Studying Hebrews 6:4-8 is difficult. In fact, when comparing the many (many) views on this passage, the only element in common to all of them is that this passage is unsettling. It shows us in stark frankness the spiritual disaster of tolerated sin and committed immaturity. It is a loud...
From time to time, I recall an incident in my life—something I did, something I said—and upon replaying it in my mind, I do a cringeworthy facepalm at the thought of my incredible immaturity at the time. How could I have done that? How could I have said that? What...
A baby will put anything in its mouth. Every parent has endured that stage of infancy, constantly fishing anything and everything from little baby’s mouth: marbles, coins, rocks, sand, wood chips, food on the floor, and many things that are just totally disgusting. A baby does what is instinctive, and...
Since the early days of our marriage, we have used a prayer journal as a means of ordering our prayers. When our first son was a toddler, we prayed with him and did our best to teach him how to pray. As is often the case, our example as parents...
Editor’s note: As we persevere to provide timely and clear communication to the church body, I thought it would be helpful to have a quarterly “Good to Know” column that includes information about our church that we don’t necessarily talk about every Sunday morning. I hope this is a helpful...
One of my children's favorite questions is, "What is your favorite color?" For a long time, my daughter's answer was "black." But when I asked her today what her favorite color was, she said it had changed to white! I was taken aback just for a moment, because she had...
December is a stressful time. It's not just the hustle and bustle of cramming everything we need to get done into a few weeks, but for some, it's when broken relationships and pain and suffering seem to be amplified and magnified. It might be that you're lonely, dealing with a...
We’ve all seen someone who is completely lost in a moment of carefree happiness. The person dancing to the music while driving down the road, or a young child laughing so hard they roll on the floor heaving and snorting. It is the kind of moment that many of our...
Rest is a one-syllable word. Yet, when it comes to understanding our rest in God, its meaning is manifold. The idea of entering into God's rest, as taught in Hebrews, cannot be easily defined. C.H. Spurgeon began a sermon on rest with these words, "REST! A dainty word indeed! Too...
As we prepare for the busyness of the holiday season, Thanksgiving seems to get closer and closer to Christmas each year. I have driven by a few homes in the area with blow-up turkeys in their yards. The funny twist on this decoration is that the turkey is sitting on...
I remember as a child hearing Mozart’s variations on the tune of Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star for the first time. I was amazed at the ability of Mozart to take such a simple tune and present it in so many different ways. Each variation managed to retain the heart of...
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...