This is not the first time the Church has faced a crisis. Let's look back at Saint Augustine's ministry to the Church during the sack of Rome in 410 A.D., and examine his pastoral, Gospel-centered message that still relevant to us today....
Some prayer targets and some biblical wisdom for navigating these crazy times ...
O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.... "Jesus," the angel said I am to give the child the name Jesus. "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no ...
Keep ReadingIn the famous words of Dave Letterman, "96% of all statistics are made up on the spot." Yes, it is true that according to whomever does the research, it is difficult to have no bias whatsoever in the work. And it's also true that you can often hear two statistics concerning the same topic that completely and utterly contradict one another. In prefacing with this, I want t...
Keep Reading
Everyone has family Christmas traditions. I'm sure one of yours instantly was brought to mind. After years of Alexandra and I trying to establish our own for our kids, we have finally discovered one that was an instant hit, and that is being repeated as we speak - hopefully to be repeated year after year: Using Handel's "Messiah" as a sort of Advent Devotional Guide for ...
Keep ReadingI got a call early this morning from my dad. His dear friend and ours, Syd Lawrence, had gone home to be with the Lord at 4 AM. Syd always referred to me as "The Part-timer", an old joke that people make about pastors "only really working on Sundays" but that joke never got old to Syd. He welcomed me with it just this past Sunday, 2 days ago, so "The Part-timer" would like...
Keep ReadingThe Upside-Down Kingdom: An Introduction When I first became a Christian, I very quickly learned the acronym, WWJD? (What Would Jesus Do?). That was the question, and still is the question, followers of Jesus are trying to answer? How in the world are we to live this life as Christians? What are we supposed to do? Why are we supposed to do it? What are we allowed to do, a...
Keep ReadingThis is blog #8 in our series Sabbatical Musings. To catch up with the previous blogs in the series, you can click HERE and it will take you to a page with all of the other blogs. Today's musing is on my most favoritist topic in the whole world- GRACE. In particular, I want to write on why it is so difficult for some people to receive grace and how exhausting it can be wh...
Keep ReadingUThis is blog #7 in the Series "Sabbatical Musings". If you would like to keep up with what was previously written in this series, you can follow along by clicking HERE Disclaimer:Thank you for all of the friends along the way who have fanned my flicker into a flame, who have stuck by me through thick and thin, who have loved me enough to point out areas of sin, who have ...
Keep ReadingThis is the 6th Entry in a Series of Blogs called Sabbatical Musings. If you want to catch up with any of the blogs in the series, justCLICK HERE This is likely to be the shortest blog in the series but it is a result of something that I have been thinking about for a long time that I got to really settle in my heart over Sabbatical. This thought is really not connected t...
Keep ReadingThis is now the 5th blog in the series "Sabbatical Musings". To read yesterday's blog, clickHERE To keep up with the series Sabbatical Musings, click HERE Today's musings come from a topic that I could easily have a PhD in: Running on the Hamster Wheel of Anxiety. If I had to pick one area where the Lord was doing the greatest amount in my heart, it would be on this issu...
Keep ReadingAfter being on sabbatical for 2 and a half months, the Lord has shown me (Pastor Eric) some interesting things and I am eager to share them with the body...
Keep Reading
