God employs loss and its accompanying grief to strip me of inferior objects of trust and sources of joy and anchor my soul more securely to Christ. Fear is a powerful enemy and an opponent of childlike faith. Suffering is the most powerful instrument of the Spirit for exposing my heart’s sin and false trust.... Continue Reading

For two decades, Jordan Hall, 52, had been on this hypercharged, neon-lit journey through the whirlwind of Web 1.0: Burning Man, Big Sur, Aspen, private islands, cross-country RV treks, the jungles of southern Ecuador. Then, in 2022, Hall and his then-girlfriend Vanessa arrived in the green, rambling, rolling Blue Ridge Mountains of westernmost North Carolina.... Continue Reading

Looking and sounding like the world mutes the true spiritual difference between the world and the Christian message. The entire progressive project is an attempt to create an ethos within the church to address the problem of church attendance as if that was the first concern of the church. Now the music, the message, the... Continue Reading

The UMC now joins the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the United Church of Christ as being among those to ordain gay clergy. Christ has removed his lamp stand from these churches (Revelation 2:5), and the Holy Spirit is not there. Interestingly enough, the liberal African Methodist... Continue Reading

Tony Morgan died Sept. 4 following complications from a heart attack. Morgan was founder of the Unstuck Group, a church consultancy firm that “helps pastors clarify where God’s called the church to go in the future, and how you’ll get there.” Since its founding in 2009, the organization claims to have “helped over 600 churches... Continue Reading

We can draw no deadlines for God. He hastens or he delays as he sees fit. And his timing is all-loving toward his children. Oh, that we might learn to be patient in the hour of darkness. Darkness Is Normal It will be of great advantage to the struggling Christian to remember that seasons of... Continue Reading

The truth of God’s Word will sink deep into our beings, assimilated by the digestive juices of prayer to our spiritual nourishment and growth in grace. Our very beings are affected, sustained, fortified, and changed. By the Spirit, that embraced Word will accomplish the purpose intended for us in it.  Prayer in Nehemiah (15) “And... Continue Reading

 Few dare to plunge into the unusual laws and regulations of Leviticus, the troubling histories of Judges, the long prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel. Yet if each of these books is from God and ultimately about God, then each book teaches us how we can best honor God. The Bible is a canon, an authoritative... Continue Reading

“It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, to be the Mediator between God and man, the Prophet, Priest, and King, the Head and Savior of His Church, the Heir of all things, and Judge of the world; unto whom He did from all eternity... Continue Reading

Instead of having time to become bored, as it were, with resting and naturally begetting excitement for an upcoming event, we instead have no time amid the general rush to keep up with commercial demands. We find ourselves constantly too busy—not only for meaningful connection with other humans, but for celebrating holidays, living seasonally, and... Continue Reading