For several weeks we have been considering how God’s mercy in Christ transforms us. When Paul makes an appeal to us by the mercies of God, he is reminding us that God saved us for a purpose (Romans 12:1). The first appeal is that we live dedicated to God, as...

The ice will melt, and the effects of COVID-19 will subside… someday. The question is not when will we come to church, but how? As a congregation, we are walking through Romans 12 in prayer and in preaching. This chapter opens with a reference to the mercies of God. The...

Motivation matters. That’s true because we need motivation to do the right things, and also because we need to do things from the right motive. The mercy of God is our motive and motivation in life. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your...

A good way to read the Bible is from the thirty-thousand feet vantage point. When we do, we see the flow of the grand story of God and the big truths about him and his work. Then, the details are understood in light of the whole. As we often say,...

Every Christian has what we call “a testimony.” A testimony is an account of how a person became a Christian. Testimonies can include dramatic events that tell of obvious changes in a person’s behavior after coming to faith in Christ. Or they can tell of quiet conversions of a person...

Let me tell you something about myself that concerns me. Sometimes I read and talk more than I pray. I would rather get the perfect book on prayer than actually pray. This morning I read a few news stories and talked to my wife about a few issues before I...