This past winter I coached my daughter’s middle school basketball team. I loved the challenge. The girls were true beginners, but they worked hard and improved through the season. They learned the rules, the fundamentals, and how to play as a team. Fundamentals are laws that help players become successful on the court; the better you are at the fundamentals, the better you are at the game of basketball. When novices begin learning basketball, they usually display bad form when dribbling...
All the demands in life, including busy schedules, can sometimes pull us away from our family. So it is right and good to sometimes reevaluate our priorities and to focus on the family. Even more importantly, though, we should focus on Christ, for it is when we lose focus on him that our focus on other things, family included, becomes blurry. A careful focus on Christ brings perspective to everything else and helps us keep everything else in its proper place (or focus). So before we focus on...
The United States is becoming increasingly hostile to those who hold orthodox and historic Christian beliefs, at least that’s my impression. Christians in 2021, if they seek to follow Jesus honestly, sincerely, consistently, coherently, and faithfully, will be very different from the world around them. Very. If they blend in too much, they are not Christians, they are the world. It is easy for believers today to forget that Christians should be very different from the world. Perhaps one...
In the first century, the Pharisees took God’s good gift of the Sabbath and added to it so many ridiculous rules and regulations that it was no longer a blessing for God’s people; it became a burden (Matt. 12:1-14). What God meant to refresh His people had become a troublesome chore of remembering countless dos and don’ts which emptied the Sabbath of its delight. I think today the Church is more in danger of profaning the Sabbath than demanding too much on the Sabbath (demanding too...
We wake up in the morning. Perhaps we lay in bed awhile. We get out of bed, and we start our day. It is likely that most of us seldom contemplate our existence. You are likely settled on your own existence and the routine of life has likely lulled you into a certain unawareness of your existence. Of course you are aware that you exist and are alive. That’s not what I mean by “unawareness.” What I mean is that it is easy for us to forget, to simply not think about, the fact that we exist...
Election Day can bring a wide variety of emotions ranging from worry to anger to fear to apathy, especially when you need to wait for election results! The United States of America is arguably the greatest nation in the history of the world. It is not perfect by any stretch, but it provides freedoms and has achieved temporal good unlike any other. We can actually cast our vote to make our voice heard and to contribute to the electing of our political leaders. Then we wait for the results. As...
I assume you want to live a happy life. I also assume that when you are taking your last breaths, you would like to have a deep sense of joy, peace, and comfort in your heart. Who wants to live their life in a constant state of fear and insecurity? Who wants to feel overwhelmed by panic and dread as they lie dying in their bed? You want your life to be filled with true and sustainable happiness and your last days with contentment, calm, and consolation. But in order for you to have this true...
How can a dead bird be comforting? You’re walking along a trail on a cool and crisp fall day and notice a little dead bird in the leaves by the trail. Does that comfort you? I don’t think we should take some peculiar pleasure in the death of animals. Native Americans killed many animals, but had great esteem and appreciation for them and industriously made use of the meat, hides, bones, and more. Hunters today may not be as industrious, but they also esteem and appreciate the animals...
If life all of sudden became like Alfred Hitchcock’s horror film The Birds, then maybe the thought of a dead bird would provide some comfort. But in real life seeing a beautiful little dead bird along the path is slightly sad. It reminds us of death. But, according to Jesus, it should remind us of something else, something comforting: God’s providence. In Matthew 10, Jesus instructs his disciples and readies them for a difficult and painful future of gospel ministry. His words are...
I was ordained for the pastoral ministry on May 1, 2010. Ever since that day, I continue to struggle deeply with sinful desires, thoughts, words, and actions. Being ordained doesn’t kill sin in the heart of any pastor. Your pastor takes his sinfulness into the ministry. To go further, being ordained didn’t save your pastor, because the saving grace of God in Christ does not flow through ordination, it flows through true faith. Your pastor needs the grace of true faith. John Charles Ryle...
