The Pastors' Blog

Preparing for the Lord's Day I think that most of us have experienced it in some form or another. You go on a retreat or attend a conference and reach a spiritual high. You feel a communion with the Lord in a special way and dedicate yourself to pursuing His ways in your life. "I will give my life to missions!" "I will share the gospel with every waitress I ever meet!" "I...

Preparing for the Lord's Day Psalm 23 may be one of the most well-known passages of Scripture. The image of a shepherd pasturing his flock with care and attention resonates with us all. Therefore, it is not surprising that the image of the shepherd is a common illustration used to describe the Lord's relationship to His people. "The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want" (...

Preparing for the Lord's Day For the last several weeks we have been viewing Israel from the mountain tops with Balaam. While Balak sought to have them cursed, the Lord led Balaam to bless Israel. In these blessings we saw that the Lord will not revoke his covenant promises to His people. We saw that the people of Israel will valiantly conquer the surrounding nations. We ...

Preparing for the Lord's Day Westminster Shorter Catechism # 26 asks, "How doth Christ execute the office of a king?" The answer: "Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies." This week we will explore what it means to follow Christ as King. The world is filled wit...

Preparing for the Lord's Day Change is a concept that is hard to explain but impossible to avoid. From the earliest time of Greek philosophy, the problem of change challenged the world's greatest minds. Some thinkers went as far as to say the change is just an illusion and that everything is actually static. On the other side, there were those who claimed that everything ...

Preparing for the Lord's Day In our text, this Sunday, the prophet Balaam journeys to Moab in order to deliver to King Balak the message from The LORD concerning cursing or blessing Israel. We will see a clear clash between the vision and purposes of King Balak and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This text reminds us that our ultimate allegiance in life is directed t...

Preparing for the Lord's day What you see is what you get, but what you see isn't all that's there. That's especially true in Balaam's life as we look at Numbers 22:22-35 in a sermon entitled, "Donkey See, Donkey Do." While Balaam has prophetic powers, he is unable to see his own sin as well as his salvation (which comes from a donkey). Not much has changed for us as we a...

Preparing for the Lord's Day At this point in the Israelites journey to the Promised Land, it may be easy to think that God should give up on Israel. From the outset, the complaining, rebellion, and doubt have been a constant theme. In our passage for this week, the Israelites face a devious enemy that wants to bring a curse upon them and defeat them. Enemies that want to...

Preparing for the Lord's Day Last week, we saw that the second generation of Israelites were making progress where their fathers had failed. They were willing to enter the conflict of advancing the kingdom and to obey the word of God in faith. However, in our passage for this week, we see that even as there are differences between the two generations, there are also many ...

Preparing for the Lord's Day In many respects, the book of Numbers is the story of two generations. The first generation was called out of Egypt, given the Law at Mt. Sinai, and brought to the edge of the land of Canaan. But they refused to enter the land that the Lord was giving them. Therefore, this first generation had to wander in the wilderness for forty years until ...