Church Blog (Page 18)

A Laughing God

I get mad when I hear that a shooter has inexplicably killed more than twenty innocent people. Again. In a church, no less. It’s becoming all-too-frequent: concerts, schools, churches, other public spaces. These atrocities remind us that evil pervades our world, and we’ve got to be careful that we don’t develop a jaded attitude. We might even lose confidence in the power and sovereignty of the God we serve. Listen to the psalmist: Why do the nations rage and the…

Spoiler Alert

I don’t like for someone to tell me how a movie ends before I watch it, and I’d never read the last chapter of a book before I’d read the rest. So I hope I’m not spoiling the end for you when I let you in on a Bible secret. We win. Big. Or maybe I should say, “God wins . . . so we do too.” He’s dropped some huge hints along the way . . . here’s one…

Are You Righteous?

The word righteous means “to act in a way that’s morally right and wise.” In James chapter 5, we read about the “prayer of a righteous person.” This prayer, James said, “has great power as it is working. My first thought is that I want to be righteous! I want to be able to pray powerful prayers. But, am I righteous? Sometimes, I pray with doubts. Not doubts in God, but doubts in myself. My prayers sometimes focus more on…

Your Weak Spot

What’s your weak spot? You’ve got one, of course, as we all do, and Satan knows exactly where it is. He’s lurking around, watching, waiting, looking for us to let our guards down, then he attacks. One thing that makes it so difficult is that he often uses something in us that’s harmless. He takes a good desire and makes it bad. Here’s Eve’s tragic mistake: So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that…

What happened to Jesus at the Cross?

I don’t pretend to understand exactly what happened, but I think it may have been the Lord’s most terrifying and difficult moment of the six-hour crucifixion. It’s the only saying from the cross that Mark records: And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And…