Brothers and Sisters, For school I've been studying through the early church creeds and councils. Those creeds and councils, for the most part, were mainly focused on describing and defining the person and work of Jesus Christ, as well as his relationship to the Father and the Holy Spirit. One main component of this study has been to return to Scripture and read passages ...

Brothers and Sisters, Last week, in reflecting on discipleship, I suggested that discipleship means conformity to another person. By that I mean that discipleship first and foremost means conformity to Jesus, and then very often it means conformity to the life of another believer (remember 1 Corinthians 4:16, 11:1, and Philippians 3:17). This week, I've been reflecting on...

Brothers and Sisters, The subject of discipleship has been on my mind lately. To be a disciple simply means to be a follower. I've had a sticky note on my desk for about a month now that says, "Discipleship means conforming yourself to the pattern of another person's life." Ultimately, we are disciples of Jesus. Ultimately, by the strength and power of the Holy Spirit, we...

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Early in the month of August I attempted to show how you can pray the Bible for your fellow members. Here, I want to attempt to show how you can pray the Bible for your own soul. Over the past week I've been praying Psalm 84 for my own soul (and for the congregation), and it strikes me that this is a particularly good Psalm to pray if you are ev...

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Lord willing, on August 27th I'll be gathering with the leaders of the women's small groups to reflect on 1 Samuel. This is in preparation for their study through the second half of the book over the course of the next year stretching from the Fall of 2016 to the Spring of 2017. In preparation for this teaching, I've been reading through 1 Samue...

Dear Brothers and Sisters, For those of you who have been through a membership interview with me you'll recall that I conclude the membership interview with "7 things we tell each incoming member." One of those things is that I encourage each incoming member to pray regularly, even daily, for their fellow church members. I encourage you to pray God's Word for your fellow ...

Dear Brothers and Sisters, On Sunday I mentioned that I'd like to take a bit more time in 2nd John than I had originally planned because I wanted to spend some time helping us as a congregation think through the doctrine of Christ. It is crucially important to the Apostle John in 2nd John. He goes so far as to say that if we do not continue on in the teaching of Jesus (an...

Brothers and Sisters, The other day a friend asked me what kind of music I enjoyed listening to. If you know me, then you won't be surprised to know that I answered, "Hymns." Some of you thought that I was going to say, "The Baptist Catechism as published by the Charleston Association in 1813 set to music." No, though I do enjoy the catechism, I prefer hymns. I'm not a bi...

Dear Brothers and Sisters, As we're working our way through the book of Ruth, I'm reading. I've read a few introductions in some Old Testament overviews, I'm reading a handful of commentaries as we go, and I'm also reading a few popular books on the book of Ruth. In particular, I'm reading Sinclair Ferguson's Faithful God, and I'm also reading Paul Miller's A Loving Life,...

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, As many of you may know, my small group has been working through 1 Corinthians 13 with the help of Phil Ryken's book Loving the Way Jesus Loves. It has been encouraging to think about love from different angles and, in particular, what love looks like in practice. Perhaps one of the most challenging aspect of practicing love is practicing f...