Church Blog (Page 2)

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven (James 5:14-15). Everyone reading this has been affected in some way by sickness—some sicknesses that are quite serious. We know people…

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise (James 5:13). I suppose we’re more likely to obey the first part of that verse than we are the second. It’s easy to let all of life’s stresses cause us to forget our need to praise God for everything good. If we’re not careful, talking to God can be more like a 911 call—something when do only when we find ourselves in a very difficult…

We’ve got a few different options when we’re suffering. We can complain about it, something most of us have done more than we should have. But it doesn’t really do any good, does it? We don’t particularly enjoy it, and the people around us certainly don’t. We can blame God and fuss at him about it, but that probably suggests a lack of confidence on our part. We can finger-point and talk about why our problems are someone else’s fault.…

You’ve probably heard stories of the good ole days when people just shook hands over deals . . . when the attorney-written, loophole-closing, 200-page contracts of today were unknown. “A person’s word is his bond,” people said. “A handshake is as good as a contract.” I’m not sure if this is a case of romanticizing and therefore exaggerating the past, or if some people really did make big deals with nothing more than a nod of the head and a…

In the pre-pandemic days (remember those?) I was sitting at a coffee shop doing some reading and writing, and I couldn’t help but overhear bits of the conversation coming from the table behind me. They touched on different topics—divorce, job problems, their kids’ lives, etc.—but disappointment and concern seem to be resting just beneath the surface. It’s everywhere, of course, from the coffee shop in the suburb to the mill in a small town to the boardroom in a downtown…

Some things are happening in our world right now that are disheartening. I sometimes wonder how much longer God will put up with it. There’s hurt, there’s anger, there’s injustice, there’s violence. More people are rejecting God’s plan for marriage for a less offensive, more “tolerant” approach. Unborn babies are still being killed, and fewer people believe in Jesus Christ as God’s revelation of himself. And then, of course, there’s the virus, and the uncertainty, confusion, anxiety, and division that…

The Bible says a lot about rich people, and most of it isn’t pleasant. For some reason I find myself wanting to skip over these passages, or—if I pay any attention to them at all—explain why they don’t really mean what they say . . . or why they don’t apply to me or the people I’m teaching. Could it have something to do with the fact that—because I have access to clean drinking water and plenty of food—I’m in…

Most of us like to plan. One-year, five-year, ten-year plans. What we’ll do, when we’ll do it, and how we’ll get there. If we invest 10% of our income starting at age 25, we’ll retire at 65 with no financial worries. Next year we’re going on vacation. Next month we’ll take a couple of days off from work. Next week we’ll get this report done or that chore finished. “See you Friday night,” we say without thinking. “I’ll be there at…

Some communities become toxic—you’ve probably been part of one before. Workplaces can digress into name-calling and back-biting. This group against that group. So-and-so’s mad at so-and-so. Sound familiar? It happens in schools across the world. Rumors—usually bad ones—spread like wildfire among teenagers. She’s mad at him, he’s mad at her, her clothes are out of style, he’s weird. And on it goes. People talk, and because we live in a fallen world, people talk badly, and they hurt each other…

“For we all stumble in many ways,” James wrote (3:2). Amen to that. Most Christians I know are quite aware of the myriad ways they fall short. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but in James 4 the writer’s on a bit of a negative kick. He accuses his Christian readers of lust and fighting and covetousness. He insinuates that they’re selfish, then—if that wasn’t enough—he calls them adulterers. He doesn’t seem very happy, does he? I’m glad there’s this…