One of the most helpful disciplines I have learned as a member of Grace Community Church is to prepare myself for attending church on Sunday. That may sound strange since I am the pastor and I preach most Sundays. If I don’t prepare the sermon, it...
“I have so much to do today, I will spend the first three hours in prayer.” That quote is attributed to Martin Luther, the man who worked tirelessly as a pastor, teacher, theologian, and champion of the Protestant Reformation. I must admit that often Luther’s approach...
Let’s be honest. We are not always devoted to prayer. Sometimes our hearts are just not engaged to pray. The reasons for this are many. We are often confused about what is best to pray. We grow weary when we don’t see the answers to our...
Our prayers reveal what we truly believe. Ask a Christian what he or she believes, and they might say the gospel. Their prayer life will tell you the truth. Ask a congregation what it believes, and someone might hand you a statement of faith. Show up...
There is one simple command in the Bible that remains for us to obey at all times and in all seasons. That command is to pray. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12:12 that one of the marks of a faithful Christian and steadfast congregation is to be...
At all times and in all seasons, our greatest need is to behold our God. And maybe like no other time in my lifetime the sense of this need is strong. Beholding the grace, greatness, glory of God has a profound impact on our lives. This...
We are four weeks into our time together in John 6. As we come to the final message from this chapter on Sunday, the focus will be on the reaction of the people to Jesus’ words, and their response to him as a person. The reality is...
One of Jesus’ most famous sayings is, “I am the bread of life.” We know that Jesus is speaking metaphorically, so the line is acceptable to us, even appealing. Because we love bread, the words of Jesus are as pleasing to our minds as the...
I’ll let you in on a preacher’s dilemma. Sometimes it’s just as difficult to figure out how to preach a passage as it is to figure out what the passage means. John 6 is a great example of this dilemma. By biblical standards, this is a long...
We are grateful for every word of the Gospel of John, all twenty-one chapters. But with the three chapters between Jesus’ first and second signs in Galilee, we have enough to believe that he is the Christ, the Son of God. John wrote this Gospel for...
