2018 State of the Church

The beginning of a new calendar year provides a good time to look back and consider what God has done, and also look forward and consider how to live out the calling and meet the opportunities God has given us as a church. God is always working, and He has graciously...

6 factors for understanding biblical holy war

The biblical passage for this past Sunday’s sermon included the following: “And we devoted them to destruction, as we did to Sihon the king of Heshbon, devoting to destruction every city, men, women, and children.” (Deuteronomy 3:6) The topic of biblical holy war,...

Love and wrath

This past week’s sermon was largely on the topic of God’s wrath and judgment. These are difficult topics. They are difficult doctrines to grasp, both emotionally and intellectually. And that’s okay. It’s no surprise that when sinful, finite human beings try to...

Your heart is complicated

The gospel is a very simple message: “God saves sinners” (as J.I. Packer puts it). And in one sense, our response to the gospel is also a very simple thing: confess your sins and your need for a Savior and embrace Jesus as your sufficient Savior. This isn’t...

Self-care and biblical truth

In preparation for a recent sermon, I did some reading up on the self-care movement. As with many movements, there is good and there is bad. To that end, I thought I’d take some of the advice or sayings of this movement and hold them up to the light of biblical truth....