“The Training of the Twelve” Pt. 2Luke 9:12-17December 21, 2025 Christmas brings anticipation of many good and encouraging things. We anticipate worship (Christmas Eve), and music (the Messiah!), and fellowship, and reconnection with friends who have moved away, and time with family. And yet there is also the conundrum of the gifts. What do we […]
Read More The Training of the Twelve, Pt. 2“The Training of the Twelve” Pt. 1Luke 9:1-11December 14, 2025 It’s Christmas season. And there is a common question being asked these days: “Do we have enough?” E.g., Do we have enough food? Do we have enough cookies? Do we have enough gifts? Do we have enough decorations (lights on the house, tinsel on […]
Read More The Training of the Twelve, Pt. 1“How is Your Hearing?”Luke 8:4-15October 12, 2025 One of the phrases a parent uses most often is “listen to me…” Parents use that phrase with distracted three-year-olds and impatient 17-year-olds. They use it when they are teaching, when they are correcting, when they are encouraging, and when they are warning. It’s a useful, and well-used, […]
Read More How is Your Hearing?Scripture is filled with examples of God using ordinary means and ordinary people to accomplish His purposes. When He chose a man to lead the nation of Israel out of Egypt, He chose a reluctant man with a stammering tongue (Ex. 4:10). When Jesus chose the 12, he chose a group of uneducated and overlooked […]
Read More Remarkable Ordinariness“The Kinds of People the Son of Man Saves and Uses”Luke 8:1-3September 28, 2025 One of my favorite sections in the Bible is Deuteronomy 7:7-8 — “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of […]
Read More The Kinds of People the Son of Man Saves and UsesAfter 35 years and a most gracious celebration this past Sunday of the privilege we have had to be a part of the ministry of Grace Bible Church, our family is grateful. So grateful. I have often said about our time at GBC, quoting the psalmist, “The lines have fallen to me in pleasant […]
Read More Thankful for 35 Years of MinistryGod is committed to unity. God’s priority of unity is emphasized throughout Scripture. Unity is inferred on the very first pages of Scripture, when a unified God acts to create the world and all things in it and beyond it. When God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and […]
Read More God’s Commitment to UnityPreserving Unity — Ministry Focus for 2025Ephesians 4:1-3January 19, 2025 For several years, we have had a theme for the year — a biblical truth that would help orient us and guide us as we serve Christ. Often those themes come from circumstances that we see in the culture (both secular and church) that […]
Read More Preserving UnityI enjoy books. I like bookstores — new bookstores, old bookstores, used book stores, and digital (online) bookstores. I spend a significant amount of time and money in bookstores each year. And I read, too (though not as much as I’d like, typically). Several years ago, I began keeping track of what I read each […]
Read More The Best books I read in 2024There are many who are lamenting the changes of our culture and the degradation of morality. We understand that grief. We weep for those who are enslaved by sinful desires, and who at the same time assert that they are free. It’s a trap (as all sin is, see Prov. 7:21-27 for a particularly sobering […]
Read More After the election, will anything be the same?Counseling Like the Good Shepherd: Leading Counselees to Rest in JesusJohn 10 A few years ago I was running some errands one afternoon when I noticed that one car tire was almost completely flat. I slowly made my way to a tire store. There was a long line and wait. Finally, I spoke to […]
Read More Counseling Like the Good ShepherdBe Steadfast in Fighting SinRomans 6:12-14February 4, 2024 On a very limited number of occasions — once, maybe twice — I have felt like I had reached the limits of my physical ability. My arms and legs trembling with weariness, I was near the end of my body’s strength. On a few of occasions I’ve […]
Read More Be Steadfast in Fighting SinBe Steadfast — Ministry Focus for 20241 Corinthians 15:58January 28, 2024 In the late 1980s, Henry Dempsey was flying for a commuter airline. On one flight with an empty 15-passenger airplane, he and the copilot heard a rattling noise toward the back of the plane. The copilot took control of the plane when Dempsey […]
Read More Be SteadfastI’m a book collector. I’m not a vintage book collector. I don’t collect first editions. There aren’t many valuable books (as most people value them) in my collection. But I do like gathering books, purchasing books, and accumulating books. I like hard backs, paperbacks, and digital books (Kindle, PDF, and audio). I collect books because […]
Read More The Best books I read in 2023The Reward for Equipping the Saints2 Timothy 4:6-8December 10, 2023 Winning the biggest sports contests and the prizes that come with them are rare: Only 25 players are on the roster of the team that wins the World Series Only about 50 players are on the winning team of the Super Bowl Only 26 players […]
Read More The Reward for Equipping the Saints
Words of Grace 