Jer 8:18-9:1
A sermon preached at Grace Baptist Church, Richmond VA 9/22/19
Category Archives: cross
America First or Not my Problem
Mark 9:37
For a couple of weeks now, I have been preoccupied with the perception that the public discourse influences even believers toward stridency, rigidity, and lack of compassion. Oddly, at the same time, I have been hearing again and again in my mind’s ear the lyrics of a children’s hymn I learned to sing in Vacation Bible School: “Jesus loves the little Continue reading America First or Not my Problem
My Confession of Faith
For Now
In a few weeks, I begin my twentieth-eighth year teaching, my twentieth at BTSR. The realization has given me occasion to reflect on a number of matters. How has my thinking changed? Has my faith deepened? Continue reading My Confession of Faith
Making Theological Trouble for Ourselves or Why I am not a Calvinist
Rom 8:28
I heard it again last week, the platitude people use in the face of tragedy: “We do not know the mind of God. What we see as bad may, in fact, be part of God’s mysterious plan. God is in control.” People seem to need either to comfort themselves over the fact that life is always uncertain and often painful, or to protect God, or their idea of God, from Continue reading Making Theological Trouble for Ourselves or Why I am not a Calvinist
An Easter Confession
“Who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29 and par.)
Yesterday churches across the world experienced the highest attendance levels that they will experience all year. Attendance next Sunday, at least in the West, however, will confirm the trends indicated in the surveys about religion and the statistics concerning denominational decline. For many reasons, some clearly identifiable and others
“In whom I am well pleased”
Mark 1:11; Matt 3:17; Luke 3:22
As I write, it is Tuesday of Holy Week and the world seems to be coming apart all around me – terrorism in Belgium, turmoil in American politics, and troubled people on every horizon. People want political answers to what they perceive to be political threats; they want forceful measures to deal with destructive forces. People are angry and afraid. Can