Meditations

The Spirit Over the Water

by Ben Zornes · Jun 16, 2025

At creation, the Spirit hovered over the waters of the unformed world, and thus began the six days of creation. By the Father’s will, the Son’s Word, and the Spirit’s light the heavens and earth and all things visible and invisible were called into being.

The Spirit still hovers over the water, but now His work is that of a New Creation. That which is dark will be brightened. That which is unformed will be shaped in accordance with His will. We ought not to think of baptism as merely the possibility of the Spirit working. As our confession explains, the Spirit not only offers the grace of God in baptism, but He really exhibits and confers it. The Spirit moves as He sees fit. So we shouldn’t tell Him that He can work mightily elsewhere, but not here at the baptismal font. Why would we think that the Spirit who worked so mightily at the creation of the world would work less vibrantly here?

So welcome our sister to Jesus Christ…

The AI Echo Chamber

by Ben Zornes · Jun 11, 2025

There is a great deal of excitement surrounding the technological advances of AI. As such, it’s incumbent upon Christians to not be swept off by the spirit of the age into the particular sins and follies that arise with any new technological development. Whenever a new innovation arrives, it takes five seconds before evil men use it to pursue carnal desires. New tools inevitably are put to use to kill one’s enemies, take liberties with your neighbor’s wife, pilfer the possessions of others, or blaspheme God.

AI is just the latest thing. It has great capacity for usefulness, productivity, and further innovations. But along with it comes dreadful and soul-destroying follies. AI avatars are already being put to use to function as therapists, digital harlots, and loyal companions. Embracing such digital fellowship is not harmless. It’s effectively locking yourself in an echo chamber. Everything in the servers is derived from human language and understanding. There’s no transcendence there. It isn’t a digital tower into heaven.

AI also offers a perverse illusion of easy shortcuts. It holds out a shortcut to sexual satisfaction by AI girlfriends. Or, it allures with the opportunity to skip the duty to think long and hard about a topic, offering a cheap answer spit out by the algorithm. All this appeals to our sloth and ungodly desires.

The Spirit of God which hovered over the waters, and by Whose light the first day was lightened, has been given to You. You are an image bearer of Almighty God, and this demands that You bear yourself in such a manner. You are a lord or a lady of the Kingdom of God; not a slave of 0s & 1s. Don’t be enticed into submitting to chains of subservience, when God has made you free by His Spirit.

Pentecost Again

by Ben Zornes · Jun 9, 2025

The effects of that first Pentecost are like the waves generated from an undersea earthquake. Tsunami after tsunami continue to wash over this world as the Spirit accomplishes the task of subduing the whole world to Christ.

During times of cultural deadness and indifference, one might wonder if the Spirit has clocked out. In short, certainly not. History stands as a witness that in times of particular darkness the Spirit is mysteriously at work. He rouses God’s people to devote themselves to a few seemingly small things which then precipitate large scale renewal.

This renewal isn’t found in spreadsheets, by-laws, or protests. The secret sauce is found in God’s people devoting themselves to waiting upon God. And here’s how. By His power, faithfully obey His Word. Stack up the kindling of sincere obedience. Dry out the timber by devoting yourself to public and private prayer. Douse the altar in the lighter fluid of pure worship, repenting of all hypocrisy and double-living. And if the people of God will live in this way, we shall have Pentecost again. According to His good pleasure, and in His perfect timing, the Spirit of God always lights such fuel. It won’t need committees to manage it, or motions to pass it. The Spirit of God will leave no question that He is indeed in our midst.

In coming to the Lord’s table, we must come with that simple loyalty. Here is the body of the Lord, given to make you holy, to make you a witness of His new life, to make you a glory to His name. This earth will be covered in the glory of the Lord Jesus, and it will be brought about by faithful submission to the clear Word of God. Take and eat, and overthrow evil empires. Take and drink, and see righteousness billow like thunderclouds.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

Another Stone in the Temple

by Ben Zornes · May 27, 2025

Scripture is the time lapse of a construction project. That project was the construction of a house for God. The Law was like the Scaffolding, the Prophets were like the general contractors, the Patriarchs provided the building materials. The NT reveals that this temple was really a person, God’s own Son.

Each baptism reminds us that this temple is still under construction, and will be until, in eternity, it is a perfect city foursquare (Rev. 21:16). Baptism is God taking the hammer and chisel of His covenant, and hewing a new stone out of the old granite of Adam. That new stone is made alive, because it’s laid on the cornerstone of Life Himself, Jesus Christ. Baptism is thus an encouragement and assurance to us that God desires to dwell with us. As the water is sprinkled, by faith, hear the thud of another brick being laid in house of the Lord.

So welcome our brother to Jesus Christ…

Altar Calls & the Lord’s Supper

by Ben Zornes · May 26, 2025

The revivalism of the American frontier in the 1800s was marked by a fervent conviction that sinners must really come to feel the weight of their sins. The concept was that if indifferent men and women could be made to understand that the sword point of God’s justice was right behind them, it would cause emotional anxiety. Played rightly, this could bring folks to do whatever the revival preacher instructed.

These revival services would culminate in a rather chaotic climax of people rushing forward to what came to be known as the anxious bench. This practice became quite widespread within American religious life. Many churches simply incorporated the anxious bench as the liturgical high point of their services. Billy Graham crusades, with the hymn Just As I Am inviting folks to come forward and decide for Christ, is very much a part of this earlier legacy.

Now, you’ll notice that the culmination of our service is a table full of bread & wine. This isn’t a place where emotions comes to die. Rather, it’s where emotions come alive. The revivalism of the 1800s sought to singe off eyebrows with fears of hell-fire. Modern churches have careened off into a similar error of thinking that moody chord progressions will rouse people to encounter God in some life-changing way. In both cases, it’s hoped that emotions will precipitate faith.

But on this table we see the opposite: faith leads to right emotions. God hates your sin so much that He crushed His own Son; thus, this meal should compel you to despise your sins, and flee from them to Christ. Likewise, God delights in His Son so greatly, that in Christ you receive only welcome from Your heavenly Father. Here is a table where we can rightly feel, with reverence and joy, the horror of our sin and the glory of our Savior.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

Bad Attitudes & Black Holes

by Ben Zornes · May 22, 2025

Bad attitudes are black holes. Now, I’m a pastor by trade, not an astrophysicist, so forgive me if I’m a bit inaccurate in the particulars of what happens in those mysterious heavenly phenomena. Like black holes, bad attitudes really suck all light into themselves. Everything that gets too close gets swallowed up.

A certified grump, who is full of bitter complaints and seething resentments, can turn every room or situation either into a broiler room or a walk-in freezer. Such sinful dispositions have an incredible gravitational pull to cause anyone who gets close to simply slip into the grip of the grumpiness. It might be out of despair, fear, anger, or laziness, but when sinful moods are allowed to prevail in a relationship (whether in a marriage, family, church, friendship, or business) it is certain to make everyone miserable.

If you are the grump, you might develop a perverse joy in seeing how your foul mood sucks the life out of all those around you. You may know that what you’re doing is wrong. But, you simply don’t know how to refrain from the pleasure you find in making folks revolve around your ever-changing moods. If you find yourself orbiting such a grump you might scratch your head as to how in the world you can escape the clutches of the black hole which has emerged in your living room.

For both the grump and those in their gravitational orbit the only way out is gratitude and joy. Gratitude arises when you realize that God, through Christ, has pardoned you for all your sins. Joy arises when you trust that God looks at you in Christ and delights in you. This faith and the thankful rejoicing that arises from it, is irrepressible. Such faith is the only thing potent enough to attain a sufficient escape velocity.

A Terrible Inconsistency

by Ben Zornes · May 20, 2025

There’s a terrible inconsistency we Christians often have. Intellectually, we know that we’re saved by grace through faith. We know that “Salvation belongs to the Lord alone.” But then, we find ourselves trying to dust ourselves off, straighten our ties, sit up a little straighter, and clean ourselves up a bit before coming to Christ.

It is drilled into us as evangelicals that you cannot contribute to your salvation in the least measure. We know this particularly in reference to our initial salvation or conversion. Yet, as we go along we think that that order reverses. “Yes, yes,” we tell ourselves, “Come to Christ to be cleaned.” But then, our thinking drifts off into: “Clean yourself up and then come to Christ.”

There is, amongst evangelicals, an overused cliché. “Come just as you are.” This has been misused in large measure. It has justified all sorts of nonsense, laziness, and sin. Nevertheless, one of the primary principles conveyed in this meal set before you is that you must come to Christ, and continue to come to Christ, in order be made clean. You don’t get holy and then come to this feast. Rather, it is by coming to this feast by which Christ continues to cleanse you.

What Christ began in you, as symbolized in your baptism, is continued here. You are stained with the dark ink of sin, and there is no earthly bleach powerful enough to cleanse you. Apart from Christ there is no virtue in you strong enough to bring you to this table. This is why, Sunday after Sunday you are invited to come and welcome to Jesus Christ. Not because you were quite well-behaved this week, not because of your last name, pedigree, or diplomas. Rather, you are invited because “He which first won you still keeps you alive.”

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…