If someone asked you what you do to grow in your faith, what would you say? Many of us would perhaps start with things like personal prayer and Bible reading or attending corporate worship or serving others. However, have you ever thought about how the annual church business meeting can help you grow in your faith? In Acts 2:42 we are told that the first church in Jerusalem devoted themselves to f...  Read More

In 1 John 3:11 we are reminded that the gospel is intended to produce in our lives a love for others. Does this also mean that we have to like others? There is a difference between loving others and liking others. Liking another person means that we have a personal preference for that person, a natural affinity for him. And so the reality is that there are going to some people in our lives who we ...  Read More

Have you ever heard someone refer to be “being led by the Holy Spirit?” As we have dived into 1 John over these past few weeks we have seen that John consistently emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of individual believers, as well his role in the corporate life of the church. Specifically, John emphasizes over and over again that a key role of the Holy Spirit is to keep us grounde...  Read More

I wonder what it was like to be Jesus’ brother and watch him die; or his mother, sisters, or disciples. More than just the Messiah, here was a son, a brother, and a friend suffering not only death, but the most gruesome and tragic of deaths imaginable. While they knew on some level this death was not permanent, it sure must have felt permanent in the moment. We feel the pain of those closest to Je...  Read More

One of the likely reasons John wrote letters to the churches surrounding Ephesus was to warn them against the growing threat of Gnostic teaching. Not only did the Gnostics propose an idea of truth based on subjective and secret revelation, but they also offered false teaching about the person of Jesus. One form of Gnosticism taught that Jesus was not actually human. Instead, they taught that he on...  Read More

Over the past few weeks, thousands of college students have once again flooded our little town, an annual ritual that has been occurring here now for almost 200 years. Being a college student is uniquely difficult, and we as a local church can and should be looking for opportunities to minister to college students who come our way. In Luke 2:52, Jesus’ years in the teens and twenties are described...  Read More