Sermon: The Life of Repentance

The Life of RepentanceZechariah 1:1-6September 25, 2022 Last week we talked about the significance of the book of Zechariah. The book was important to Israel because of its role in calling the nation to complete the rebuilding of the temple after returning from its 70 year exile in Babylon. But it was also important […]

Sermon: God Remembers

God RemembersZechariah — an OverviewSeptember 18, 2022 Several years ago, when the girls were in high school, I attended a conference in Washington D.C. Raye Jeanne and I thought it would be a great opportunity for a family trip, especially since we are a little bit nerdy and like things like historical sites and museums. […]

Our Good Shepherd

When Jesus identified Himself as the Good Shepherd (Jn. 10:11), He was not teaching the disciples a new truth. He had previously — several times — identified Himself as the Shepherd of His people. Consider: Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd (Matt. […]

Sermon: The Good Shepherd

Jesus Christ — the Good ShepherdJohn 10:1-21September 11, 2022 A few years ago I was running some errands one afternoon when I noticed that one tire was almost completely flat. I slowly made my way to a tire store. There was a long line and wait (with mild irritation). Finally, I spoke to an employee: […]

Sermon: Life in Seasons of Lament

Life in Seasons of LamentPsalm 119:153-160August 28, 2022 When we are in crisis, we don’t always think rightly or well. The disciples were no different. On one occasion, Jesus took the disciples on a boat trip across the Sea of Galilee — a body of water with which many of them were very familiar. Seemingly […]

Alone, but not alone

A few decades ago, a medical doctor wrote about some of the implications of being alone that he had observed: “Medical statistics on the loss of human companionship, the lack of love and human loneliness quickly reveal that the expression ‘broken heart’ is not just poetic image for loneliness and despair. It is an overwhelming […]

Why love others?

In the New Testament, God tells us how to care for others in the church body. Frequently we find those instructions in conjunction with the word “brothers” — as in, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your […]

Sermon: Love Still More

Love Still More1 John 4:7-11August 14, 2022 The number/letter combination A113 is seemingly everywhere in animated movies. It’s Andy’s mom’s license plate number in Toy Story; It’s a door number in Monsters University; It’s the courtroom number in Up; It’s the camera model number in Finding Nemo; It’s on a rat’s ear tag in Ratatouille; […]

How God comforts His people

I’ve been told that I’m not always the best patient when I am sick. It seems that I whine a little much about my illness, perhaps even venturing into the category of complaint and discontentment. I do acknowledge that I have a propensity for not being patient with any sickness — I just want it […]

Sermon: Comfort Still More

Comfort Still More2 Corinthians 1:1-7August 7, 2022 Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor and theologian in Germany in the 1930s and 40s. He not only was opposed to the doctrine of Naziism, but was one of only a few pastors to publicly oppose Hitler and his regime. His vocalism against Hitler propelled him into leadership of […]

Sermon: Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

Fixing Our Eyes on JesusHebrews 12:1-3July 31, 2022 In 1948, Dutch physicist Hessel de Vries began doing some research on the two daughters of a colorblind father and discovered that their eyes perceived colors differently from both their father and others with normal color perception. Our eyes perceive color through the cones in our eyes; […]

Ordinary People

Yesterday I wrote about ordinary people. In preparing to write, I rummaged through my files and found several helpful statements about being ordinary and how God uses us in our humility. Alas, I wasn’t able to work those quotations into the article. But they are helpful and worth reading. So here are a few things […]

We are all ordinary and that’s the way God planned it

Several years ago, as part of the release of a new pen, the Bic corporation developed a project called “The Universal Typeface Experiment.” The intent was for individuals around the globe provide handwriting samples for each letter of the alphabet and that those samples would be compiled by an algorithm into a single universal typeface. […]

Sermon: Victorious Faith

Victorious FaithHebrews 11:32-40July 24, 2022 They have been called “The Most Crushing Losses in Sports History,” “The Hall of Flameout,” and “Snatching Defeat from the Hands of Victory.” They are sports events that are considered major failures, gaffs, and defeats. For years, ABC captured the sense of loss on Wide World of Sports with an […]

Four Questions to Examine a Man’s Character

What makes a man? That’s not an irrelevant question for a day in which gender is so widely misunderstood and misused. It’s also not irrelevant to ask in the wake of Father’s Day. While opinions of manhood, fatherhood, and gender abound, I have found the four qualities of mature manhood in Titus 2 to be […]