We’re tempted to trust in measurables in adversity. When we look across the metaphorical battlefield and see an army bigger than ours or an enemy stronger than us, it could be the cultural war on morality, the business competitor flooding
Rick’s sermon ends a study this summer of many Psalms of lament. I’m grateful we covered psalms like this for a few reasons: 1) it gave us biblical answers and hope; 2) it gave us categories for times when life
What struck me was how ‘real’ our sermon series in the Psalms had been to them and us. I have noticed a remarkable theme through our summer psalms: hardships and trials that seem to come without rhyme or reason. We
These last two weeks have found our family in Ferndale, Washington, for a baseball trip with a 14U Babe Ruth team and at our church campout at Bastendorff on the Oregon Coast. It was a full two weeks with tons
This is very helpful and encouraging for people like me who talk to themselves (don’t tell anyone). I have to say aloud to myself things like “Don’t say that!” or “Don’t think that!” And I repeat gospel truths to myself
Life did not get easier after that memorable night. I wrestled with the frustration of what my place in our family was after my father’s death. I was that “poor wandering sheep” that Henry described. Thanks to God He took
I was thinking about this recently as I took some time off. I could have done a better job taking time off over the last few years. I love to work. I love my job. I love my church, and
It’s been a few weeks since my last post, and there are a few things that I’ve had stored up to share. I have planned on writing each of the last few weeks, but inevitably something came up that kept
As I have said over these past few weeks, each sermon has had a very personal feel to it. Sunday’s was no different. Only this time, it wasn’t just targeting my heart. It was targeting ‘our’ heart as a church.
I don’t know if enough attention gets drawn to the idols of our hearts. Idols are generally not evil or sinful things. Usually, they are good things that we want too much and want now. They move from desires to
In the last two posts, I have mentioned how I’ve been dealing with some spiritual ‘heart’ issues. In the 34 years of Christian ministry, I have found that the Lord does not leave me alone, and He normally walks me
Sunday, we were introduced to one of the most mysterious yet intriguing characters in the Bible, Melchizedek. As I said in the sermon, we don’t know much about this guy, but Hebrews 5 and 7 give us the biggest references
I needed to be in church on Sunday. I had an odd week. It had no rhythm to it. It was long. I was frustrated with some things that went on, and I was battling through some heart issues. Then,
There are so many directions that a teacher could take on Genesis 12:10-20. The amount of preparation for Sunday’s sermon and the differences in commentators was interesting. It was a wonderful study, and I learned a ton. I like hard
One of the things I said on Sunday needs to be drawn out a bit more. And that’s Easter hope. I was very encouraged by the quote I shared from John Piper at the end of the sermon. Piper wrote,
I was provoked by Luis’ treatment of John 8 and the Jewish leaders’ interaction about being Abraham’s people. It is not those who are physical descendants of Abraham who are his people, but spiritual descendants by faith. But this also
We hit another weird moment in Genesis 9 with Ham’s sin and Noah’s drunkenness. So I thought I would give you an inside look at how to see odd moments, like this, in the Bible.
This is one of those posts where I brag about our church and our family of churches. The weekend we just had gives me ample reasons for this, and I thought it would be great for you to hear about.
One of my favorite topics or ideas to preach on is big themes found in the Bible. I tried to accomplish that on Sunday with an overview of the biblical covenants. What’s challenging about doing overviews like this is knowing
What a remarkable Sunday. As I wrote to our group leaders, if anyone predicted what happened on Sunday, they need to get me the winner of the 2023 World Series. You’re prophetic! I’m not sure if it was my lack
On Sunday, after the second service, someone approached me and said, “that was the adult lesson for Noah’s Ark.” I appreciated that. That’s how I felt. Sometimes we forget the wonder and awe of stories like Noah’s Ark and the
Over the course of our study of Genesis, we will bump into some weird or odd stuff. And because of the pace with which we’re covering Genesis (so we’re not in it for 8 years), there will be times when
I mentioned to you last Sunday that I would be out of town last week. I went to Louisville, Kentucky, to the Sovereign Grace Pastors’ College to take a class on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit (Pneumatology). This is
As I said in Sunday’s 2nd service, I firmly believe that one reason why the church has lost its voice in the gender discussion in our culture is that we have compromised the gender roles in the church. We have
So, when we look around the world today and see the confusion about any of the issues listed in Genesis 2, we need to realize that it’s because sin and Satan have clouded our vision of what God intended and
One point of clarity that I want to bring up from Sunday is that I believe there should be a time to discuss things like “old-earth,” “young-earth,” science challenges to the Bible, and so forth. I just don’t think that
Sunday, as I got up to prepare for our Sunday gathering, I knew that preparing my heart was more important than re-reading my sermon manuscript. The Lord was working on me, and I knew it. There were issues in my
This past week as I was reading through the gospel of John, I came across this verse in John 7:16, “So Jesus answered them, ‘My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.’” As I sat and considered this
Sunday’s sermon from Isaiah 9:6-7 was so much fun. It was fun because of the example I just gave. But it was also fun because our series from the Minor Prophets that we had just finished prepared us for some
What a Sunday! That’s how I feel this morning (Monday). I’m exhausted, for sure, but I’m amazed at God’s kindness to our church and me. There are several things on my mind today.
I can’t remember a week of sermon prep that was more challenging than last week. Zechariah is a tough book. It would be challenging to teach that book in a series of sermons. But to try to do it in
There is quite a bit of content that I want to get to in this post, but let me start with a few areas of conviction from the message from Haggai. The Lord used Haggai to “adjust” me a bit
The challenge that Zephaniah gives the student of the Bible is immense. As with most Minor Prophets, there’s constant friction between immediate and far-off future prophecies. This is why studying end times (eschatology) is so challenging.
This week’s edition of musings will be more like ramblings. It’s been a few weeks since I last posted anything, but I thought I would touch on several things in this post that might be of interest.
There is simply too much to talk about when it came to my trip to the Phillippines. Here is a trip report that attempts to describe how grateful I was to be part of this ministry team.
The next time you get worried about sharing the gospel with someone or worried about how God could use someone like you, just remember that Jonah preached a 5-word sermon, and God flipped Ninevah upside. Just give that some thought…much
Bruce’s sermon was fantastic. It was clear, challenging, and faithful and made us long for Jesus more. I think if the Apostle Paul were writing about men today, Bruce Wells would be one of those who have the interests of
One of the reasons why Amos is such an intriguing study for me is because I like straight talkers. I’ve never been a fan of people hiding their intentions, playing games, and never telling me the straight truth. I’m not
I mentioned on Sunday that my hope for us to learn the book of Joel was to see how big our God is and how He is intricately involved in every facet of universal history. And I said in the
This new series that we began on Sunday is one that I’ve been looking forward to teaching. Most of that is because of the cultural moment we find ourselves in being “on the outside looking in.” But also, I know
I have always been reluctant to extend myself beyond my “borders” regarding leadership. So, I declined anytime an outside organization asked me to serve on a board. I did this because I want my time given to my family, church,
Several people approached me before preaching on Sunday to let me know that Romans 8:12-25 was one of their favorite passages in the Bible. So, I sure hope that I did that passage justice for those of you who love
This is why we must cling to the truths of Romans 5-8. In our union with Christ, God no longer determines our relationship with Him based on our sin, our fickle love for Him, or how we feel in the
Throughout this series, “United with Christ, I see things in Romans 5-8 that I’ve studied before, but they have come to me with new freshness and joy. Focusing on these chapters has given me a new sense of freedom from
Romans 6 is a breath-taking look at how the power and penalty of sin do not dominate our lives anymore. It is a text about true freedom. Freedom to live as God intended and the joy that living in that
Romans 6 talks about our real, spiritual union with Jesus. It’s about how God sees our position and status before Him. He not only relates with us based on Jesus’ righteousness, but He frees us from sin’s power and penalty
So, one of my prayers for our nation is a prayer I have for our church (which is who this blog post is for), is this: that we would be respectful, grace-filled people, who treat others who disagree with us
Sunday was a rich day with our church. I knew going into Sunday that it would be one of those days that I would look back on fondly. The main reason was the text and sermon series we were beginning.
Now, with this crazy week, I decided not to preach on 1 Timothy but to preach on “The Functional Centrality of the Gospel.” It really is the most important lesson of my life. And like I said Sunday, “if I
the church that pastor and I love the people that I get to serve alongside. I have told the Lord many times that I just can’t believe that I get to do what I get to do. Yes, pastoring is
I had a few of you ask on Sunday about how the Good Samaritan story would fit into the sermon on Sunday. It’s a great question. But here’s a very brief summary with an explanation: The Good Samaritan story was
It’s always a daunting task to teach about the role of pastors while being a pastor. I never want a sermon like that to come off as “we have it so hard” or “you just don’t know what we go
It’s funny how our background affects the way we see things. As I grew up in ministry, one of the things that always bothered me was the “glitz” of ministry. Don’t get me wrong…I was drawn to it. And at
Our last two weeks, previous to Sunday, were incredible Sundays at CLF. One of the challenges of church ministry is to fight the urge to hit home runs every week. Jeffrey Jo, being with us…home run. Easter Sunday…home run. Someone
I usually park in our new parking lot south of our church building. As I walk to the church building, I spend time praying. Last Sunday, I marveled at God’s kindness to our church and me as the pastor. I
We see it in Paul and Barnaba’s missions in Acts. And we see it in history. But that is pioneering work. They are going where the gospel has not gone before, preaching it and planting new churches. But what happens
demonstration (life) and declaration (lips), rather than a reflection of the world. What I fear, at times, is that the church attempts to placate to the world on issues of gender, sexuality, marriage, parenting, purity, etc., and in doing so,
You can’t stop a man like this from serving God’s people. He’s a “church-man” in every sense of the word. He’s got the people for “whom Christ died” in his heart.
repeating. One of the major issues with the truths of God’s word, like authority and submission, is that it has been misapplied so often that it’s hard to believe the truth. But what I said Sunday was that a truth
God has created our genders in such a way that they are to complement one another. And when each person is playing their role in their God-given gender, it honors and strengthens the other gender. It doesn’t take away from
when the gospel is preached, believed, and submitted to, it does transformative work in people, nations, and cultures. I hope you noticed the brief tracing I did through history about this. We can get lied to by our media about
The servants at CLF humble me. So many gifts on display…givers, gifts of hospitality, mercy, compassion, teaching, discernment…the list could go on and on. But what makes the gifts function so well at CLF right now is the posture people
I thought about this Sunday afternoon. One way to look at false doctrine is as wrong doctrine. It just teaches us the wrong way to be made right with God and one another. That might make it more clear when
Rightfully so, Christians get frustrated and disillusioned by conflict. And many will say, “this isn’t how it’s supposed to be” or “this isn’t right.” But few Christians are willing to apply what God has taught us in His word to
I picked out two of the most common sins that create division in the church: gossip and slander. I could’ve done more, but those are sadly the most common sins. Scripture gives us clear guidance on handling such things, but
When I began to believe that God loved me more than I could ever imagine because of Jesus, I stopped living for others’ approval because I didn’t “need” it anymore. Rather, in Christ, I had all the love I could
The fact that there are two types of forgiveness listed in the Bible was new information for some of us. But when there is no confession of sin, there should not be spoken forgiveness to the sinner. Reasons for this
Here’s the point: for Christians, we’re the only people in the universe who have the power of Christ at our disposal to pursue peace and reconciliation. Yet, most of the time, the issue is that we don’t plug into that
As we noticed Sunday, God came to us in the person of Jesus. His coming to us shows us how reconciliation works. The offended party goes, ready to forgive. In reality, Christ came to us to reconcile us to God
These comments are reminders that this series is more like preventative medicine. Our church has enjoyed a wonderful season of unity, joy, and care. The Lord has been very kind to us. And this series is one of the ways
and see how redemptive history plays out, leading up to Jesus’ coming. Personally, I was freshly affected by this series. I was reminded of great truths of God’s love for us in Christ, of the wonderful thought that we can
But there is a severe issue with this “love myself first” strategy. Namely, it is not the way that God created us. God created us to love God and love others, with the same type of “others-focus, sacrifice” that we
One of the challenges for me in preaching on the theme of “Joy” is the amount of time that I’ve heard sermons on this subject attempt to define the difference between joy and happiness. Most of the time, this is
I’ve got to admit, these Advent sermons are growing on me:). I’ve really enjoyed the sermon prep, and I’ve been deeply affected by what I’m learning again. Thinking through big themes, like hope and peace, in the Bible has been
I must admit that I’ve always been a bit of a non-traditionalist when it comes to the church history calendar. I cannot explain it except for my youthful zeal. Honestly, I’ve watched churches and people observe traditions, without any connect
From Thursday-Sunday of this past week, our elders (pastors) and our wives went to Sunriver for our annual Elder/Wives planning retreat. I thought I would take a few moments in this post to talk about why this is important and
During Bill’s sermon on Sunday, I was really encouraged by his introduction as he compared the division in the Church in Corinth, with the joy that we have experienced at CLF. But what I appreciated about the introduction, was the
Here’s what I desire for CLF: I want us to be courageous to make decisions that we have prayed about, researched, and we believe are best for us and our families, without the fear of being criticized or falsely accused.
In Sunday’s text, we ran into 1 Corinthians 15:29 that’s just really hard to translate. So, without giving you hundreds of different approaches/interpretations of this, let me just offer two of them that I think are the most plausible.
The Church gathered on Sunday mornings is a cosmic event. It’s a moment in time when we gather together to say, “Jesus is King.” It’s a moment when in unison, we sing praises to the One true God.
In both sermons I thought, “with the treasure that I have in Christ, why do I not read God’s word more and pray more often?” My prayer is that I will apply the things I’ve heard from these two wonderful
Sunday was amazing. When we go to the baseball field, I get the unique privilege being in the 1st base dugout until it’s time to preach. The viewpoint from down there is awesome. I can hear the crowd singing, see
I literally can allow situations to dominate my thinking, my time, and my headspace. (Anyone else?) And, because I’m naturally persuaded by my own arguments or ideas (which is pride), I have a tendency to not listen very well to
When we recognize that Jesus is God’s final revelation about His character and how to be right with Him, we can stop wrestling in our souls. Here’s what I mean: so often, we feel like we need to be in
It’s crazy to think that the last time we were all together in 1 service was March 15, 2020. Our church has responded very well to the changes in the past year. Together, we have served each other, worked
One of the verses that I’ve kept at the forefront of my thinking has been Psalm 115:1, which says, “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love
Well…we safely made it through 1 Corinthians 14! There was no food fight in the cafeteria and we came out the other side with no one hanging from the rafters or doing cartwheels down the aisles! Seriously, it has been
One of the challenges with this particular gift is how much misapplication has happened with it and how much hurt has happened because of that.
I think it’s very interesting how Paul put 1 Corinthians 13 right before his discussion about prophecy and tongues in chapter 14. Those two gifts, especially tongues, seemed to cause the most issue in Corinth. And…they’re still an issue today.
One challenge with preaching on a familiar text, like 1 Corinthians 13, is that it’s…familiar. When a text is so widely known, the danger for me is to try to be cute or “original”. You know what I mean…try to
It’s an art to give honor correctly without flattery. Honor is about recognizing the work that God is doing in a person’s life and honoring them for obeying God or doing something well.
One of the things that I’ve been particularly burdened about as a pastor is to take the ‘weirdness’ out of spiritual gifts and if I can be frank here, take the ‘weirdness’ out of being a Christian. By that, I
Grace is more powerful than our sin. Grace is more forgiving than our consciences. And grace motivates us to change and inspires us to love Jesus more.
We must admit that much of the confusion about gender and gender roles is not because God is not clear or that God has not spoken. It has to do with the Church misapplying or even in some cases, abusing
When the power of God goes to work in our lives after we believe in the gospel, God begins to open our spiritual eyes and appetite to a variety of things. One of the areas that happened to me was
In my years in the ministry, I have found that people like to put on fronts, like to protect their reputations, and are afraid of being exposed. I’ve said often, “everyone wants accountability until they get it.” It’s true. We’ll
When you read this text, especially when you see that the Old Testament people were “overthrown in the wilderness” or “were destroyed by the Destroyer”, it creates some challenges for us. Were these people Christians? What happened to them? And
It’s never easy to talk about suffering and trials. It’s much easier to speak about God’s promises, God’s grace, and the empowerment to overcome sin. But Scripture is full of suffering examples: Joseph, people of Israel, and most importantly, Jesus.
There is so much to be said about the Church. I really wanted to help all of us see how the Church benefits to our souls. The combo of “drawing near to God” and “drawing near to one another” was
I have really enjoyed this sermon series. In hearing from many of you, it seems this series has been needed and encouraging. My prayer is that it’s a good launching point for 2021. We are children of God…adopted by God’s
