed, no...