The unexpected answer

One of the fascinating things about the book of Ecclesiastes is that the final “answer” at the end of the book seems to have very little relevance to the questions and issues being discussed in the book. But it seems that there is a significant lesson in this....

Sin disarmed

What is to be a Christian’s attitude towards sin? While most would agree that becoming a Christian involves an acknowledgement of and change in attitude towards sin (called repentance), there is less agreement about a Christian’s disposition towards sin as they...

The unexpected road to joy

Ecclesiastes takes us on a quest to figure out the key to life: What is life about? What are we doing here? Where can satisfaction be found? And one of the conclusions of the book is that mankind cannot figure out the key to life! It is a quest we are all on, and yet...

State of the church 2022

I used to do a “state of the church address” each January. I haven’t been as consistent with these recently, but wanted to share some reflections on the church as we enter a new year, especially given the unique challenges of the past two years. To make it simple,...

God’s providence and human responsibility

In light of last week’s sermon on God’s providence (from Ecclesiastes 3:1-15), I’ve written a couple of blog posts this week unpacking this massive and important topic. In the first, I argued that the claim that God is providentially working, ordaining, bringing about...