Christians Should Rule the World, But Not Like You Think
In our Wednesday evening study of Proverbs, we encountered 14:31 this week: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” There was discussion over what it means for a nation to be righteous, because it is hard to define. It made me think of this recent article by Wes McAdams on Radically Christian for a good perspective related to the issue. It has been slightly modified in format, but not content. -BP Should Christians rule the…
Salvation Belongs to the Lord
1 O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; 2 many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah 3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. 4 I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah 5 I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. 6 I will…
Cultivating Contentment
My friend Bruce Ligon passed away this week. Some of you might recognize that name; he has been on our prayer list on Facebook in the past. I have known Bruce basically my entire life, at least as long as I can remember. His first job out of Freed-Hardeman University was as the Youth Minister at Eastern Hills in Marshall, where I grew up, in 1986. Afterward, he preached at several congregations across Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. For the last…
Red Door Churches
Sometimes we reprint articles in this space; normally, I go a few years without doing that. But we are about to kickoff our small groups program again for 2023-24 next week, and this relates so directly to what they are all about, that I felt it was worth it to revisit it again already—plus, the article itself was reprinted by the author after only a few months because it proved so popular, so I figure what’s sauce for the goose…
Confidence in Christ: Conclusion
Over the last few weeks, we have explored why we should have more confidence in our salvation. We examined what the overarching narrative of Scripture reveals about God’s nature and purpose, that he takes the initiative to restore the relationship with humanity that has been broken by sin; he is reaching out to us, earnestly desiring us to be reconciled to him. He has achieved that reconciliation through Jesus; if we are incorporated into Christ through faith, repentance, and baptism,…
Confidence in Christ: Walking in the Light
We have had a couple of articles here in this space on why we should have more confidence in Christ. We focused first of all on the big picture of Scripture and what it reveals to us about God’s nature and purpose: he is perpetually reaching out to his Creation, acting on behalf of humanity to restore the relationship he had with us in the beginning that has been broken by sin. We must always keep in mind that his…
Confidence in Christ: Peace with God
Last week, we began a short series in this space on why we should have more confidence in Christ. We focused on the big picture of Scripture and what it reveals to us about God’s nature and purpose. In short, God is perpetually reaching out to his Creation, acting on behalf of humanity to restore the relationship he had with us in the beginning that has been broken by sin. We must always keep in mind that his heart is…
The Big Picture
One of my favorite old hymns that we sing is “Blessed Assurance,” by Fanny J. Crosby. Crosby speaks of the confidence we have in Jesus. When we are born of water and the spirit, washed in the blood of Christ, we become heirs of God. We have a foretaste of eternity. This is our story. And it is certain! It is assured! Yet, so many of us lack certainty in our salvation. We have talked about this before, but particularly…
A Man Just Like Us
In the text in James covered in last week’s sermon, he presented the example of Elijah for consideration when it comes to prayer. He makes the point that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours—he was just like us, in other words—and look at all the great things he accomplished through prayer! That might come as a bit of a shock: Elijah? Like us? But he’s one of the greatest heroes of the OT! What in the world…
Who Do You Look Like?
On this Father’s Day, I would like for us to consider the fact that God has revealed himself to us as Father. That is how Jesus taught us to address God; the Aramaic term is abba. This is not “daddy,” as is often said; it is the only word for father in Aramaic. But that does indicate an intimate relationship that God wishes to have with his children—and that model, of God as our Father, then presents a great challenge…
Be Strong and Courageous
Last week, people all over the Western world commemorated the 79th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Just after dawn on June 6th, 1944, nearly 160,000 Allied troops, including about 73,000 Americans, began landing on five code-named beaches on the coast of Normandy. The operation also included parachute landings at strategic sites. A total of 4,414 Allied troops, 2,501 of them from the United States were killed that day; in the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 total Allied troops were killed,…
The Sin of Selfishness
Vacation Bible School is coming up on the last Saturday of this month. I was thinking about and recalled the theme of VBS one year when I was a child: “sharing is caring.” In our Bible classes, we are interested in telling children the stories of the Bible. We want them to learn and remember certain passages of Scripture. But we are primarily concerned with teaching them certain basic attitudes and habits of living. One of those is the practice…