We are very pleased to welcome our students back. We rejoice at what God has done for you over the summer, and we are delighted to think about all that you will bless our community with in the coming year. We also welcome our freshmen, and we look forward to getting to know you, and …
Acceptance Moves Both Ways
Allow me to speak a word of exhortation to the covenant children who are growing up in this church. For as long as you can remember, you have been welcome here at this Table. You are baptized, and you are invited to be here, invited to partake. This means that you are just as much …
Our God Makes Provision
In the grip of unbelief, we love to pretend that the passage of time makes it unnecessary to trust in Jesus. We think that the modern era, or the postmodern era, or whatever unbelievers cook up after that makes simple trust, simple faith, somehow outdated. This is how the immaturity of every form of rebellion …
And Among the Empty Pizza Boxes There Was Not Found a Helper Suitable Unto Him
As we grow in the Lord, we discover that as soon as we turn from one thing, there is always another. There is no plateau in this life where we can afford to relax, pretending that we now have everything well in hand. If we turn away for a moment, if we offend at just …
A Table for the Riff-Raff
This is a Table set for sinners. But because sinners is a Bible word, many of us slip into our church-going trance, and we don’t rightly consider the ramifications of such a statement. This is a Table for riff-raff. This is a Table for losers. This is a Table for self-righteous fussers. Are you all …
More on Child Communion
Over at Canon WIRED, I recently answered a question about child communion, and that answer elicited this response. Since these are reasonable questions on a complex subject, let me add just a few more thoughts (three to be exact) to the matter. First, we hold the formal requirement for entry to the Supper to be …
Chalices and Platters I Never Asked For
We have before us bread and wine. We also have before us the choice of whether or not to renew our covenant oaths with God honestly or not. Never forget that the principle issues are not the bread and wine. “For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He …
Ecclesiastical Immigrants
A month or so ago, I exhorted you all to mark your calendars for the Fall Conference that is coming up in September, and I urged you to remember that this was not just an fyi thing, but rather an event of some strategic importance. I wanted to follow up on that, explaining it a …
He Will Come
Because we present arguments in the presentation of the gospel, we sometimes come to think that the outcome of matter rests upon those arguments. But God uses arguments — He doesn’t depend upon them. He doesn’t lean on them. The reason people resist and reject the gospel is because of willfulness, not because we have …
Not Entirely Gone
As you know, tomorrow is the 4th of July. This is the day on which we as Americans commemorate our independence from the tyranny that was being driven by the Parliament of England, but which was allowed by the king—who was constitutionally bound to protect us from all such usurpations. Because he failed in this …