This blog is Pastor Jay's weekly musings about God's Word, God's world, and God's call to our culture. We hope they encourage, challenge, and inform you. Sign up to recieve them in your email.
Worry is a disease. It can eat at you relentlessly and steal your joy, your focus, and your health. Such a terrible disease needs a powerful antidote and God has not left us empty handed. In fact, he has filled our hand with a glorious book that will deal a decisive blow to the scourge of worry. But, like all medications, you must take it as prescribed. Poor applicatio...
Keep ReadingAs finite creatures made by an infinite Creator, paradoxes are something we have to come to grips with. Being an infinite God means you do thingsdifferently. In what way? I have no idea. Being finite excludes the possibility that I can understand what it is like to be infinite. It is like asking a Dixie cup what it feels like to hold the ocean. Therefore, we are told t...
Keep ReadingPreparation is what you do when you don't know what is coming. Fervent preparation is what you do when you do know what is coming. And you know conflict is coming. You are fallen and selfish and you live around fallen selfish people. Only the Hermit is going to avoid conflict, and even he will probably argue with himself from time to time. Therefore, since you are a fa...
Keep ReadingI read something today about revival that struck me as to the actual nature of revival. We say we want revival, but no one living today has actually experienced it. The little that I have read about it communicates that it is the single most impactful experience one could possibly have. So much so, that there is a limit as to what can even be handled. What I read was ...
Keep ReadingBy: Hannah Ploegstra ------19 December 2016------- For many Christians, Christmas can be a rather conflicted season. Ever notice how we gripe our way through the season, over-spending on toys and junk, over-eating, and letting ourselves get "way too busy" while with the very same breath bemoaning the loss of the "reason for the season" and the way the world has taken ove...
Keep ReadingBy: Hannah Ploegstra ------19 December 2016------- For many Christians, Christmas can be a rather conflicted season. Ever notice how we gripe our way through the season, over-spending on toys and junk, over-eating, and letting ourselves get "way too busy" while with the very same breath bemoaning the loss of the "reason for the season" and the way the world has taken ove...
Keep ReadingBy Jay Lickey12-16-16 It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas when you start seeing statements made here and there about keeping Christ in Christmas. It's a pointed reminder in our increasingly secular age. But what about keeping church in Christmas? I have never seen that statement on a Facebook post or a t-shirt. Yet, every 6+ years Christmas falls on a Sunday. H...
Keep ReadingNo one likes living in a fog. Stock markets hate uncertainty. Voters hate uncertainty. Sick people hate uncertainty. The new and wonderful abilities of the scientific community make us hate it even more. Most expectant parents don't even want to live with a few months of not knowing the gender of their baby. Perhaps some people like the uncertainty of being spontaneous, ...
Keep ReadingPeople used to think the single cell was pretty basic, like an old car you could work on if you had some know-how. Turns out we simply weren't looking close enough. Instead of comparing it to an Oldsmobile, the cell is more like a galaxy of function and information. The same is true with some of the most famous and beloved Bible verses. We love them because of the powerf...
Keep ReadingOne of those doctrines that is often debated among Christians is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. This doctrine states that those who are truly born again will have a faith that endures to the end. There is a reason that this doctrine is debated. That reason is we all know people who used to zealously profess faith in Christ, but then fell away completely,...
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