By grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone
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 […]
Is the sun setting on America? No one knows. He does, of course, but we don’t. The temptation is to assess matters based upon snapshots and not videos. Snapshots capture a moment in time. Videos record much more. A photograph of Russell Wilson surrounded by three imposing defensive linemen doesn’t look good. A video doesn’t […]
Does faith work? That is, does faith show itself. James definitively answered that question a long time ago, “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:13). So yes, faith works. It shows itself. It declares itself. It does so out of gratitude for undeserved salvation. I am all in on […]
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 […]
Christian Little liked to read the paper. He liked knowing what was going on. In November 2012, he read that his state legalized marijuana. He wondered if the sky was falling. Christian Little liked to listen to talk radio. He liked knowing what was going on. In June 2015, he heard the United States Supreme […]
My blog is a letter I sent this week to Bob Ecklund, President and CEO of the Pierce and Kitsap County YMCA. In addition, I sent the letter to each of the YMCA’s Board of Directors–ten of them. It concerns the “Y’s” recent decision that members are free to access whatever bathroom/locker room facility based […]
The doors of the church remain wide open, the free offer of the Gospel proclaimed to all, but culture’s continued free-fall required us to clarify our Statement of Faith and amend our Bylaws. Hesitant to name specific sins given we are all sinners who have our own particular proclivities and sins to wrestle; we still […]
As a nation, we’re really good at moral outrage. Cecil the lion gets cut down somewhere in Africa and the news networks go nuts. Some want to outlaw hunting altogether. We want to know if our favorite coffee bean grown in the distant mountains of Central America comes from a fair-trade network or not. And […]
Last week was the 41st anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Large numbers can make us squint but here’s the tally: 57 million babies slaughtered since 1974. That’s about 3,200 lives every day in our nation since some black robes in D.C. said it’s OK to ignore the Sixth Commandment. Perhaps you don’t like the word […]
“We can’t tolerate this anymore,” said the president. He then added, “These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.” That sounds good to me. He went on to say that our nation was failing at “our first task” and that “if we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right.” The […]