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.
Ted Cruz had just spoken at the Republican National Convention, and I noticed a post on Facebook regarding the former presidential candidate’s speech. The post affirmed Cruz for not endorsing Donald Trump, but then went on to say that Cruz was still an “odious little (expletive).” After unfollowing this person, I immediately began to think that a blog on how to post on Facebook was in order.
As a pastor who has not been slow to speak up about homosexuality and transgenderism in the past, I want to be no less slow to speak up this week about the devastating shooting in Orlando this past weekend, when 49 people were gunned down by Omar Mateen at the Pulse nightclub. The first response of any Christian to such a tragedy should not be to get immediately tangled up in the tense debates about gun control, Islamic terrorism or the gay lifestyle. A Christian should simply follow Paul’s exhortation to weep with those who weep. (Rom. 12:15).
Something surprised me as I have been preaching through Romans 9 and 10 lately – not that the Calvinist understanding of election is so clearly taught there, but that objections to the Calvinist understanding of election are so clearly answered there.
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.
