Faith’s Bitter Foe

According to this sermon, Abraham has much to teach us concerning the life of faith. Despite the millennia that separate us, Abraham's successes and failures, of which there are an ample supply of both, offer surprisingly relevant insights into our struggle to live by faith. His life, much like ours, reflects an on-going battle with fear, faith's archenemy.

From Resignation To Recognition

Luke 24: 13-35 Have you ever found yourself living in the days following a great disappointment when something you had been hoping for and praying seemed just about ready to come true, and then suddenly it just seemed to...

Living as Exiles

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7, 11; Philippians 3:17-4:1 A number of years ago I came across the results of a nationwide poll in which people were asked to define themselves in a single word. What would you answer? Not even one sentence but using just one word, who are you? Of the more than eleven-hundred people who participated in the...

A Ministry That Is Not in Vain

1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 Possibly someone shook their head in doubt when you surrendered to the ministry. Did they wonder about your future? Like the English teacher in 1894 that noted on a teenager's report card: "a conspicuous lack of success." That teenager was Winston Churchill. Or the poetry editor of the...

The Sound of Grace

Titus 2:11-14 Titus was a young pastor, shepherding God's flock on the isle of Crete. The church that was entrusted to his care was a church that the Apostle Paul probably planted after his Roman imprisonment narrated in Acts. Because Titus is young and inexperienced, Paul is writing him a letter, which we know...

When God Seems Absent

This eternal fountain is hidden deep, Well l know where it has its spring, Though it is night! (St. John of the Cross) My friend Nancy Beach once taught a series on spiritual life in which she compared our varying experiences of God's presence to the seasons of the year.

Workers Pleasing To God: Tenth in a Series on 1 & 2 Timothy

2 Timothy 2:14-26 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). Shun youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do...