At the ACC after-school tutoring program a few weeks ago Pastor David casually mentioned to me that he and Sobeyda were going to be hosting a refugee family from El Salvador. My heart jumped with excitement...what an opportunity for ACC to show the love of God! I also was encouraged by their willingness to share their living space with strangers, knowing they give so much already as a Pastor and Counselor. The next day Carolina and her almost 11 year old son Onandy arrived....
One of the ways that Christians engage in prayer is through the act of intercession making requests of God on behalf of others. Since Christians, by grace, have been brought into relationship with God, it is both our privilege and our responsibility to plead the cause of others before the Lord. 1 Timothy 2:1 lists our involvement in this kind of prayer as being of first i...
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One of the most worn-out, underlined, check-marked, re-read books in my library is Holiness Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties and Roots by J.C. Ryle. It is clearly among my favorites. J.C. Ryle (born 1816) was the Anglican bishop of Liverpool in the late 1800's. He is remembered for his numerous books on the Christian life and for his commentaries on the four gospels....
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Because more than 5 billion copies of Scripture have been distributed, the Bible is often referred to as the best-selling book of all time. But, technically speaking, the Bible is not a book. It is a collection of 66 books compiled into one volume. These books were composed between approximately the 8th century BCE and the 1st century CE, written in three different languag...
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Sometimes people think that all sins are equally serious in the eyes of God. This conclusion is understandable. After all, the Bible states that all of us are sinners who fall short of God's glory (Rom. 3:23). It teaches that if we have broken only one of God's commandments we are condemned as lawbreakers (James 2:10). Scripture also teaches that we can sin internally even...
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We Christians sometimes place unnecessary limits on the ways we worship God. It is understandable that, by temperament or tradition, we would each prefer certain styles of worship. Sadly, however, we sometimes cut ourselves off from the wide variety of ways God can be praised. Psalm 150, the final song in the psalter, helps to broaden our understanding of worship. The wor...
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Articles on how to read Scripture often focus on techniques daily reading plans, interpretive methods, systems of study, etc. These can all be tremendously helpful, but what I want to write about here are not techniques that make Bible-reading effective. I want to explore attitudes that make Bible-reading fruitful. What should be the attitude of our hearts when we approa...
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Creation Care Part One When compared with the age of the earth, the span of any human life is microscopically brief "a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" (Jas. 4:14). Yet since I was born in 1962, our planet has experienced more environmental devastation than that witnessed by all the generations of our ancestors combined, since the time of Noah. I...
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Psalm 23 is one of the most well-known portions of the Bible. It is often read at funeral services and other important occasions. Many people have committed the psalm to memory. You sometimes see verses from Psalm 23 displayed decoratively in people's homes or tattooed onto their arms. It is a very popular psalm. The reason Psalm 23 is so popular is because it is beautifu...
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In this three-blog series, are looking at 2 Peter 1:3-11 to learn how believers can grow in their relationship with Christ. In the first blog, I focused on the power for spiritual growth. In the second blog, I wrote about the process of growth. In this blog, I'd like to explore why spiritual growth is so important. In verses 8-11, the Apostle Peter describes four benefits...
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In this three-blog series, we are looking at 2 Peter 1:3-11 to explore the ways believers grow in their relationship with Christ. In the first blog, I focused on the power for spiritual growth. In this blog, I want to talk about the process of growth. Peter describes the process of growth in verses 5-7: "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodnes...
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