Christmas is celebrated on December 25. Because of our calendar, this date occurs on different days of the week. About every seven years Christmas falls on a Sunday. It averages every seven years but Sunday Christmases follow a 28-year pattern: it occurs on a Sunday, then again in eleven years, then six years, five years,…

All followers of Jesus want to honor the Lord. Our common confession is “Jesus is Lord”—which means Caesar is not, and neither are we. Because Jesus is Lord and because our hearts are turned to him in faith, we desire to honor him. This necessarily impacts how we live our lives. Inevitably, then, the question…

A friend who serves another church recently told me about some folk who have decided to break fellowship with that church because he was not taking a public stand on the upcoming election here in Michigan. Because he did not publicly advocate for a particular issue on the ballot, they were choosing to break fellowship…

On Monday I was asked a very insightful question about Sunday’s sermon. In that sermon we saw that Paul urged Timothy and the Ephesian church to pray for all people without distinction. This includes praying for kings and all those in authority. This was a significant instruction from the apostle for Nero was the emperor…

Last Sunday we looked at 1 Timothy 1:12–17. To encourage and strengthen Timothy for the work he was to do in leading the church in Ephesus, Paul shared his own faith story telling Timothy how it was that the Lord strengthened him to endure suffering and to remain faithful. He shared how he was “the…