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.
Elvis Costello has always been one of my very favorite songwriters, mostly for his eclecticism (new wave, pop, country, classical, jazz) and lavish melodic inventiveness, but also because of his unusually clever lyrical wordplay, which is evident in almost all of his music. Allmusic.com says Elvis “emerged as one of the most innovative, influential and best songwriters since Bob Dylan.” So I guess it comes as no surprise that he’s actually a very good storyteller too.
This past Sunday I delivered a sermon on Rom. 8:18-25 titled “Heaven is a Place on Earth” in which we learned that the effects of the fall have extended further than just the souls and hearts of men and women, but even to the physical creation. As Gen. 3:17 and Is. 24:5-6 both declare, the earth has been cursed because of our sin.
This weekend is New Life’s annual missions conference. You might be aware that while the church seems to be on the decline in the United States, and certainly in Europe, it is actually growing rapidly in East Asia, particularly in China, which has been the scene of relentless persecution of the church in the past, particularly during the “Cultural Revolution” from 1966-1976.
If you pay attention to pop culture, there is no way you could have missed the fact that David Bowie passed away on Jan. 10. What made Bowie’s death so noteworthy is the fact that the man had been battling cancer for about 18 months, and somehow managed to keep the news quiet. In those last months of his life, he reportedly kept working at his art, finishing his last album, Blackstar, which was officially released just two days before his death, and to considerable acclaim.
A few weeks ago I shared my 10 favorite books of 2015, and this week I share with you my 10 favorite albums of last year. Music has been a passion of mine since I was a pre-teen, and the drive to explore new music has never waned over the years. The gift of music is yet another display of God’s unending generosity and kindness to his creatures, and a demonstration of the truthfulness of Eccles. 3:11, that God has “set eternity in the human heart.”
