On the first Sunday of this year I preached at my home church, FBC Jackson, TN, on 1 Peter 5:6-11. This text struck me as timely with it’s call to humbly receiving what God allows, even suffering, casting our cares on Christ, and preparing to resist temptation, while drawing strength from the sure hope of …
Continue reading ‘Looking to a New Year after a Particularly Difficult Year’ »
1 Peter has been especially meaningful to me lately. So, when asked to preach our opening chapel at Union this semester, I preached from 1 Peter 1:13-21. I could not deal with all of this rich text in the time period but focused on two points in the early part of the text: 1) …
Continue reading ‘Peter’s Guidance for Faithful Living Now’ »
Recently I had the opportunity to preach at my home church, First Baptist in Jackson, TN. We are currently in a series through the book of Revelation so the text up that week was Revelation 3:7-13, the message to the church in Philadelphia. I have taught this text various times, but I felt like in …
William Cowper knew what it was to be discouraged, and, thus, he wrote compellingly to this struggle. My poem of the week this week is one of Cowper’s which calls the discouraged saint to look to biblical examples of the Lord’s care and intervention in order to hold fast. The last two lines are my …
“Hope is more than an engine for endurance; it is the deep, heartfelt understanding that though we may fail in our mission, and though we may perish alone in the dark, the Shadow will pass away and goodness will triumph.” Louis Markos, On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis …
It has been fairly common in our family for the youngest child to delight in saying the blessing before meals. So for the last while, Timothy, our 4 year old, has often eagerly asked to say the blessing. His prayers have developed of course, moving first from unintelligible to intelligible and then adding and substituting …
Even the ancient pagan stories bear witness to the universal human longing to overcome death. In the Aeneid Aeneas begs for permission to visit the realm of the dead to consult his father. In response he is told by the prophetess: The gates of hell are open night and day; Smooth the descent, and easy …