Pastor’s Blog

The Obama Administration announced this week that the nation’s health insurers have to start covering birth control as part of women’s preventative care. What that means, among other things, is no more co-pays for contraception. I didn’t know pregnancy was a disease. That’s how it’s being treated, however. Contraception is preventative healthcare for this crowd; […]

There was something else I wanted to mention about the prayer life of the Puritans (see “Praying Like a Puritan,” June 30, 2011 blog). Not only was the content of their prayers biblically rich; so were their salutations. Here are a few opening addresses from their prayers found in the book, “The Valley of Vision.” […]

(Pastor Rich Hamlin is on vacation with his family this week and Lord willing will return next week.) The Puritans abounded in preachers like Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), Richard Baxter (1615-l691), John Owen (1616-1683), Thomas Watson (d. l686), John Flavel (1627-1691), Jonathan Edwards (1702-1758), and that later Puritan, “prince of preachers,” Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892). One […]

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet…” I was in the minority but I enjoyed reading Shakespeare my sophomore year in high school. I enjoyed the clever language and innuendo; I enjoyed deciphering the not-so-obvious. The line above is from “Romeo and Juliet”; enchanted […]

The Holy War rages on; the Kingdom of God versus the Kingdom of Satan. Opening shots were fired in the Garden when the serpent craftily inquired of Eve: “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1) God really did say but Satan has looked for ways to get us to question ever since. Sometimes the battle looks […]

“O my Savior, help me. I am slow to learn, so prone to forget, so weak to climb; I am in the foothills when I should be on the heights….” Those Puritans sure knew how to pray; and it’s not because they had extensive vocabularies and were good with metaphors. Theirs was a deep piety […]

He’s one of those Old Testament kings we pay little attention to; written about in a book from which we rarely read. But even though he was on the throne so long ago; his downfall still instructs. His name was Joash and his story is told in 2 Chronicles 24. Joash became king of Judah […]

Every young parent hears it. It goes something like this: “Enjoy these years with your kids, it will go quick.” Its not that I didn’t believe them when they told me; it’s just that I didn’t realize how fast quick is! Our eldest received his diploma last week. It was a sad/glad moment. It was […]

The culture war is not an onion. Peel away the layers of an onion and you still get onion. Peel away the layers from people and organizations warring against God’s law and biblical norms; you discover deeper issues—that is, lying beneath their agenda is something else propping it up. The pro-homosexual crowd exemplifies. Last fall, […]

It’s easy to lose things—even important things. “Where are my keys?” “Have you seen my wallet?” “Can you call my cell? I can’t find the blasted thing!” Yes; it is easy to lose things. We identify. But how do you lose the most important thing? Josiah was just eight years old when he became king […]

If you hadn’t heard of him before, you probably have since May 21, 2011 is now behind us. Harold Camping, the self-described Bible scholar and radio station mogul, proclaimed that was the day Christians were out of here (his understanding of “the rapture”—which is an entirely different matter, by the way) and the day the […]

What’s going on your stone? You can find this one at Boot Hill Cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona for someone named Butch: “Here lays Butch. We planted him raw. He was quick on the trigger; but slow on the draw.” Apparently, Butch was a lousy gun-slinger; but if that’s all they could come up when he […]