Prayers and Plans for the Summer
Jesus needed to get away from the everyday work of ministry and so do everyday pastors like me. Our elders have established a thoughtful plan for periodic extended breaks for both non-staff and staff pastors.
Social Justice, Pride Month, and The Two Parent Home
Social justice is something we’ve discussed in our preaching over the years. I’ve proposed that it’s not a helpful descriptor if we want to think and communicate in clear biblical terms. It’s overloaded with conflicting meanings. It’s also associated almost entirely in our public discourse with governmental redistributive programs aimed at resolving disparities of one kind or another.
Are God’s Wrath and God’s Love Compatible?
D.A. Carson has written a helpful book, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God. Kristi gave me this book when we were dating, actually. Now, twenty years and about two weeks later, I commend it to you.
Welcome Keith and Kristyn Getty, Deep Songwriters for Deep Churches
Deep. Happy. Faithful. Those are three words that come to mind when I think about Keith and Kristyn Getty. I remember where I was when I first heard, “In Christ Alone.” This song takes the deepest truths to the deepest places. There’s something about the combination of text and tune that struck me.
Welcome Three Faithful Brothers: David Mathis, Andy Naselli, Joe Rigney
In the coming weeks we have an opportunity to work out this spirit as a church by welcoming several “faithful brothers.” I’m eager for you to meet them and to greet them in Christ. So, let me make some introductions for us. I’ll make these remarks personal where I can, taking my cue from Peter who commended Silvanus to his own readers. I also asked each of these brothers for recommendations of things the other brothers have written lately, since they are all friends.
No Bits and Pieces, No Little People: Meet Francis Schaeffer
When the Sadducees came to Jesus with a disingenuous question about the resurrection, his response was direct: “you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Mk. 12:24). This is an interaction we explored in Sunday’s sermon, “He is God of the Living,” from Mark 12:18–27. The Sadducees insisted that there would be no future resurrection, that when we died that was it.
Defining Justice
There’s a popular slogan these days, “No Justice, No Peace.” Surely, we should want to positively affirm this simple statement. It is theologically true that there is no peace without justice. But in context, this slogan has been used as a threat. In short, “if we do not get justice, we will burn this city down.” So much turns on the meaning of justice.
Help for Anxious Hearts
God speaks some of the most beautiful words to anxious people. I don’t know where I read that, but it has stuck with me. Our text from Sunday took us to some of those beautiful words in Jesus’ otherwise peculiar command: “look at the birds” (Matt. 6:24). Birds are a reminder that God values us. If he feeds them, how much more will he care for us! That’s a good argument, and it’s put in a way that changes how we look at things. It literally changes what we are look at. Birds are one of God’s answers for our anxious hearts.
What’s in the Water?: Baptism as a Sign of Addition
A certain headline recently caught my attention: “Utah monolith: Helicopter crew discovers mysterious metal monolith deep in the desert.” What was this all about? Sure enough, way out in the desert was discovered a triangular structure of polished metal. Its clean edges rose out of the ground some ten feet. Clearly it did not belong there, but where was it from? As if from another world entirely, that triangular structure was proof that someone was up to something.
What’s in the Water?: Baptism as a Sign of the New Covenant
A wedding ring does not make you married, which is good for me, because I lost my first ring. But a ring does say that you are married, and it says this to your spouse and to everyone else. You could say that the ring is a visual shorthand for the whole marriage package. It is perfectly fitted to symbolize a specific invisible truth.
What’s in the Water?: Refreshing the Sign of Baptism
Judging from the labels on our bottled water, we Americans like to know what’s in our water. Did it come from a spring? A mountain? Is it pure? We’re mostly made of water, so that makes sense. Well, the church is made of water too, the water of baptism. Yes, more important than drinking water is dunking water.
Plans for the Pulpit: Stops Along the Path
Just this last week several of us elders were talking about how strange and sweet preaching is. What other group is sustained over centuries by near hour-long weekly monologues? We couldn’t think of any. But for us preaching is more than just words from a man, but the Word of Christ for us, to us, about us, and even in us. “Him we proclaim,” Paul wrote, “warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28). Preaching is personal and crucial.
Blue Crabs and Human Tradition
In Sunday’s sermon, “Worship and the Word,” from Mark 7:1–23, we came to Jesus’ famous confrontation with the scribes and the Pharisees on the topic of human tradition. The Pharisees sought to take God’s Word seriously. If God told the priests to wash their hands in the temple, then why shouldn’t all of us wash your hands all the time (Ex. 30:19–21)? And why not wash the pots and couches too? They did many things like this, apparently.
What it Means to Walk with God
In Sunday’s sermon from Genesis 4–6:8, “East of Eden,” we considered two ways to live outside the garden. We are not terribly surprised to discover the wandering way of Cain and the subsequent descent and spread of sin. We are caught off guard, however, by the record of Enoch, who “walked with God, and he […]
On Scripture Memory, Part 2: Some Encouragements and Exhortations
On January 6, Pastor Abe Stratton delivered the book of Hebrews from memory, in a sermon titled, “Looking to Jesus.” In Part 1, Abe discussed observations and benefits from memorizing a large portion of Scripture. In this second and final guest-post, Abe shares with us some encouragements and exhortations related to Scripture memory. ——— In this […]
We Have a Confession to Make
In Sunday’s sermon from Genesis 3, “Did God Actually Say?,” we watched sin enter the world through Adam’s attempt to dethrone God. We watched God drive the first human couple out of his presence, but not without the promise of One who would crush the head of the serpent. It is difficult to name a […]
Is Eden Really a Temple Sanctuary?
Maybe you’ve heard it said that the garden in Eden is a temple sanctuary. Maybe, like me, that sounded at first like reading the temple into the garden. In Sunday’s sermon, “Naked and Not Ashamed,” from Genesis 2:4–25, I suggested that we may not initially see the temple in the garden, but the first readers […]
Getting to Know God in the First Chapter of Genesis
If we had to put it in a word, what is the subject of the Bible? The Bible’s first sentence gives it away: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). God is the subject of Scripture, its main character, and the chief actor behind its unfolding story. What is he […]
New Series through Genesis: The Blessing
Where do we turn when the world seems dark and our lives seem like chaos? To the first page of the Bible where we read the words, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Those words were written for a generation that was rescued out of the darkness and chaos […]
On Scripture Memory, Part 1: Some Observations and Benefits
On January 6, Pastor Abe Stratton delivered the book of Hebrews from memory, in a sermon titled, “Looking to Jesus.” In this first of a two-part guest-post, Abe shares with us some observations and benefits of Scripture memory. ——— From the middle of 2016 until the end of 2018 I worked to memorize the book […]
New Series through Isaiah: A Vision of Two Cities
This Sunday we will begin a five-week sermon series through the Book of Isaiah, titled, A Vision of Two Cities. In Isaiah’s vision he sees Jerusalem as it is, in ruins. Yet by the end of the book, he sees a new Jerusalem. The question is: how does Jerusalem get that way? Across these 66 chapters […]
Music, Worship, and the Regulative Principle
What has God told us to do when we come together? What kind of worship is worthy of “the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God,” to whom belongs all “honor and glory forever and ever” 1 Tim. 1:17)? In Sunday’s sermon, “Elders as Bible Men,” we explored what we call, the Regulative Principle. […]
Resources for Growing in Godliness
It is helpful to think of our growth in godliness as growth. Things that grow take time, and things that grow usually take a measure of work. That’s why Paul says writes to Timothy, “train yourself for godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7). How exactly do we train ourselves for godliness? We explored this a bit in last […]
The Pulpit in July: The Beauty of Holiness
We’re one week into our new July sermon series, The Beauty of Holiness. Abe Stratton, our Pastor for Member Growth, designed this series as a kind of preached biblical theology of holiness in the Bible. As he said this past Sunday in his sermon, “The Holy God,” for a variety of reasons this is an often […]
Closing Up Colossians: A Prayer for Fullness in Christ
One of the commands in the book of Colossians is that we would “continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful I it with thanksgiving” (4:3). We’ve heard God’s voice in the book of Colossians. Now, let’s pray a concluding prayer through the book. **** For the saints (1:1–2) and faithful brothers and sisters at Heritage Bible Church—a […]
