How Do I Teach My Family?
Three things to remember as we seek to build God-centered homes where sound doctrine is the foundation and our Lord Jesus Christ is the cornerstone.
It is during common everyday activities that Christian families are encouraged to talk about God and His Word and to consider how doctrine applies to various circumstances that arise. Therefore, let us seize those opportunities to explain and apply the wisdom of God’s Word in our families. Dear believer, just as a plant flourishes in... Continue Reading
The Lord Is My Restorer
As you strive to live for His glory, rest in Him, be restored by His Word, and walk in paths of righteousness.
The Lord desires us to live for His glory, and this is good news for us because we find our ultimate joy in doing so. Your best response to your Shepherd is satisfaction in His provision, gratitude for His restoration, and trust as you walk carefully and diligently in His steps no matter the path... Continue Reading
Spiritual Inventory for Pastoral Visits
For systematic pastoral visitation of church members.
Shepherd the flock! Remember that these difficulties are not interruptions in your pastoral work but are the pastoral work itself. One final concern: Be sure to keep what you hear to yourself alone and any notes or files secure. Do not use the stories you hear as illustrations in your messages or as gossip. ... Continue Reading
Gospel Norm
People need the norm to become the gospel preached daily.
The gospel shouldn’t be a rarity; it should be a normality, and when shared frequently with and to others, good news can become normal—in the best sense. While Christ alone does the work in human hearts, he wants them to hear the message from our mouths. Bravery began for me in the depths of... Continue Reading
Life in the Valley
My sense of well-being came from family, neighbors, and life punctuated with the simple pleasures of human relationships as well as being free to be a child, and to enjoy the wonders of nature.
Like many young people I did not make the most of what was offered, but that was my fault. At that that time, nobody told me I should be ashamed of my whiteness or if I wanted to become a girl I could. We believed good and evil were objective categories. No one suggested that... Continue Reading
America’s Marriage Deserts
We weren’t made to live in a marriage-arid society.
Marriage is good and good for us, the design of a Creator who actually has our best interests at heart. The decline of marriage in modern America is a tragedy because we weren’t made to live in a marriage-arid society, and that means improving what Wilcox calls “the state of our unions.” Thankfully, if these... Continue Reading
What Does God Listen For?
The ears of our Father are attentive to the cries of his children.
Out of all the innumerable sounds in heaven and earth, God pays special attention to the voice of his people. Psalm 34 is not simply a theological statement of this fact—it is the personal testimony of David, when he was a fugitive running for his life. He celebrates his own experience of God hearing his... Continue Reading
Bound Together
Paul promised: “Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13)
God promises: “Even a woman may forget her nursing child, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” (Isaiah 49: 15,16) Among those who first heard these words, who could have anticipated the Greatest Cost, Christ’s engraved/cross-scarred hands, seven hundred years later? Friends, pastor/poet Holy... Continue Reading
Lose the Gospel, Return to Childishness
This childishness is the inevitable outcome of the kind of theological liberalism that has dominated so many churches for several generations.
The church must bear witness to a grown-up faith. That means that we need a renewed sense of the holy, the sacred, and the transcendent. And that must start at the top, where it is too often most absent. The X feeds of many of the loudest Christian pastors today indicate little difference from the... Continue Reading
Thoughts about Imminency
The doctrine of imminency states that Jesus is returning soon. Classical dispensationalism and the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine were devised in the early nineteenth century to be consistent with a particular view of imminency.
We should pray for the quick coming of things agreeable to God’s will because we strongly desire them. At the same time, we should patiently submit to the wisdom of God’s timing in answering our prayers. We should sincerely pray for the Lord Jesus to come quickly even if we have reason to believe that... Continue Reading
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