Imagine you are riding a bike through the countryside. You know you’ll soon need to cross a river and notice a fork in the road that leads to two different bridges. You take the turn to the left because that leads to the closest bridge. When you get to the...
It was grace that brought me to Christ when I became a Christian. Grace was indeed a new concept for me. As a child, I had gone to Sunday School and heard about Christ dying on the cross for our sins. But I misunderstood a key element of the Gospel:...
When I first came to Valley Bible Church, I was introduced to quite a few songs I had never heard or sung before. One of those songs was a contemporary version of May the Mind of Christ My Savior. The original hymn, written only six years after the horrors of...
Christians frequently get a bit careless when they talk about how God communicates with us. I routinely hear people say something like this, “God told me that I shouldn’t buy the car I was thinking about buying.” My response sometimes is, “Oh, what did He say?” It’s an honest question:...
This past Sunday, we were reminded of how important it is to be part of a Life Group. When our group meets after a summer break, we have fun catching up on each other's lives, families, and travels. It takes a while to feel part of a group, to feel...
First place in everything was the theme of our time in Colossians 1:15-20 almost two weeks ago. If scholars are correct, and this passage is indeed part of an ancient hymn of the early church, what a treat it would have been to hear this truth sung by that first...
In Numbers 21, the second generation of wilderness Hebrews have looked on their circumstances and decided it does not meet their expectations. They look at their redemption from Egypt and see a ruse that will lead them to death by starvation and thirst.[1] While it is easy in hindsight to...
Do you ever feel like the darkness is winning? Do you look at our world, the news, and popular culture and become discouraged that we don’t seem to be making much headway as Christians? I do. It is disheartening to hear the name Christ used in vain, the rise of...
Chapter 2 of the Book of Jonah is a psalm of thanksgiving to the Lord for His deliverance. Poetically, Jonah recounts his near-death experience when thrown into the sea by pagan sailors. He describes his descent into the abyss of mysterious and deadly waters. When he is just at the...
As William Shakespeare once penned in the mouth of Juliet Montague, “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” How true that felt for us as we said our goodbyes (for now) with all of you at Valley Bible Church. Sorrow as we think about our time apart and all that we will...
One of my favorite phrases from the Declaration of Independence is found in the fifth of the “Facts” given to support the American departure from the British Crown. In this particular remonstrance, the founders complained that King George had “dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions...
In our text this week Paul was not holding back. Like a coach inspiring his players for a difficult second half in a championship game, Paul calls upon Timothy to give everything he has in service to the Lord and to the church. Flee, pursue, fight, take hold of, keep...
The goal of a Christian counselor is to exhort Christians to apply the Scriptures to everyday situations. Over the years, I have adopted a principle that I often employ. It is a distillation of many Scriptures about money—given to us by Jesus and the apostles, stated in wisdom literature, and...
Memorial Day, the last Monday of May, is a day to honor men and women who died in combat while serving our country in the military. Originally called Decoration Day, it was a day set aside to honor the soldiers of the Union army who were killed during the Civil...
We’ve all been on an airplane, waiting for takeoff, when the flight attendant begins the safety brief. When she gets to the part about oxygen masks, she will say, “If you are traveling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask on first, and then assist the...
On Sunday, we looked at God’s plan for the healthy functioning of the church according to the contributions of each part of the body. As a reminder, hear again the words of Paul: Ephesians 4:11–16 11And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and...
Biblical counseling is the guided process of applying the wisdom of God to the difficulties in our lives. It acknowledges that the Bible is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate...
It is no accident that the question of identity is a central battleground in our culture. We have become a people who believe our identity is as malleable as our moods, where the only rules are what we feel will bring us happiness. The trouble with that is, of course,...
Easter is a uniquely satisfying holiday. It comes with a sense of finality and accomplishment. Thanksgiving, the 4th of July, and even Christmas are days that mark beginnings. They are memorials to events that were laden with expectation. Easter, on the other hand, celebrates triumph. It marks completion. What the...
“It’s been quite a week!” Some people say that after a particularly eventful week. They may have traveled, been ill, experienced some misfortune, or just had a series of exhausting events. Everyone has them; when we do, we can’t wait for next week. So, consider the week that Jesus had...