What are the advantages of preaching consecutively, chapter after chapter, all the way through a book of the Bible? There are five reasons…
The essence of Christmas is the mysterious, glorious and profound claim that God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. To this astounding truth one might be compelled to ask: did it have to be this way? Was there any other way for God to redeem us? The second chapter of Hebrews gives us three reasons why God had to become a man:
Next Saturday (April 19, not tomorrow) is Record Store Day. This annual celebration of independent record stores has been taking place since 2007, and gives special attention to the vinyl record, which happens to be the main reason independent records stores are still in business. As music consumption moves away from CDs and increasingly toward MP3 downloads or direct streaming, there has been a movement back toward buying records the old fashioned way. Vinyl sales have been on the increase for the last few years, and show no signs of slowing down.
This is not an age when it is popular to belong to a particular church denomination. Most Christians shun such distinctives, mostly because denominational boundaries have become a symbol for the stereotype that Christians simply can’t get along with one another. Sometimes I am asked if it wouldn’t be easier if we just took the word “Presbyterian” off our sign in front of our church. Maybe it would be better if we just called ourselves, “New Life Community Church.”
As a fan of the singer Sufjan Stevens and the magazine The Atlantic, I was thrilled to see the two come together recently when the periodical posted an article on its Web site titled, “How Sufjan Stevens Subverts the Stigma of Christian Music.”
Here was the headline of a March 18 story reported by an ABC news station: “Presbyterian Church Approves Gay Marriage in Constitution.” “What?” I can imagine some people thinking after reading the headline. “New Life has approved gay marriage?”
It’s good to have heroes. The danger of course is that we might idolize our heroes, which is always to be avoided, but it’s also easy to go to the other extreme and downplay the outstanding godly example set by saints who have come before us. Most likely all of us have a hero of one kind or another, even if it’s just an athlete or rock star. The question is whether our heroes are truly worthy of the title.
There is a common experience for many people who visit New Life: They appreciate that the people are warm and friendly; they value the emphasis placed on sound Biblical preaching; they are grateful that the church is evangelical and Gospel-centered; they are relieved to find they are not in a liberal mainline church.
Tim Keller once wrote that if you’re going to read one book about how a Christian should interact with contemporary culture, then A Brief History of Thought: A Philosophical Guide to Living by Luc Ferry should be the one. This might seem strange, because Ferry is not a Christian, but a self-identified humanist philosopher (p. 227). And yet, having read the book myself, I can see why Pastor Keller recommended it. And for what it’s worth, I recommend it as well.
