Posts by Bryant Perkins (Page 2)

There is an old story, a sort of parable—I am not sure of its original source. But many of you have likely read it before. If so, you are going to read it again. It is about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to do and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry because it…

It seems hard to believe, but this is the final Sunday—the final day—of 2023. Tonight at midnight, we will close the book on this year and then embark on 2024 (the beginning of our seventh year here, incidentally, which is also hard to believe!). We are probably all focused on the challenges of the coming year, the changes we would like to make, the improvement we would like to see. As we think about that as it relates to the…

Most of you are probably at least somewhat familiar with J. R. R. Tolkien. He was a philologist by training, a professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford. But he is best known today as a writer, particularly for his epic works of fantasy, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was famously a devout Catholic. His religious beliefs clearly influenced a number of his works in terms of their worldview, though he did not write much…

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity. – Psalm 98 Isaac Watts is considered the father of…

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of…

All of us at some time or another get depressed and discouraged. Sometimes we just want to give up and quit. In the heat of a moment we’ll say, “That’s it, I’m quitting this job.” Or, “I’m going to leave this town and never look back.” Or even, “I’m done with the church – they’ll never miss me.” How often have we felt that life was seemingly stacked against us? That the harder we try, the worse things get? That…

When we look at the church in the New Testament, we cannot help but be impressed by its impact. On that first Pentecost, there were 120 disciples huddled together, waiting for the Spirit promised by the Lord Jesus. After he poured it out and Peter preached to the crowd that gathered in response, there were 3,000 baptized; that number soon grew to 5,000. Within a few years, there were churches planted all over the ancient world. What accounts for the…

We are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic in our world. It is severe enough that earlier this year, the Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy, released an Advisory to call attention to it as a public health crisis. Countries such as Japan and the UK have gone so far as to appoint Ministers of Loneliness in their government. Our isolation and lack of connection to one another creates myriad physical problems that are worthy of…

Last week, we considered a question many people have asked over the years: will we know each other in heaven? While Scripture does not address this directly, it seems clear that the answer to that is affirmative, both from the great principles of the Bible as well as implications of passages found in both the Old and New Testaments. But there are some objections that have been raised to that idea before; let’s consider those here. Sometimes it’s suggested we…

We are considering going back to passing trays when we take the Lord’s Supper in the near future. In conjunction with that, I was thinking about our practice more generally this week and ran across this article from Wes McAdams. You have likely heard me say similar things to all 3 of these suggestions on occasion; I not only endorse them, but thought they might be helpful for you, too, because sometimes hearing another voice make the same point drives…

Do you remember what it felt like to be young? For some reading this, that was a long time ago. For others, it was a really long time ago. One of the things I remember is that it seemed like it took forever to grow up; you can probably relate to that. Most of the time, as children, we are ready to be older and bigger than we are; it’s why when we are really little, we put that “and…

Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter. Ecclesiastes 10:20 Have you ever wondered how people find out things? Statements we made and actions we took which we thought would never be known suddenly become public knowledge; what we thought was a secret is published abroad. We have an expression for that mysterious process that…