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 […]

Christmas Eve: The Indescribable Gift

The Indescribable Gift 2 Corinthians 9:15 December 24, 2013 It was the Christmas that almost wasn’t for me. I think I was about 8- or 10-years-old. I didn’t almost miss Christmas because I overslept or was out of the country. It was because I made a tactical error. In my recollection, in those years my […]

Sunday Leftovers: marks of repentance

The believer is to forgive anyone who comes to him for forgiveness — and whenever he comes to him for forgiveness (Lk. 17:3). Yet it is always easier to forgive someone who is repentant and broken for their sin. But what does repentance look like? The apostle Paul commends the Corinthians for their repentance and […]

An appropriate prayer

On the sixth day of NASA’s moon mission of Apollo 13, the astronauts aboard the badly damaged space vehicle needed to make a critical course correction in order to position themselves to reenter the earth’s atmosphere. Unfortunately, the ship’s onboard computer had been shut down to conserve power, so the craft had to be steered […]

Are you content?

Are you content? Pause before you answer that question. Long-time actress and comedienne Gracie Allen once received a small, live alligator as a gag gift. Not knowing what to do with it (just what do you do with an alligator?), Gracie placed it in the bathtub with some water and left for an engagement. When […]

How Satan tempts

His name means “adversary.” He is a slanderer, a liar, and a deceiver. He lives to lead people astray from the truth. He is crafty and cunning in all He does. Just as Christ is trustworthy in all that He does, so Satan is untrustworthy in all that he does. But how does Satan tempt […]

My problem

I have a problem. It is a sin I struggle with every single day. When I spend time in confession, I find that it has influenced my every sin. As I ponder my motives and desires I find that it has tainted virtually every thought I have and it certainly has tainted every sinful thought […]

Principles of giving

In 2 Corinthians 8-9, the apostle Paul provides a number of principles about financial giving that honor the Lord. We are typically shy when talking about giving and the need for giving, but Paul wasn’t. From these two chapters, we have at least a dozen principles that should guide our giving: Give as an example […]

A giving heart

Matel Dawson, Jr. is an ordinary man who accomplished something extraordinary. At 76, he still worked for Ford Motor Company — the company that hired him out of high school — operating a forklift. It is unusual to work for one company for more than 57 years. Yet even more remarkably, over six years beginning […]

Cleaning day

Today should be cleaning day. Today should be the day that I clean out my backpack/laptop case. All those papers, files and notes that I have been carrying between the office and home for weeks need a permanent home outside my backpack (I envision a large, overflowing garbage can…). Over vacation I read ten or […]

A commendable ministry

As you look at churches, pastors, and various ministries, many kinds of criteria are used to determine effectiveness and credibility. Just this morning I received an email advertisement that asserted, Long before anyone in your community meets you or is impacted by your ministries, your buildings and campus have sent a clear message to everyone. […]

What do you want? — a chart

Earlier today, I blogged about our desires and passions in relation to our position in Christ (“What do you want?”). Some time ago, I came across this chart (commonly called, “the Y-Chart”), which I have modified very slightly to help us understand how each decision we make flows out of the desires and longings of […]

What do you want?

What do you want? What do your really long for and crave? What do you want so badly that even thinking about not getting it leaves a knot in your stomach? What do you want so badly that perhaps your friends think you are consumed with that passion? There are many ways we might answer […]

Gospel power

One of the great paradoxes of the gospel in the life of the believer is that while he is always dying, yet he is also ever-living (2 Cor. 4:10). So Paul says the believer is (vv. 8-9) — afflicted, BUT not crushed perplexed, BUT not despairing persecuted, BUT not forsaken struck down, BUT not destroyed […]

What am I looking at?

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Cor 3:18) For believers in Christ, our faces have been unveiled. That is, we are allowed to gaze at the […]