Charleston Shootings the Grace of God Our beloved Charleston community is full of tears and profound sadness today after the detestable and violent murders at the historic Emanuel AME Church on Calhoun Street. Dylann Roof, a twenty-one year old, attended the church's prayer meeting for an hour before opening fire on the congregation. Roof brutally murdered nine people, i...

Foundations of a Welcoming Church We all like to feel welcome, don't we? Whether it's at home, school, work, church, with friends, or on the athletic field, it's an encouragement to be warmly welcomed by others. Alternatively, it is a real discouragement to be overlooked, ignored, or shunned especially at church. Many of us have had the experience of visiting an unwelcom...

Seven Reasons Why We Do Not Delight In God Andrew Gray (1634-56) was a gifted Scottish preacher who died and went to be with Christ at the tender age of 22. He left a deep impression on all those who knew him and heard him proclaim God's truth. James Durham once said that with his preaching "he could make men's hair stand on end." Gray's sermons are published by Reformati...

Alan Jacobs, in his delightful little book entitled The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), challenges the notion that reading good literature improves a person's character. He quotes the eighteenth-century scientist G.C. Lichtenberg who wrote, "A book is like a mirror: if a [donkey] looks in, you can't expect an apostle t...

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...