Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all. Father, as we come before You to confess the sins of …
He Has Done It Already
Everyone here wants things, and there is no problem with that. That is a design feature; it is how God made us. But there are frequently deep problems with how and why we want things. And the central problem is that we tend to want things that God gave to someone else, simply because that …
The Cup and Platter of Faith
When we commune with God, it is always because He gives Himself. It is always because He reveals Himself. It is always because He meets with us in accordance with His promises, and it is because we believe those promises. It is never because we have captured Him. It is never because God was successfully …
Confessing Our Weakness
Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all. Father, we rejoice in Your gracious provision of a high priest, …
State of the Church 2009
INTRODUCTION: This is a season for personal inventories, and for resolutions. This is appropriate and fitting . . . unless one of your resolutions needs to be to rely less on resolutions and more on actually doing something. Assuming your resolutions help you get things done, you don’t want to lose ground here in order …
Something Has to Die
When we are not getting along with others, the pressing temptation is always to believe that you are just as you have always been, and that they have somehow changed. This is often not true at all, but even if it were true, that does not put you in the right. Perhaps they have changed …
He Who Has a Tongue to Taste . . .
When we say that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, we generally do well at not inserting any portion of the material creation in between Christ and the believing soul. We know that it is the Word preached or written that was the instrument of salvation, but we don’t attribute …
Muddled in the Sanctuary
Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all. Father, Your Word summons our nation to forsake its abominations, and …
To Gain His Everlasting Hall
Bethlehem was the opening gambit in the last campaign of a long war. Many centuries after our father Adam had first plunged our race into the insanity of sin, God finally made His opening move. Jesus Christ, born of a woman, born under law, was born to fulfill every one of the numerous promises that …
The Wise Men and the Nations
INTRODUCTION: This part of the Christmas story is not a stand alone story. In the narrative, we find a type of how all the rulers of this world will eventually come to kiss the Son. THE TEXT: “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there …