I’ve been speaking about joy and light lately, not only because it’s Advent, not only because I feel the need for these blessings in my own life, but because…
Though it was not a Sunday and the church was not open, the grieving widow called the pastor, asking if he would open the church for her. She needed…
Perhaps there are times when it seems, feels, like my preaching gets preoccupied with fallen humanity—those are the times, I guess, when it sounds like I’m ranting, judging, condemning,…
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph 2:10). Our new birth in Christ…
The prediction business is deeply flawed, because we are deeply flawed, and our wishes easily worm their way into our predictions. Scientists have long understood that the presence of…
Jesus came to do many interwoven things. Jesus came for one reason. We get it when people aren’t interested in Jesus despite our efforts—half-hearted or whole-hearted—our attempts to share…
Some people get hung up on 144,000. John helps us not to be concerned about that. “I looked,” he tells us, “and there before me was a great multitude…
God shall supply all your need. I never grow tired of hearing that. I rejoice when I hear that! Those words speak in the emptiest parts of me and…
Paul gives an overview of the life to which Christ calls us here and hereafter. Jesus speaks of himself as the way to the hereafter. Paul calls us to…
The way to progress and joy in the faith is Christ. Obviously. But Paul is sharing with us some of the mystery of knowing Christ and having him in us. …