The God of Comfort for a Day of TroubleZechariah 1:7-17October 2, 2022 One writer has said, “Life is full of disappointments. The biggest catastrophes (wars and tsunamis) and the smallest inconveniences (lower back pain and unfulfilled desires) infuse unrest into our lives. Trials snatch peace from us.” [Menikoff, Character Matters.] Meg was the mother of […]
Read More Sermon: The God of ComfortI have seen the headlines of the shooting in Uvalde yesterday. I have not read the stories. I started to read one article. But I closed the web page. My heart couldn’t take it. I started to cry. “Lord…Lord…how many more? How much longer until You return and make all things right?” I have not […]
Read More One more…On the first weekend in April, our church is hosting a one-day conference for our community. We are thrilled to have Stuart Scott as our speaker (he’s written an excellent booklet on the topic). There is no cost for the conference (and lunch is provided), but we do need all participants to register. More information […]
Read More Help and Hope for the AnxiousThe true account of the death of the philosopher Socrates serves as a parable of the hopelessness of the world. With the poison of hemlock already flowing through his veins and death momentarily awaiting him, one of his disciples leaned forward to him and whispered, “Master, shall we live again?” That’s an important question for […]
Read More The believer’s hopeThis world is filled with trouble. Every person suffers and every person inflicts suffering on others. We all have trouble with our physical bodies that fail us with as mundane things as forgetting to mail a bill to as weighty a problem as contracting Lou Gehrig’s disease at age 40. We all have struggles with […]
Read More Satan Will Be CrushedI did not know Ravi Zacharias. I certainly knew of him and I have a couple of his books on apologetics, though I never read them. I never attended a conference where he spoke, though I have had conversations with several people who were helped by his ministry of speaking and writing. I heard of […]
Read More When we sin in terrible waysLast week, the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled, “Finding Hope When Everything Feels Hopeless.” The thesis of the post was that people today feel hopeless and need hope. But hope “feels increasingly elusive,” with COVID, the election, winter, and more weighing on people’s minds. Author Elizabeth Bernstein suggests that hope “guards against anxiety […]
Read More Think hopefully, not wishfullyPeace and Courage in a Troubled World John 16:32-33 March 22, 2020 This is an odd morning. I have preached to this church body almost 1400 times, by my count. I have never preached with music recorded by our musicians ahead of time, and I have never preached to an empty auditorium. There have been […]
Read More Sermon: Peace and Courage in a Troubled WorldHope in God Psalm 42 March 3, 2019 John Bunyan is one of the most well-known believers in Christ. He wrote numerous books, including the still-in-print, Pilgrim’s Progress. A bold pastor in a difficult time in the church, he was imprisoned for 12 years for preaching the gospel, yet he did not always exude confidence […]
Read More Sermon: Hope in God“The Blessings of Justification” Pt. 4 Romans 5:9-11 August 27, 2017 One pastor decided to take his family, including his four children on vacation — “We’re going to Junction City, Kansas,” he said. “It’s where my dad used to pastor a church, and we can have lots of fun there — they have playgrounds, and […]
Read More Sermon: The Blessings of Justification, Pt 4Jason Helopoulos writes about a common relational circumstance and then offers a hopeful encouragement: Many of us have friends, sons, daughters, wives, and husbands who we struggle to keep hope alive for. They are resistant to the Gospel. Their lives are not only filled with sin, but dominated and controlled by it. Some of the […]
Read More The sinners in our livesReading a book like Revelation can leave one overwhelmed by the relentless onslaught of God’s wrath. Chapter after chapter devastating destruction pours from God’s throne. It is grievous and wearying. Will it ever stop? Will God’s wrath relent? Will suffering cease? Revelation 10-11 provide some hope for the end of God’s wrath and God’s provision […]
Read More Will God’s wrath relent?The Old Testament can sometimes seem obscure and difficult to understand. There are all the laws, sacrifices, and festivals in the Pentateuch that often seem quite disconnected from where and how we live, then there are some weird stories in the historical books (e.g., Judges 19 and 21), and it all culminates in the prophets […]
Read More An example and a hopeJohn Owen, “The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded:” Suppose sundry persons engaged in a voyage unto a most remote country, wherein all of them have an apprehension that there is a place of rest and an inheritance provided for them. Under this apprehension they all put themselves upon their voyage, to possess what […]
Read More Think much on heaven’s hopeHere is a new song by Aaron Shust: “My Hope is in You.” The song is a powerful testimony in itself. But its testimony is amplified when one knows that the video was produced by Vinegar Hill, a company founded by Ian Murphy, husband of Larissa. Watch and listen:
Read More My Hope Is In You, Lord
Words of Grace 