Sunday, I participated in a prayer service with other pastors from the SBCV. Our goal was to gather together to praise God, confess sin, give thanks, and make our requests known to God in and through prayer. It was a wonderful evening, but perhaps the thing that warms my heart the most from last Sunday evening was the response of a young girl when she once again held her l...

Are you quick to judge others with severity? Just admit it. You know you are. I am. So let's hear and heed this gentle word from Charles Spurgeon together: "Eyes that have wept over our own sin will always be most ready to weep over the sins of others. If you have judged yourselves with candor, you will not judge others with severity. You will be more ready to pity than t...

I treasure our church's Statement of Faith. I carry a copy of it around in my Bible. You can call me weird for doing that, but you probably should have called me weird a long time ago for a number of other things. Anyway, our church's Statement of Faith is based in large part upon the 1853 New Hampshire Confession of Faith. It is a wonderful confession that aptly summarize...

As I was driving to church on Sunday morning, I began to wonder if I was trusting God as I ought to have been. We've been studying through 1 Thessalonians and considering persecution and suffering a lot. I can see how I would be driven to trust God in hard circumstances, but over the last few days I've been thinking about whether or not I've been pridefully trusting in mys...

If you're like me, then sometimes prayer (real, sincere, and earnest prayer) doesn't come easily. Sometimes I'm helped by others to pray. In the past I've used the compilation of prayers entitled Valley of Vision to help inspire me to pray. Recently, I've discovered John Baillie's A Diary of Private Prayers that has and I think will continue to prove useful in helping me t...

Last night I had the privilege of ministering with another brother in the congregation. A few weeks back he was walking about in his neighborhood, when he suddenly found himself talking with his neighbor about some serious matters. He was faithful to express his concern for them, and faithful to express his willingness to listen and be of whatever help he could. In short, ...

At the Tuesday night men's Bible study, one of the brothers (not me) led us in a few songs from his guitar. We closed with "It is Well." After we had finished singing, I mentioned to the brothers that third verse of that hymn has to be one of the best stanzas in all of hymnody. I'm sure if I gave you few words you'll be able to recite the rest, but just in case, here's the...

Earlier today a wonderful brother in Christ pointed me to Philippians 3:12. There Paul writes, "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own." I was exhorted to rejoice in the truth that Christ Jesus has made me his own. That is a wonderful encouragement that all Christians should re...

Over the past few weeks, I've been working on a writing project that addresses how to biblically view, deal with, and approach a particular set of sins. I've been reading various books and articles on the subject, but mostly I've been trying to read the Scriptures. This morning I spent some time reflecting on passages like Luke 18:11-13 and 1 Corinthians 10:13. The Luke 18...

Brothers Sisters, Last week I wrote expressing my thanks for pouring into me as your pastor in allowing me to attend the T4G conference and a small pastor's network meeting. In that note, I began to share with you some of my reflections on that time. I mentioned a few thoughts from talks delivered by Thabiti Anyabwile, Matt Chandler, and Mark Dever. Let me pick up where ...