It is cool (hip, in, not sure the correct term) to be a minimalist. Please do not expect me to do a review of the various reality shows. I don’t have time to watch them. I did watch a little bit of Marie Kondo once and she has helped me to appreciate how my wife…
Over the years, I have received more inquiries regarding assurance than any other matter. It’s a joy to offer help by pointing people to the object of faith, Jesus, based on the sure Word of God. The only infallible assurance is the infallible Word of God. A simple pattern is evident in most (if not…
Nathan Finn, in an editorial piece published Nov 20, 2019, by Baptist Press, argues that the 2009 Manhattan Declaration is “even more important in 2019” than it was on the day of publication. Is Finn right to make this conclusion? Finn offers a summary of the Declaration this way: The Manhattan Declaration outlined three issues…
Occasionally I get the privilege of preaching at my church. I have been preaching through a series on James, so recently I opened my Bible browser online to look at the next passage, and it was this: Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the…
The annual, year-end holiday season from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve provides a wonderful opportunity for Christians to shine as lights in a dark and bungling world. During this time, as the bitter cold and darkness increases, the behavior of nonbelievers increasingly reveals their spiritual darkness and blindness towards God. Lampposts in the Snow A…
Saul was if not the first, one of the first celebrity converts. He had achieved success and notoriety outside of Christianity. He was known both in Jerusalem and other Ancient Near Eastern cities for his zeal for Judaism and for persecuting Christians. He was as close to a celebrity as anything the New Testament era…
In an earlier post, we offered Meditations on Creation from our friend John Mincy. His meditations continue through Creation and Fall in a diary format. June 23, 2019 The God of Creation As we study the first chapters of Genesis it is important to keep in mind that the entire fabric of the rest of…
In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:18, 19 Continual joy ought to fill the Christian life, continuously looking toward the fulfillment of all of God’s promises to us. By this, I mean experiencing the joy of the Lord regardless…
Our church’s recent Christian Heritage Tour of Washington D.C. accomplished what I had hoped. Neither a vacation nor strictly a historical tour, the trip proved a genuinely spiritual experience. Our tour guide, Rev. Tim Schmig, calls the tours he leads of the nation’s capital “Stories in Stone” for good reason. As we visited monuments and…
As ministers of the Gospel, it’s natural that we would want to preserve and revitalize the institutions that have accomplished God’s work in the past. But what do we do when we realize that a church has lost its effectiveness, and efforts to revitalize have failed? Should a church like that be kept alive at…