TAKING VOWS SERIOUSLY Our lives would be much better off if we simply took our vows seriously. The breakdown of marriage, family, and faith can easily be attributed to a lack of faithfulness to important vows. We are quick to make them, but slow to keep them. We are guilty of making piecrust promiseseasily made, easily broken. Followers of Christ, however, should take vow...

THE REAL STRUGGLE The foundational doctrines of election and predestination may be troubling to those who have never been seriously exposed to them. Perhaps you have been thinking to yourself, "The doctrine on the sovereignty of God in election cannot be right. The God I have known and worshipped all of these years would never elect some unto everlasting life and pass ove...

The Cross: A Magnification of God's Love The Gospel never gets old ... never. How can it, if we really understand our nature's wicked, depraved, and helpless condition, and the lengths to which Christ went to save us from divine judgement? Jesus was brutally nailed to the cross because of our sins. The Son of God bled and died for us. He willingly received the wrath and c...

The Role of Heroes Iain H. Murray has written a delightful collection of seven biographical sketches entitled, Heroes. Published by the Banner of Truth in 2009, this volume reflects upon the lives of some well-known, and not so well-known, figures from Church history. Within its pages the reader is given a glimpse into the extraordinary lives of Jonathan Edwards (1703-175...

Praying for a New Reformation in Germany We are grateful to welcome to Christ Church this Lord's Day the Rev. Sebastian Heck, German church planter from Heidelberg, Germany, and a dear friend in ministry. Sebastian will be preaching in our evening service (5:30 p.m.), and I would warmly encourage you to attend. Sebastian's church, the Evangelical Free Church of Heidelberg...

The Love of God Shortly after my conversion, just after my sophomore year at Clemson University, I began attending Fellowship of Christian Athlete (FCA) meetings. I will never forget the expressions on the faces of the students when I first began attending. They were surprised and confused. Because of my wild lifestyle, I was told by more than one student that they though...

Walking With God, III In John's first epistle we are exhorted to walk in the light of God's presence and truth, not in the darkness of this fallen world. He states, "If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of...

Walking with God, Part II The Prophet Micah reminds us of what God "requires" of His redeemed children. "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" Notice the last phrase, "and to walk humbly with your God." Last week, with the help of the seventeenth-century Puritan ...

Walking with God, Part I The Bible teaches us that godly men like Enoch and Noah "walked with God" (Gen. 5:24; 6:9). Moreover, we are told, "blessed are the people who walk, O LORD, in the light of your face" (Ps. 89:15). As Christian believers we often talk about, and pray for, a more faithful, committed, and disciplined walk with God. But do we really even understand, ...

Purposeful Parenting, Part III PATIENCE It has already been established that we, as Christian parents, are called by God to humbly take charge of our homes, and to shepherd the hearts of our children. We are not meant to go with the cultural flow when it comes to child rearing. If we do not raise and disciple our children with purpose, the world (e.g. media, peers, cultur...