Greatest Worth
We were made for awe and beauty. There is something in us that awakens when we gaze into the dark night sky and see a million brilliant stars. When we stand on the edge of the Grand Canyon or the coast of a vast ocean. What is big and beautiful stirs us. Several years...
Certainty
Lucy and I had the privilege of being in Jerusalem last week, part of an 8-day tour of Israel. It was exhilarating to be in the places where our Lord walked, performed miracles, taught the multitudes, and eventually was crucified for us. Our time there coincided with...
Unity
Unity in the church is a big deal to God. Jesus prayed for it just before He went to the cross to make it possible. In what is often referred to as His “high priestly prayer” (John 17), Jesus specifically asked that all those who would come to believe in Him...
Joy – Peace – Hope
A few weeks before Christmas I made a purchase on my phone, which seemed altogether routine. Within minutes text messages alerted me to the possibility that my purchase was fraudulent and that I should call this number. I did and was immediately talking to a very...
Going Back in the Box
Lucy and I did a Liberty jigsaw puzzle together over the Christmas holiday. Successfully assembling five hundred and sixty-two wooden pieces of fascinating shapes and colors is both a mental and tactile triumph. (I’m a simple man). There is something joyous about...
Sovereign Over All
Of all the glories for which God must be praised, His providential rule over all things shines brightly at Christmas. The incarnation of Jesus occurred at the perfect time and in the precise place of God’s sovereign design. In the eternal decree of God, Mary and...
Loved by God
“How do you feel God feels about you?” A pastor and friend of mine recently asked this question to a group of Christian leaders. He was not asking about our theology or cognition but about our emotional experience of God. If you close your eyes and imagine how God...
Dining with Jesus
There has never been a teacher like Jesus. He spoke the words of God with such power and authority that everywhere He went people marveled at His wisdom. Whether he was teaching in the synagogue or telling parables on the road by a vineyard, Jesus could hold a crowd...
Good News for All
One of the challenges of our current study in the Gospel of Luke will be the sections we will not fully address as we cover one chapter each week. We’ve already passed over an exciting episode in chapter two in which we get a glimpse of Jesus as a twelve-year-old....
Back to Church
An ancient biblical writer once lamented that everyone in his day lived in autonomous independence of God while relentlessly pursuing personal status, wealth, health, successful work, pleasure, and leisure. Daily observing a culture of indulgence and self-affirming...
