Having Seen God’s Salvation

Having Seen God’s SalvationLuke 2:21-38September 15, 2024 At least for some things, I am not the most patient person in the world. I have been known to get a little hangry while waiting for dinner to cook. I don’t like waiting for traffic lights or for accidents to clear. I don’t like waiting in checkout […]

Sermon: Love Still More

Love Still More1 John 4:7-11August 14, 2022 The number/letter combination A113 is seemingly everywhere in animated movies. It’s Andy’s mom’s license plate number in Toy Story; It’s a door number in Monsters University; It’s the courtroom number in Up; It’s the camera model number in Finding Nemo; It’s on a rat’s ear tag in Ratatouille; […]

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 […]

Sermon: Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

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; […]

Sermon: Victorious Faith

Victorious 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 […]

The Hard Work of Sanctification

As believers we cannot expect a life of ease; in fact, we should anticipate a life of labor. We labor to serve one another in the church. We labor to disciple and discipline our children well. We labor to cultivate and develop our spiritual gifts. We labor not to sin — to control our personal […]

You need perseverance

Near the end of his life, John Calvin suffered from tuberculosis. In his weakened condition his doctors urged him to rest and adopt a slower pace in his work. He refused, saying, “Bear with me, that God will find me watching and busy at His work until my last sigh.” So the doctors and his […]

Sermon: Essential Truths for Assurance

Essential Truths for Assurance Selected Scriptures from 1 John 1-3 January 19, 2014 One essential for learning is repetition. Few of us memorize a Bible verse the first time we see it. We go over it again and again. We write it down, read it in our Bibles, review it on notecards, look it up […]

Sermon: Abide in Christ

Abide in Christ 1 John 2:28-29 October 6, 2013 One of the hardest things in life is perseverance. Sticking with a project. Not quitting. That’s true of the spiritual life as well. It’s easy to want to quit. Life circumstances pile up on us and we become heavy-hearted and weary. It’s not that we’re overtly […]

Running with endurance

“…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” (Heb. 12:1b; NASB) File this under strange, but true (and a little funny). The following statements were taken from registration sheets and comment cards returned to the staff of the Bridger Wilderness area: Trails need to be wider so people can walk holding […]

There are many adversaries

My family and I are on vacation in the mountains this week. One of the things we’ve been doing most days is taking hikes up and down the hills in our area. We start at around 7500 feet (where our accommodations are) and go up. And down. And up again. And down for a while. […]

Be steadfast

I like baseball. I have for as long as I can remember. I’ve suffered through four decades of mediocre baseball following my favorite team, the Texas Rangers, before they qualified twice for the World Series (without, alas, the victor’s rings). I’ve acquired thousands and thousands of baseball cards. I still reach first for the sports […]

Be steadfast…abounding in God’s work

The other day I found myself having a little whine to my wife — “I’m weary…” was the general tone of the conversation. Ever had thoughts like that? Sure you have. It is easy to forget two complementary truths from Scripture: that as believers, are lives are given to Christ to be used (up) by […]