Christians and non-Christians alike constantly talk about the need for “self-care” these days. I wonder if farmers, working 80 hours a week in 1950s America, thought about “self-care.” That is a rhetorical question. Of course, they did not. The reason, I suspect, is not that hard-working farmers did not need to take care of themselves. … Continue reading Moses, the Mountain, and a Mass of Email
Dear Brother or Sister, I have come into your sick-room, as it were, and wish to tell you a few things for your comfort and profit. God has seen fit to stop you in the midst of your busy life, and to lay you aside for a while. It is not by chance that His … Continue reading For Those Whom God Has Afflicted?
Christian, do not let Monday morning steal the joy you had yesterday when you celebrated Easter. He is still risen, and his resurrection is still the answer to all our problems. If you are like me, Easter is a cheerful morning. The house overflows with joyous songs proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus Christ as we … Continue reading The Resurrection is the Answer to All Our Problems
The following is by Pastor Rob Golding of First Artesia Christian Reformed Church. I have noticed a world of difference between visiting the depressed and visiting the physically sick. The physically sick will chat with you and will enjoy a prayer at the end of your conversation about their illness and the medical plan to take … Continue reading The Secret Benefit of Depression
What is “the good life” according to the Bible? I recently introduced this topic with a short article called, To Love Life and See Good Days, but this weekend, I had the opportunity to expand on it at First Artesia Christian Reformed Church. Too often, we look for the good life in the things of … Continue reading Living the Good Life
The following is by Pastor Rob Golding of First Artesia Christian Reformed Church. One of the most profound spiritual moments in my life came when I was most spiritually depressed. I was in college and found myself in a serious spiritual search. I was a Christian at a Christian college, studying the Bible, and I had … Continue reading What Spiritual Depression Taught Me About Worship
How many of us desire to love life and see good days? My guess is it is all of us. Only the jaded have abandoned this hope. This desire for the good life may seem like something from the self-help section, but it is directly from scripture. Peter addresses it in his first epistle. Peter … Continue reading To Love Life and See Good Days
If you want to turn the world's wisdom on its head completely, this is it. The Apostle Paul says he will boast about his weaknesses (2 Cor. 12:9). We do not boast of weaknesses; we hide them because they hold us back from being who we should be. They threaten our competence. They are faults … Continue reading Weakness: Our Unlikely Ally
When the Psalmist speaks of the enemies he so desperately wants God to kill, we should imagine that pet sin Satan intends to use to drag us to hell. When we read of the incessant desire of the Psalmist's adversaries, we should think of our own constant temptation to Sin. We should read these poems of war as our poems of war. We should be encouraged not just to sit through hard times but to... CLICK TO READ MORE.
Of all organizations, does the local church have preeminence in our lives? In the clip below, Pastor Jeff Saltzmann of Bethel Grace Baptist Church unpacks a quote from the church covenant. What he says is counter-cultural to non-believers and even ruffles the feathers of many professing Christians. Many others would agree with this idea of … Continue reading The Preeminence of the Local Church
The Fight of Faith 