Our church is thrilled to announce the inauguration of a new biblical counseling resource site: Center for Biblical Counseling and Discipleship. This website is the result of months of planning and design and is another aspect of our desire to equip and train individuals to use the Scriptures well in counseling and discipling others. We […]
Read More New Biblical Counseling Resource Site“The First Thing on Your Second Wedding Day” Revelation 19:6-9 May 28, 2017 Weddings were always exciting in our home. So many things made weddings attractive and desirable: the wedding dress, the bridesmaid’s dresses, the flowers, the music, the food and friends after the wedding, the music and dancing, and (most of all?) the cake! […]
Read More Sermon: The First Thing on Your Second Wedding Day“The First Thing in Your Marriage” Selected Scriptures May 21, 2017 I’ve been thinking about marriage quite a bit lately. I’ve been thinking about marriage because I’ve been working on my notes for the trip to Russia to teach biblical counseling, where I will be teaching several times on various aspects of marriage. And I’ve […]
Read More Sermon: The First Thing in Your Marriage“Who Can Be Justified?” Romans 4:9-12 April 30, 2017 Put this in the category of unexpected blessings. When Kushikatsu Tanaka was a young girl, her father developed a particular recipe for deep-fried fried meat on a stick. Though he was a real estate agent, he spent many of his leisure hours perfecting the craft of […]
Read More Sermon: Who Can Be Justified?Guilt might be the most notorious five-letter word in our culture. Declarations of guilt are minimized — he’s not “guilty,” he’s just “struggling” or he “made a mistake.” And feelings of guilt are suppressed and denied. A New York Times article I found this week captures the cultural attitude towards guilt perfectly: A friend of […]
Read More The guilt is goneWednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is from The Christian on the Mount. Grace is precious in itself; 2 Peter 1:1 speaks of precious faith. Grace is precious in its origin; it comes from above (James 3:17). Grace is precious in its nature; […]
Read More Meditate upon Your Spiritual StateDo you know a teenager who has some form of addiction (alcohol, illegal drugs, food, video and gaming, or sex are some common examples)? Do you know a parent who has a teenager struggling with an addiction? Do you live in or near Granbury, Texas? If so, then our church has help for you. On […]
Read More Addictions and Your TeenagerThere are several different approaches to counseling people from a Christian perspective. One form that is gaining influence among Christians is the Christian Psychology movement. What is the background to that movement, what is its theology, and how can we biblically evaluate it? These are some of the questions our associate pastor, Keith Palmer, recently […]
Read More Understanding Christian Psyschology“The Old, Old Story” Pt. 2 Romans 4:1-8 April 23, 2017 When I was in seminary, the church Raye Jeanne and I were part of trained its members in evangelism with the Evangelism Explosion materials. I went through the program and eventually also became a trainer for EE. One semester, one of my trainees was […]
Read More Sermon: The Old, Old Story, Pt. 2A few days ago I backed my car out of my driveway. As is too often the case, I had tried to do too much before I left the house and hadn’t left myself enough time to get where I was going. So as I put the car in reverse and simultaneously buckled my seat […]
Read More What does the Scripture say?At our recent men’s retreat, we were taught the principle of mortifying sin and the flesh by Stuart Scott. I thought back to that event when I read the following statement this afternoon from John Piper: “In marriage, anger rivals lust as a killer. My guess is that anger is a worse enemy than lust. […]
Read More Be killing anger“Blessed Are Those Who Believe” John 20:19-31 April 16, 2017 — Easter Morning As a young man, Benjamin Franklin wrote an epitaph for himself that he hoped would be used on his gravestone after his death (though it wasn’t): The body of B. Franklin, Printer, Like the cover of an old book, Its contents torn […]
Read More Sermon: Blessed Are Those Who BelieveWhen you talk about Jesus Christ you must talk about the uniqueness of Christ. He is different from every other person that has ever lived. There are similarities between us and Him — He was born, He developed intellectually, physically, and relationally like all others, He experienced physical pain and hunger and weariness, and He […]
Read More Woman, Behold Your SonAm I a stone, and not a sheep That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross, To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss, And yet not weep? Not so those women loved Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee; Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly; Not so the thief was moved; Not so […]
Read More A good word for Good FridayRecently I saw an article about the nature of Heaven and Hell in which the author made this summary statement about the nature of Hell: …the torment in the lake of fire will be physical, mental, and spiritual torment, but…all of it will be tolerable. None of it will be unbearable. See Matt 11:22, 24. […]
Read More Is Hell tolerable?
Words of Grace 