You scurry undetected. Your words are not many. You would rather do, than talk. People know your face. You wonder if they know your name. You fit in. You don’t stand out. Are you shy? Probably. Do you fear man? Maybe. Hesitant to speak because you don’t know what to say? Perhaps. Is this a […]
Early in redemptive history, God gave the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. He did so on the heels of the exile. Israel, in Egyptian bondage for four centuries, was miraculously rescued from her servitude. Regarding the Law, God’s people were promised blessings for obedience, and curses for disobedience. The greatest curse promised was exile […]
Decades from now, if the world becomes saner through the Kingdom of God getting larger, we will have a conversation with our grandchildren or great grandchildren. And they may ask us something like this, “Tell us about the troubling times. How did it happen? What was wrong with people? Didn’t they see it coming? Why […]
I was boning up on my C.R. Wiley this week, taking off the shelf my copy of “The Household and the War for the Cosmos,” given that he will be our guest speaker a week from this Saturday at our Men’s Breakfast. I was reminded of a quote from the book I found particularly insightful: […]
We Christians can be a strange and frustrating bunch. We claim Jesus as Lord and Savior and often don’t live like it. We know that. We are not proud of it. There is no excuse for it. We find ourselves regularly confessing our failings to God. We probably should confess more to you, as well, […]
Church Family, Forced and/or coerced COVID-19 vaccination mandates are being imposed on several of our members. The previous two blogs have addressed the egregious overreach that is being played. Attached you will find our church’s “Statement on Mandatory Medical Procedures.” You will also find a letter we will be making available for our members seeking […]
Standing on our ancient Christian beliefs, committed to our doctrinal standards stated in the Westminster Confession of Faith and declared in our Statement of Faith which espouse the supremacy of the Holy Scriptures; Evangelical Reformed Church affirms our religion’s principles of liberty of conscience, our honoring and preserving of human life from conception to natural […]
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 […]
On April 25, 2020, six weeks into ceasing Sunday morning worship at the directive of our governor, I preached a sermon entitled, “Who Says We Can’t Meet During the Virus?” It was an exposition of Romans 13:1-7. In it we spoke of “sphere sovereignty,” the teaching from Scripture that God has ordained three major “governments”—the […]
Time for a thought experiment. And I am serious about it. I want you to consider a “what if?” A little over a year ago, we reopened our church doors. We were told to keep them shut. But ten weeks of that was enough. God was to be worshiped, not from a couch but from […]
The church cannot fight a culture war without a culture. We must have something “in here” for us to successfully engage “out there.” What is it we must have? First and foremost is a robust, weighty, and substantive Sunday morning worship. O, and it needs to be joyful, too. This is where the knot is […]
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 […]