By grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone
“Some amazing and wonderful things can happen when you walk through the doors of a church: you can hear the Gospel, and God can call you to saving faith. In addition, through the proclamation of His Word, you can be further instructed in the ways of the Lord—what it means to follow Him. What a […]
When I was young, our family piled in our Suburban for a week’s vacation somewhere. I loved orange soda at the time. The details are foggy, but I remember sitting in the back seat with my own two-liter bottle of Orange Spot. As we chugged down the road, I chugged down my soda—all of it. […]
The Civil War was a nasty confrontation. New estimates have bumped figures beyond 750,000 deaths. Given the war lasted four years, the math equates to 500 soldiers dying per day—every day. Added to this was the familial aspect—many accounts of family fighting against family—brothers even at war against one another. One such example was the […]
Tyson likes car rides. He enjoys sticking his boxer head out the window. Adjacent cars stare at him; he stares back. I’m not sure how he breathes at 35 mph, both nostrils to the wind—but he doesn’t complain. After a while he will look out the back window for a time. Then he will stick […]
In January, a young man slammed into a telephone pole. The car was engulfed in flames, and he died. I didn’t know the young man well, but every once in a while he and his father showed up Tuesday and Thursday mornings to play basketball with us at the “Y”. My observation, the father and […]
The Episcopalians were in the midst of their orthodox U-turn in the 90’s; they were chucking out doctrine left and right. I recently discovered some humor that floated around some Episcopalian forums and blogs at the time. Self-proclaimed conservative Episcopalians were asking one another, “What do we do now?” The story below was no doubt […]
Assyria was riding high. They were knocking off kingdoms left and right. The northern kingdom of Israel was a recent victim. The southern kingdom of Judah was rightfully worried. Assyria said they were coming after them next. What would Judah do? In their time of great need, to whom would they turn? In a word, […]
This is Joel’s third year of cross-country. We’ve enjoyed his many meets and the culture of distance running. There’s much to admire about the typical cross-country kid. He generally doesn’t have an ego—there are few fans. He generally isn’t the greatest athlete—the skillset required is that you can run. He generally isn’t too mindful of […]
“Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin”; so said Charles Spurgeon in the mid-19th century. We could update the quote giving it the punch it needs in our day: “Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than a […]
“Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck,” cries David the beginning of Psalm 69. It has been a difficult week; death tragically and unexpectedly descended upon our church. “I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold,” continued the king. We know what that feels like; some of […]
The story goes that a British pastor was invited to preach this side of the Atlantic. His text was 2 Kings 5:1: “Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given […]
Things hadn’t been going well for some time. Israel’s heyday was a distant memory. No one alive had seen the temple, palace, or even the wall that once surrounded Jerusalem, the great city. It had been a very difficult 150 years since Babylon conquered and deported most of the nation. Along comes Nehemiah, he knows […]