Introduction: Many Christians want to avoid millennial wrangles, and in an important sense, they are quite right. It makes little sense to fight with one another about when the divine peace will come. But other Christians want to avoid debate on the subject because they believe it to be unimportant. “After all, is not ‘the …
Open Wide
Communities are knit together in part because they eat together. The word companion comes from the Latin word for bread. This eating together consists regular meals together, sacramental meals together, and feeding on the declared Word together. In all three ways, we must not only eat together but must also “be fed” together. We have …
Communion of Light
As we confess weekly, we believe in the communion of saints. This is enacted and embodied in what we do here in the Supper, but what does it mean? What does it entail? We are gathered together in a particular congregation, and we are celebrating the Supper as we believe the Scripture instructs us to. …
Anatomy of Plagiarism
Introduction One of the things God expects us to do with His gifts is to turn a profit. We live as stewards of His bounty, and everything we have has been left to us in trust. When the master returns, he asks for a report from his servants. One made five talents off of five, …
What Amazed Jesus
One of the great differences between Jesus and the rest of us is that we are amazed at completely different things. We were amazed when Jesus did a miracle, and Jesus was amazed when the unbelief of man prevented a miracle. “But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given …
The Keys of Death and Hades
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I …
Bully Pulpit or Pulpit Bully?
So once again it is time to discuss pastoral combativeness as a virtue. This is not to say that pastors have some sort of a double-00 rating allowing them to be pugnacious or difficult to get along with. On the contrary, Scripture plainly teaches that one of the qualifications for ministry is that a man …
Surveying the Text: Samuel
Introduction Treating our two books of Samuel as one book, we find it to be repository of some truly great Bible stories. But more than this, it represents the tale of three very complex characters—Samuel, Saul, and David. And behind all of that, not to mention underneath, we see the promises and mercies of the …
Savior of the World #3
Introduction: As Scripture instructs, we must be adult in our understanding. But we must also cultivate what Luke records in the books of Acts when he says that the early Christians ate their bread with gladness and simplicity of heart. We may be refreshed with both when we come to understand the water of life. …
Small Group Lifeline
As our congregation continues to grow, we have to make sure we are thinking about that growth properly. We are, by the grace of God, growing into a fairly large congregation. When we combine this reality with all the other ministries that are going on in our small town—NSA, Logos, Trinity, etc.—we have to come …