We just finished a sermon series on Paul’s stunningly beautiful letter to the Ephesians. In it we saw the gospel spread out like a banquet before us, showing us the rich beauty of God’s great salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ Jesus alone. We saw God’s plan to create a Church, a…
Pastor Chuck delivered a sermon recently about the Holy Spirit. He is God within us, sent by the Father to be our counselor and helper after Jesus was taken into Heaven (John 14:16-17). He is the guarantee of our inheritance, or the down payment on what has been promised to us (Eph. 1:13-14). He is…
What does it mean to say, “God is love?” In what way does God love the whole world? Human love is the most confounding and mystical of our earthly experiences. How then shall we understand the love of God? Is His love the easiest thing to understand about God, or possibly the hardest? Early in…
Many American living rooms have a framed picture of Jesus. Why do folks do that? Some may like the notion of Jesus watching over us, like some heavenly ADT system. Some may see Jesus as the ultimate family-friendly hero. Some may use the Jesus picture just to call Him to mind. For others, it’s strictly…
In the children’s song “Jesus Loves the Little Children” there are variants for the lines that attempt to include all the races of children that Jesus loves. Some sing, “red and yellow, black and white,” while others sing the slightly more detailed version, “red, brown, yellow, black, and white.” So which is it? Are there four races? Five? How many races are…
From his deathbed, John Allen of the Salvation Army reportedly proclaimed, “I deserve to be damned; I deserve to be in hell; but God interfered!” How does that sound, fellow believer? Is that how you’d explain your standing before God? I find much to love in this brother’s formulation of his life story. In particular, I’m fascinated by the impact of the…
Much of my life looks, sounds, and feels pretty much like your typical white, suburban, tech-trained family man. Da wife, da kids, da job, da Pack – like so many others. I don’t dress like John the Baptist. I don’t eat like him either. I don’t even put bumper stickers on my car. So, mostly, I’m pretty ordinary. Except for one…