God’s Love for MIssions

God’s Love for MissionsSelected ScripturesJune 2, 2024 John Paton was a missionary to the Hebrides (19th C.). Late in life he recounted the 40-mile walk he took when in his early 20s to go from his home to the train station where he would find transportation to go to seminary to prepare him for the […]

One Thing…

One Thing…Psalm 27May 26, 2024 I have read that in Deadwood, SD there is a sign in a museum that had been left by a beleaguered prospector in the area: “I lost my gun. I lost my horse. I am out of food. The Indians are after me. But I’ve got all the gold I […]

Identifying and resisting idols

When traveling overseas, you may have seen a variety of pagan gods and deities represented by various kinds of idols. You may have even visited a pagan temple and seen large, ornate, and impressive looking idols. I suspect that no matter how impressive, you weren’t tempted to bow in worship to those man made structures. […]

Sermon: Living by Faith in the Present

Living by Faith in the Present, for the FutureHebrews 11:7March 27, 2022 I don’t have to tell you that we live in a perverse world. When you open up your news browser you are assaulted by that reality. Just this week: The latest Supreme Court nominee refused to provide a definition for the word […]

Sermon: Living to Please God, Pt. 2

Living to Please God, Pt. 2Hebrews 11:4-6March 20, 2022 A generation ago, Charles Schultz helped us identify the nature of happiness: Happiness is a thumb and a blanket (Linus) Happiness is an umbrella and a new raincoat (Lucy) Happiness is having a friend (Charlie Brown and Snoopy) Happiness is sharing (Linus and Snoopy) Happiness is […]

That we may at last come to enjoy God

Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from A Body of Divinity. Let this be a spur to duty. How diligent and zealous should we be in glorifying God, that we may come at last to enjoy him! If Tully, Demosthenes, and […]

Sermon: When the Well Runs Dry

When the Well Runs Dry Psalm 63 March 15, 2015 Many years ago — in what was probably one of the last great adventures my brother and I had before I got married — we went on a day hike in the Cleveland National Forest in CA. We didn’t make plans that were too extensive; […]

Sermon: One Thing to Ask God

One Thing to Ask God Psalm 27 February 8, 2015 In A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond describes the birth of a giraffe: The first thing to emerge are the baby giraffe’s front hooves and head. A few minutes later the plucky newborn calf is hurled forth, falls ten feet, and lands on its […]

Our sins sink as lead in the mighty waters of the Redeemer’s blood

Thomas Boston, Human Nature in Its Fourfold State: God the Father takes the pen, dips it in the blood of his Son, crosses off the sinner’s accounts, and blots them out of his debt-book. The sinner outside of Christ is bound over to the wrath of God; he is under an obligation in law to […]

What is your true happiness?

Richard Baxter, The Saint’s Everlasting Rest: He that makes not God his chief good and ultimate end, is in heart a pagan and a vile idolater. Let me ask, then, dost thou truly account it thy chief happiness to enjoy the Lord in glory, or dost thou not? Canst thou say, ‘The Lord is my […]

Obedience and joy

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens…according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood…” (1 Pet. 1:1-2; NASB) Though far from my first act of disobedience, it is my earliest recollection of my […]

Why seeking God is so important

Colossians 3 says that the believer is to “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth” (v. 2). To ask a question that a three-year-old might ask — Why? Why should we set out minds on God and seek Him (v. 1)? The passage offers five reasons […]

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 […]

Desiring God

Do you desire God? The question is not, “is there some part of you that is somewhat inclined to God?” And it is not, “Were you passionate to know God at one time?” And it is not, “Do you read much about God and spend much time in church and have many friends who are […]

I have set the Lord continually before me

Contemplating Psalm 16:8-9, Spurgeon [in The Treasury of David] outlines the importance and benefits of an ongoing consideration of and meditation on God: A sense of the divine presence our best support. It yields, 1. Good confidence concerning things without. I shall not be moved. 2. Good cheer within. My heart is glad. 3. Good […]