When you are thankful, you worship Me acceptably—with reverence and awe. Thanksgiving is not just a holiday celebration once a year. It’s an attitude of the heart that produces Joy; it is also a biblical command. You cannot worship Me acceptably...
It has been a long time since I missed three Sundays in a row. We were out celebrating a week’s worth of birthdays with family. Before that, I was in Israel for two weeks. I look forward to being back in the pulpit, and back with you, this week.
Twenty-nine of us just returned from a wonderful trip to the Holy Land. We were treated like heroes in many places in Israel because we were the first tour group many hotels, restaurants and stores had seen since COVID-19. In a few places, we...
Greetings from Israel! I’m grateful to be back in the Holy Land (we are being treated like celebrities just for showing up). We tuned in to worship from our hotel. It was wonderful. A special thanks to all those who make the online services...
Theologians (past and present) hold various views of what 1 Peter 3:18-22 is saying. Even Martin Luther found it confusing: “A wonderful text is this, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not know...
I woke up several mornings in humid Uganda to the sound of children’s voices singing that simple song in unison across the campus of the children’s home where I was serving. Singing was the first thing they did each day as they awoke. It was...
I admit I am a bit nervous about this Sunday’s sermon. In 42 years of ministry, I’ve never preached on “Holy Saturday.” The message comes from a strange text, 1 Peter 3:18-22, that describes Jesus’ “descent” to the dead after His crucifixion and...
The Bible begins with GOOD news, not bad. Genesis 1-2 precedes Genesis 3. When the Lord made human beings, creation went from being “good” to being “very good.” Before we adopt an identity marred and tarnished by sin, we should steep ourselves...
As much as we try to explain it, the Trinity is a mystery. I like what author Jim Smith said last week, “A mystery doesn’t mean you can’t know anything about it, it just means you can’t know everything.” We only worship what we cannot understand...
Author, pastor, and professor, Dr. Jim Smith got us started on this six-week study of “The Magnificent Story” as he described two “shrunken gospel” presentations he encountered in his faith journey. One story was from Jim’s pastor in a United...
