By grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone
My disgust has gone from simmering to boiling the past few months. I am referring to our civil overlords who believe their role and title is Over Lord. Some believe they suffer from narcissism. That may be. But I believe the better diagnosis is demi-god. Their arrogance, hubris, and condescending self-importance busted the scale months […]
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 Wilderness was beautiful. It was open, it was wild, it was free. It was full of opportunity and promise. But the Wilderness was also dangerous. Many did not see it that way, though. Maybe this was because it was so enchanting and captivating. There also was a misguided thought one could live there as […]
I’m no movie critic. But I am a pastor. That means I still get to comment on movies. Even though I took a class in college called “Introduction to American Film,” my opinions on plot, character development, cinematography, and the like are, well…no better than just opinion. The pastor in me, however, gets to make […]
A Puritan Paperback by Thomas Watson, The Lord’s Supper is a treatise that explains the importance, personal preparation, comfort, and ends of the Lord’s Supper. In one section of the book on preparing for the Lord’s Supper, Watson gives believers a list of ten ways they should prepare themselves for the Lord’s Supper (or as […]
Jesus said, ‘Therefore consider carefully how you listen’ (Luke 8:18). Here are some cautions and directions, in order to help you hear sermons with profit and advantage: 1. Come to hear them, not out of curiosity, but from a sincere desire to know and do your duty. To enter his house merely to have our ears […]
We have never been called “cutting-edge.” Our “Order of Worship” has deviated little over 16 years. We sing mostly from the hymnal accompanied mostly by a piano. We are committed to “Word and Sacrament” ministry; expositional sermons and communing at the Table each Lord’s Day. Simple and predictable are fair assessments; to this we offer […]
Anybody ever come up to you and say: “Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you”? Anybody ever come up to you after church and say: “God is really among you”? The first statement from an unbeliever to a believer comes from the public square and is from Zechariah […]
On one end the psalmist says, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’” (Ps. 122:1). On the other end were the people of Malachi’s day who had a different thought about going to God’s house, “What a weariness this is” (Mal. 1:13). On one end […]
You didn’t pray for your Pastor last week. You may not even have asked God to prepare your heart for the preaching of the Word on Sunday. (2 Thessalonians 3:1-5) You were sleepy in church because you stayed up too late the night before. Maybe you were even late for church (as always ?). And […]
“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 […]
There is a surprising word in our Bibles. According to my Exhaustive Concordance, it is used only once in the sixty-six books that comprises our Holy Spirit inspired Bible; but it is there. And if it was used more than once, you’d remember it. I came across it in my devotional reading a month or […]