“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 LifeBurdens. Difficulties. Disaster Illness. Pressures. Problems. Suffering. Tragedies. Trials. Untimely death. We all have experienced situations that we could put in those categories. We have all experienced situations that we could put in those categories too often. At times we have experienced the suddenness of those trials. We receive an unexpected phone call with unwanted […]
Read More Don’t Forget “After These Things…”The Authority of the Son of Man, Pt. 2Luke 4:38-44December 22, 2024 I suppose Elizabeth was a couple of months old the first time she got sick. I don’t remember all the particulars, but I do remember it was something respiratory and she was struggling to breathe. One night she was especially uncomfortable and was […]
Read More The Authority of the Son of Man, Pt. 2At the end of Matthew 16, Jesus utters a familiar saying: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (v. 26). The saying is part of Jesus’ call to follow Him in faith and obedience […]
Read More How Jesus Transforms Our Accounting MethodsBe Steadfast in Your SufferingRomans 5:3-5February 18, 2024 Christian university professor Mark Talbot tells his story of suffering in When the Stars Disappear: When I was seventeen, I fell about 50 feet off a Tarzan-like rope swing, breaking my back and becoming partially paralyzed from the waist down. I spent six months in hospitals. Initially, […]
Read More Be Steadfast in Your SufferingSuffering might be the most common experience of the human condition. It is common because every person is a sinner who sins against others (inflicting suffering on them) and who is the recipient of the sins of others (receiving suffering from them). And everyone lives in this fallen world in which things break and fail. […]
Read More We need helpGeorge Whitefield on suffering: Then we glorify God in the fire, when, though we feel pain and anguish, we at the same time can tell the Lord that we deserve this and ten thousand times worse…We glorify God in the fire also when we are really and fully persuaded that God will not put us […]
Read More The fires of trouble and God’s gloryTo live in this world is to suffer. As Job noted, “For man is born for trouble, As sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). You know that. You know the suffering of broken cars, broken bodies, and broken relationships. And you feel the burden of that brokenness; sometimes it is heavy, other times lighter, but it […]
Read More Four truths to remember in trialsHaving Hope While Living in a Broken WorldRomans 8:18-25April 23, 2023 We live in a broken world and we have seen it too closely this week: Two teenaged students in Granbury died suddenly and tragically this week. Ruby Sargent’s last sibling passed away last week. One of our members experienced an accident at work that […]
Read More Having Hope While Living in a Broken WorldI’ve been told that I’m not always the best patient when I am sick. It seems that I whine a little much about my illness, perhaps even venturing into the category of complaint and discontentment. I do acknowledge that I have a propensity for not being patient with any sickness — I just want it […]
Read More How God comforts His peopleInjustice, suffering, and persecution are normal and will happen in this world. That doesn’t mean persecution is right; but it does mean that nothing unusual has happened when someone is ostracized, condemned, persecuted, or even martyred for having faith in Christ. To be a follower of Christ is to live with the expectation that one […]
Read More When threatened with persecutionAlmost 20 years ago, a dear friend was diagnosed with multiple myeloma after falling and breaking his arm. It was a non-violent fall that happened when he slipped on ice while pumping gas. The doctor was curious why his arm broke in the fall. So he conducted some tests and discovered the cancer. About 2-1/2 […]
Read More Something to read: The Crook in the Lot“Whatever happens to us, let us always assure ourselves that we have good cause to praise our God, and that even if we are poor and miserable in this world, the happiness of heaven is enough to appease us, to sweeten all our afflictions and sorrows, and to give us such content that we may […]
Read More “Whatever happens to us…”
Words of Grace 