As has been my habit for the last several years, I’m starting the new year with a yearlong theme: new life. Maybe the past two years have prompted me to think in that direction. In 2020, with the COVID pandemic throwing every aspect of our lives into chaos, many of us often found ourselves longing … [Read more…]
While John’s account of Jesus’ life and ministry does not have a story about the birth of Jesus, John does give us an important insight into who Jesus is. Perhaps the clearest statement is John 1:14: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the … [Read more…]
I’m proud of you! I’ve admitted before that I don’t like to talk about money, but considering the strange circumstances of the past two years, I am overwhelmed by your faithfulness in giving. The facts of the ledger sheet reveal that giving is about $12,000 behind expenses (as of the beginning of October); they also … [Read more…]
I don’t want to be “that guy,” but the holiday season is just about here. Yes, I’m referring to that stretch of celebrations from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day. For a lot of folks, the holiday season begins a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, with all the preparations – shopping, cooking, cleaning, etc. – and … [Read more…]
As I have been preaching, teaching, and writing about holiness throughout 2021, I have defined or described holiness as God’s total perfection and purity in all of his attributes and actions. God is holy because God is totally perfect in his power, his authority, his love, his justice, his grace, and in any other characteristic … [Read more…]
When I was a kid, we always looked forward to the night our family went back-to-school shopping. It was usually a Friday night, after Dad got home from work. We would pile into the club cab of the pickup truck and go to the mall, which was about 30 miles away. Sometimes we’d all stay … [Read more…]
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I’ve said several times through the current Sunday morning sermon series that it has been difficult to prepare and preach these messages through Leviticus. It’s difficult to preach from the Old Testament to people who live in a New Testament context. It’s also difficult because the content of Leviticus is so foreign, written for and … [Read more…]
In the final sermon of the “Stand-Out Church” series, I preached through Ephesians 1:3-14. In verses 3, 4, Paul tells us that God is blessed or ought to be praised for choosing the faithful in Christ “to be holy and blameless in his sight” (NIV 1984). In other words, God is blessed when we are … [Read more…]
First, these thoughts are not original with me; I’ve been prompted to respond to something I read recently. So giving credit where credit is due, I’ve been reading The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges (NavPress, 1978); it’s a “modern classic” of Christian writing about discipleship, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants … [Read more…]