Deus Misereatur

  The biblical book of Ruth is a short, gritty, witty, and chancy little work. Four chapters full of grief and questions, risk and surprises. Then Dale Ralph Davis, one time professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary and pastor, comes along and adds to the adventure of Ruth a 96-page paperback, "No Hopeless Future: Expositions on the Book of Ruth." The title succinctly announces the focus of Davis's work and the message of Ruth. Together the reader should walk away confirmed in the recognition that " God takes common and complicated circumstances in the lives of his people and makes them contribute to the coming of his kingdom in this world " (pg. 95). The chapters are Davis's sermons on Ruth from when he was pastoring Woodland Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Hattiesburg, Mississippi several years ago. A teenage young man heard those sermons, and then years later, while a Major in the United States Marine Corps, found the audio recordings and t...

  (From my letter to the congregation sent out on 14 January 2026) Last week we began praying for the revival and reformation of God’s church in these United States of America (see Part 1 ). We also want to invite other believers to do the same with us. We continue this theme today from Zephaniah.   Zephaniah recorded how the Day of the LORD was coming upon God’s people. This short work is quite sobering. And it becomes quickly recognizable that the Day of the LORD in Zephaniah was a season of national judgment brought about through natural, social, political, local and regional catastrophe and calamity. It is a day of distress, anguish, ruin, devastation, darkness, gloom, armed conflict (1:15), and economic collapse (1:18).   And what is clear is that the arrival of the Day of the LORD is because God’s church had become so similar to the immoralities of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Ekron, all of which were Philistines (1:2-6, 2:4). Many in God’s family were acting, re...

  (I was invited by Mayor Holt to give the invocation at the Oklahoma City Council meeting today. Here is the way it went) This is God's word to us: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil ” (2 Corinthians 5:10).   I invite those who can in good conscience please join me as I pray to Almighty God through the Lord Jesus Christ :   In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.   Knowing, O Lord, that we must all appear before the great Judgment Seat of Christ, it is our aim to be pleasing to you in our actions, thoughts, intentions and words. In this light, please give this City Council your healthy wisdom, charitable patience, resilient energy, and joyful civility in their plannings, ponderings, decisions and deliberations, so that they may see clearly how to best govern this city, to decide on claims, amend master desig...

  With Paul and all of the Apostles, along with the saints and martyrs who have gone before, and with our brothers and sisters world over, we lift our hearts in adoration: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (...