I’ve never been very good at predicting the future. I’ve missed picking the outcomes of elections and ball games so many times I’ve stopped trying. I can't name a trend or movement in culture that I saw coming. The one thing I have learned about the future...
This blog post was originally posted on January 20, 2023. When a congregation gathers on the Lord’s Day to read from a portion of the Bible and give its attention to what is read in the form of a sermon, what is happening? From one perspective, it...
I often use this Words of Grace opportunity to call us to prayer. This Friday morning as I reflect on our member information meeting last Wednesday and project ahead to our gathering for worship on Sunday, this is one of those calls. As I write to...
The thing about holidays is that when they are over, whatever it was that we celebrated tends to diminish in our minds until the next year when its day comes back around. But we rose from the bed on Monday morning to the reality that Jesus...
As we approach Easter Week, let’s set our hearts on Christ and give ourselves to prayer. This Sunday is Palm Sunday, remembering the time Jesus entered Jerusalem to the crowd singing, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of...
I have had an interesting relationship with the word “vision” throughout my life. My first concern with vision was in school when I realized I couldn’t see well. Getting eyeglasses helped my physical sight, but I had just begun my journey with the idea of...
The God of glory is determined to keep it, reveal it, and bring his people into it. For this, we are forever grateful. Isaiah 48 is a chapter about how God dealt with his people in exile in Babylon. The chapter covers a lot of theological ground...
The most important time of your day is when you settle in your mind what is already settled in heaven, that the counsel of the Lord will stand, and his purposes will be accomplished. The questions of life abound, and many of them leave us unsettled....
It has been our practice at Grace Community Church to begin each year with a season of prayer we call, “Devoted to Prayer.” The Bible tells us to be constant in prayer, to pray without ceasing (Romans 12:12, I Thessalonians 4:17). Our January prayer emphasis is not...
Somewhere along the way in ministry, I heard (or interpreted something that was said to mean) that preachers shouldn’t preach things that aren’t real in their own lives. My guess is that the point of whatever was said is that preachers should be striving to...
