Precious remedies against satan’s devices

I’ve said it a lot lately – read the Puritans. Wow. What a wealth of spiritual encouragement and perspective. The latest gem I read was “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices” by Thomas Brooks, written in 1652. In non-Puritan speak that means “The most common tricks Satans uses to try to trip you up spiritually and […]

#ChesterBennington and The Fight

The 90s-early 2000’s were my jam. I was a musician playing clubs and I connected with many of the artists and their music. Today, many of the lead singers of these bands are no longer with us. Lane Staley, Scott Weiland, Chris Cornell, and the one that hit the hardest for me – Chester Bennington […]

Forgiveness and Love

In Luke 7 we read the account of Jesus’ dinner at a Pharisee’s house – during the dinner, a woman enters the house seeking Jesus. Our text tells us that this woman was well known for being a “sinner.” She is weeping and is at the feet of Jesus – broken by the knowledge of […]

Confessing

Psalm 32 speaks of the blessings of confessing our sins to God – and the negative effects of not doing so. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I […]

Flipping and Flopping

In 1 Kings 18, we have the infamous Biblical smack down of Elijah vs. the False Prophets of Baal. It is one of the most awesomest (seminary word) stories in the Bible – I highly recommend reading the whole thing. (In addition to reading the whole Bible itself of course.) When Elijah arrives on the […]

The Perspective of Joseph

I remember exactly the first time I ever heard someone teach from Genesis 39 – the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. I was in Junior High Youth Group and it changed my perspective on the Bible significantly at that time. I remember thinking – “Whoah. There is stuff like THIS in the Bible? Maybe […]

Matthew 6

Matthew 6 (and 5 for that matter) have so much in them – so many wonderful things to sit and soak in. It’s kind of hard to pick out 1 thing – but perhaps what did jump out at me most this morning is the place God needs to rightfully have in our lives if […]

Praying for “God’s Will”

“God’s will” is a hugely misunderstood term in Christianese. Back when I had hair, going thru all the youth groups I was lead to believe that God’s will was a super secret mission that only you could do for God and you had to find out what this secret mission was – you had to […]

Righteous Determination

The story of Job is widely known. In Chap 2, we see the scene in heaven with the dialog between God and Satan and God says “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the Earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He […]

Fixing after Faith…

In prepping for some upcoming premarital counseling that Melanie and I are doing this weekend, I have been focusing on the gospel. I know…you are shocked, it’s so unlike me. :-). But specifically, the power of God in the gospel of Jesus as designed to cut thru the fog of the worst of the worst […]