Christians often take great comfort and joy in God's words of love to them in Scripture, and rightly so. What child of God is not comforted by Paul's reminder, "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8)? Or what adopted son or daughter is not enamored with the Savior who says, "I am the good shepherd. I know my own ...

When we worked our way through John 15 and 16, many of you may have noticed that I broke those chapters up in a way that did not exactly match the paragraph structure of the Bibles that we provide at our church. I actually had a couple of paragraphs explaining why I had broken the passage up in the way that I did, but due to time (and my love for the children of our congre...

In 1539 Martin Luther wrote, "God's Word cannot be without God's people, and conversely, God's people cannot be without God's Word." It is a beautiful statement. It is a profound statement. And it is a convicting statement. It is beautiful because it is well put. It is profound because it affirms the biblical truth that God's Word creates God's people. Faith comes by heari...

As I began last week's sermon preparation, I prayed. For some reason, last week I scribbled down the major headings of the prayer that I brought before the Lord that day, and I discovered them again today. I thought that I would share the rough outlines of that prayer because I believe that it is one that we can all offer to God when we are endeavoring to understand his Wo...

A friend was recently confessing to me some struggles, and he was surprised when I mentioned that the Devil might be involved. We easily forget that he prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). This is one of the "weird" things that we as Christians believe that is, it is weird in the eyes of the world. What is the Devil's main aim in att...

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...