“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 Uses“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. 2Prayer and scripture are vitally linked together. More knowledge of Scripture produces more robustly God-dependent prayers. More praying feeds a greater hunger for Scripture. If you love one, it will drive you to the other. Nineteenth century French pastor Adophe Monod said of the two disciplines, “Without the Word, prayer is nothing, having no source […]
Read More Praying Scripture“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?”Each month we come to the table of communion — the table of remembrance. You may have taken those elements hundreds of times, so that the practice may now seem ordinary and perfunctory. It is not. It is a time to remember some of the most powerful truths God has revealed to us. We gather […]
Read More We RememberIn a recent sermon I mentioned that I think about death regularly — daily. I think about my age and the reality that I am in the last third/quarter of life (at most). I think about my death because of the recent invitation that the Social Security Administration sent me to begin drawing funds from […]
Read More Christ’s Death and Joy“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 ManAfter 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 Ministry
Words of Grace 