“The Tale of Two ‘Daughters’”Luke 8:40-56November 30, 2025 Pain is universal. Suffering is common. Illness, though frequent and normal, often surprises us. Death is one out of one. We recoil against all of these. And God uses pain, illness, and death to sanctify us. Samuel Rutherford wrote that believers should “praise God for the […]
Read More The Tale of Two “Daughters”“The Son of Man, Demons, and Rejection”Luke 8:26-39November 23, 2025 We have an enemy. He is intelligent — “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder” (Js. 2:18). He is strong — “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm […]
Read More The Son of Man, Demons, and Rejection“Jesus, in the Storms of Life”Luke 8:22-25November 2, 2025 Call it what you want — affliction, calamity, difficulty, disaster, disease, hardship, horror, illness/sickness, pain, persecution, suffering, tragedy, trial, trouble — life is filled with events and circumstances that seem contrary to us. It has always been that way, the Bible is filled with it: Murder […]
Read More Jesus, in the Storms of Life“The Friend of Sinners”Luke 7:36-50September 21, 2025 The Bible is filled with deeply profound statements — life-changing statements. You know many of them and have been guided and helped by them. It is a temptation for us to say, “this is the most important statement in the Bible” or “this is the most important statement […]
Read More The Friend of SinnersDoubt is common. It always has been common. Too common. As far back as Genesis 3 and the rebellious sin of Adam to eat fruit forbidden by God, mankind has doubted God. Not every doubt is the same, but there are some common objections and complaints against God in our questions and doubts of Him. […]
Read More Some Questions Doubt AsksLast Sunday I finished my message by reading a portion of a hymn by John Newton in which he addresses questions that arise in our hearts that tempt us to doubt — and the reminders we must give ourselves to fight those doubts. Here is the full text of the hymn, “Questions to Unbelief.” If […]
Read More “Questions to Unbelief”“Should We Look for Someone Else?” Part 2Luke 7:24-35September 14, 2025 Doubt is a reality of life. Even in the life of the believer. Abraham doubted that God would preserve him and his marriage when they were with Abimelech Abraham and Sarah both (initially) doubted that God could produce an heir through their aging bodies […]
Read More “Should We Look for Someone Else?” Pt. 2“Should We Look for Someone Else?”Luke 7:18-30September 7, 2025 Apologist Randy Newman wrote an open letter to believers in Christ who struggle with doubt: Sometimes doubt comes upon me like a foreboding cold. I wonder if that was just a sneeze or am I coming down with something serious. The sniffles of doubt increase when […]
Read More “Should We Look for Someone else?”“The Compassionate Son of Man”Luke 7:11-17August 17, 2025 Death is something that is often joked about (or not really taken seriously): Groucho Marx was frequently asked what he’d like people to be saying about him in a hundred years: “I know what I’d like them to say about me…I’d like them to say, ‘He […]
Read More The Compassionate Son of Man“A Faithful and Worthy Man”Luke 7:1-10August 10, 2025 Last Sunday was a special day for us — a humbling and gratifying day. We are thankful. Leading up to the day, and even during the dinner and recognition, I couldn’t help but think about one of my mentors, J. Dwight Pentecost, who participated in my installation […]
Read More A Faithful and Worthy ManYesterday I preached on the story of the father with the demon possessed son in Mark 9:14ff — “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (v. 24). Today I read a similar account of the death of Lazarus (Jn. 11) — a story that on the surface seems to be “faith crushing.” Yet our wise Savior […]
Read More So you might believe…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; […]
Read More Sermon: Fixing Our Eyes on JesusSeveral 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. […]
Read More We are all ordinary and that’s the way God planned itVictorious 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 […]
Read More Sermon: Victorious FaithLiving by Faith in Our Great GodHebrews 11:30-31June 19, 2022 In his book Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is? Robert Wells exposes the size of the universe in understandable terms: The largest animal on earth is the blue whale.… But a blue whale isn’t anywhere near as big as a mountain. If […]
Read More Sermon: Living by Faith in Our Great God
Words of Grace 