Simply Gospel

I’m not the type of person to make resolutions when a new year comes. It’s not that I have anything against self-improvement. It’s not like I don’t want to be a better person. I don’t hold anything against others making resolution, but I’ve just grown a little jaded about resolutions over time. It’s almost as if we make resolutions simply to break them, and we make these resolutions with full knowledge that we will not keep them. Some resolutions, however, are worth keeping, and we don’t have to look any farther than our Bibles to find a few. Resolute Examples… Continue reading

As our lives progress, our priorities change. Different things consume our time and our interests as we transition from childhood into our teenage years into our college years into becoming husbands and wives, mothers and fathers. Over time, our focus drifts away from self and eventually upon others, on friends, on loved ones, on children, on family; and, as we grow from serving self to serving others, it helps us understand what it is to live a life of service unto God. We reach a point in our lives when we start building a faithful foundation for another, and that,… Continue reading

In Psalm 27, we see David writing about coming through trials by the grace of God. Remember David spends much of his young life fleeing a murderous King Saul. His wife is taken from him to be given to another man. Priests who help David are murdered by Saul. A city David delivers from possible enslavement betrays him to Saul. He lived in what shelter he could find in woods and in caves. Later, David would have to flee from Absalom, usurping the throne. Time and again, David faced distress, trials, and discouragement. Among all of this, we have Psalm… Continue reading

There is one vital ingredient if we are to have unity and peace: humility. We desperately need humility in our lives and in our congregations if we are to work for peace, and, if there is one congregation we can point to as needing humility above all else, that is the congregation at Corinth in the New Testament. Here is a congregation where factions split behind various leaders and figureheads. Some promote celibacy while others live in sexual sin, calling it freedom in Christ. Some abuse the Lord’s Memorial. Those with spiritual gifts seem to vie for prominence and attention… Continue reading

Jesus, in Mark 12, uses the picture of a vineyard, possibly indirectly referencing Isaiah 5. He tells of a man who prepares and protects a vineyard before putting it into someone else’s care. Those who work the vineyard harm and kill those the master sends to collect his due from the vineyards – even to the point of murdering the master’s own son. Jesus explains that those listening should be careful of rejecting that which the Lord has provided for them, even God’s own Son. In Isaiah 5:1-7, God shares a song about a vineyard, carefully prepared, protected and tended.… Continue reading

We need to strive for the attitude and the relationship of a close family in our local congregations, a family that is loving, encouraging, and eager to do the work of the Lord. We need to be a place where we respect and love one another and where every member of Christ’s body feels welcomed and needed. These bonds of our Christian family should be even stronger than those of our physical family. Disunity in the Family of God We have, in our culture, a passion for dramatics and sensationalism. When working with one another, though, we have to avoid… Continue reading