By grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone
To Whom It May Concern: The pastors and elders of Evangelical Reformed Church are writing on the behalf of ____________________ to confirm that his/her sincerely held religious beliefs prevent him/her from receiving a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination. Our church, for ourselves and our congregants, affirms our right to invoke religious exemption against mandatory vaccination by governmental […]
The “Vax Net” is getting larger. Healthcare providers, government employees and contractors, soldiers, law enforcement personnel, firefighters, airline employees, teachers, coaches, and more are on the growing list. More will be added. I promise. I have seen this movie before. Hubris knows no bounds. O, and about coaches, the net has caught me. If you […]
The wall was old. How old, few knew. It was there. It had been there for years. It was taken for granted. It kept the bad out. It provided security for those on the inside. That was good, for it was dangerous times. But the binary categories of good and bad had fallen on hard […]
Where are we headed? We certainly seem to be on a dry and bumpy backroad somewhere. We left the interstate and we did some time ago. Can we get back there? We can. There are road signs. And there is even a map. But to be able to return, something must happen first. There needs […]
The 19th century Scottish minister and author, George MacDonald, wrote a parable where we are to imagine ourself as a house. When we come to saving faith, God begins the remodel. At first, we mostly understand what He is doing. You were aware there were some obvious “fixes” needed in some of the rooms. There […]
In Lewis’s “The Screwtape Letters”, the old and experienced demon Screwtape is mentoring his novice nephew, the demon Wormwood, on how to best secure the damnation of the young man assigned him by Satan. In one of his letters to his prodigy, Uncle Screwtape writes, “One of our great allies at present is the Church […]
Some cringe at the thought of opening up their home. Visions of cleaning up the strewed messes, making sure the toilet bowl sparkles, and fearing guests will see the couch stain has barred visitors from crossing your threshold for years. Plus, you do not have an open-concept home and there is no shiplap anywhere. How […]
There was a time in our past where the ascetics headed for the desert and the monks hid behind high walls. Removing oneself from society was thought the way to keep oneself pure. But like our shadow, we take our sin with us wherever we go. For two-plus centuries the church has had a good […]
Charles had become good at crawling in the shadows. He had been doing so for some time. When you are behind enemy lines, you keep your head down and you stay low. It was unclear how he got there. But the landscape did not lie. He was in enemy territory. The thought of getting caught […]
We breathe culture. We do because society’s norms are all around us. Culture codifies acceptable conduct. And therein lies the problem. Culture is dictated by what man thinks. Therefore, we must be careful. The question becomes, “Are we breathing in man’s wisdom and norms, shaping how we act and think, which often runs counter to […]
September 24, 2020 Church Family, In Deuteronomy 29, Moses is renewing the terms of God’s relationship with his people. Why is it being renewed? The reason being that now at the end of their 40-year wilderness wandering, everyone over the age of 20 when they departed Egypt had died. The children of the Exodus were […]
Most of us haven’t had to choose between God and Caesar—at least not yet. Times are changing like the seasons, however. Secularism is on the march. If religious freedom was an apple, government has been taking quite a few bites from it lately. Case in point, Georgia. The state legislature passed a bill this week […]