An “Amazing Grace” Story

This morning, Pastor Keith Palmer reminded us of the significance of the hymn “Amazing Grace.” The most commonly sung hymn in the world was sung for the first time 250 years ago today — January 1, 1773. There is no way to recount how many times I have sung the hymn or heard it sung […]

A Goal for the New Year

As you think about personal goals for 2023, here is an old goal from an old writing that will work well in the New Year —

Best books I read in 2022

I’m still rushing to finish a couple more books before the end of the year, while also eying my growing pile of books to see what will be first off the pile in 2023. But most of what I will read this year has been finished. Maybe you are curious about what others read, or […]

Sermon: The Fulfillment

The FulfillmentTitus 3:7December 25, 2022 Almost a generation ago, Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman wrote an article entitled, “Being a Jew at Christmas Time,” in which he wrote, “There is nothing wrong with sleigh bells, Bing Crosby, and Christmas pudding, but I should hope Christians would want more than just that, and as Christmas becomes more […]

Sermon: The Appearance

The AppearanceTitus 3:4-6December 18, 2022 NASA’s Apollo Missions program successfully sent 24 astronauts to the moon and 12 of those actually walked on the moon. The last Apollo mission was sent up in 1975; since then, there have been numerous Space Shuttle flights as well as flights to the international space station. But no one […]

Consider Christ

Everyone has a Christmas dream. In another generation it was sugar plums. Today it might be an iPhone 14. Or an Xbox. Or a new pickup truck. Or a book (or a loaded Kindle). Or maybe a family trip. Or a family meal where all the children and their families gather together. Or a stocking […]

I am Christ’s

As followers of Christ, we do not always reckon well the provision of Christ for us. In this brief meditation, Philip Dodderidge helps us consciously meditate on our position in Christ and some of the infinite blessings that flow from the cross: I am yours!Your mercy is mine to pardon me.Your blood is mine to […]

Sermon: The Promise

The PromiseTitus 1:2-3December 11, 2022 In 1974 George Roy Hill was awarded the Oscar for Best Director for The Sting, a film that starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Later that year, Hill received this letter from a 17-year-old aspiring actor: Dear Mr. Hill, Seeing that I am very close, dear, good, and long-lasting friends […]

He is the King

Kevin Duckett is a metal detecting hobbyist, who went hunting with his tools in a field a dozen miles north of his home in Northamptonshire (UK) a few years ago. When he spotted a gold glint, his first thought was that he had stumbled on an aluminum foil treasure. He was wrong. He found a […]

Sermon: God’s Plan for a Universal Ruler

God’s Plan for a Universal RulerZechariah 6:9-15December 4, 2022 In June 1945, three-year-old Dennis Helms received a letter from his father Richard, who happened to be stationed in Europe, who was working with the OSS in Germany and was writing on V-E Day: Dear Dennis, The man who might have written on this card once […]

Sermon: God’s Plan for Universal Dominion

God’s Plan for Universal DominionZechariah 6:1-8November 27, 2022 In his book Comrades, Stephen Ambrose writes about the horror of war: “Combat requires all the nerves, all the physical attributes, every bit of the training. It is only in combat, nowhere else, where time is measured in other ways than by clocks or calendars. Only […]

What shall we do to be thankful?

On this Thanksgiving morning, what can we do to stimulate our hearts to gratitude if we are feeling discouraged or unthankful? Thomas Watson answers: “A gracious soul is thankful and rejoices that he is drawn nearer to God, though it may be by the cords of affliction.…When God has a rod in his hand, a […]

Believers have cause for thankfulness

“See what cause the saints have to be frequent in the work of thanksgiving. In this Christians are defective; though they are much in supplication, yet little in gratulation. We meet many Christians who have tears in their eyes, and complaints in their mouths; but there are few with their harps in their hands, who […]

What is Gratitude?

What is gratitude? It’s more than only saying, “thank you” for blessings received, as John Piper explains: …gratitude that is pleasing to God is not first a delight in the benefits God gives (though that will be part of it). True gratitude must be rooted in something else that comes firstnamely, a delight in the […]

God is Good

God is good. So says Psalm 100:5. And Psalm 73:1. And Psalms 34:8, 100:5, 135:3, and 145:9. And the prophets also speak of God’s goodness in Jeremiah 33:11, Lamentations 3:25, and Nahum 1:7. Jesus also affirms the goodness of God (and at the same time asserts His own deity, Mt. 19:17). To say that God […]