By it we grow, persevere, and recover. Those who offer it are like skilled surgeons, excising what’s necrotic and fostering healing. We underestimate its power and its necessity. We’re talking about encouragement. Among the many words of wisdom in...

Last week we considered from a letter to exiles what is the mandate for us all, irrespective of how this week’s election turned out. This week we consider, let’s call it, our “first executive order.” Some are elated–others angered. Still others, just...

Historians will decide whether this election season has consumed a nation unlike previous national referenda. Come what may, what is our mandate, and the promise upon which it rests?

We are familiar with the so-called “humblebrag”--the subtle attempt to prop oneself up by appealing to one’s ostensible lowliness. We are too well attuned to that move and find it galling. What Paul will say in this passage is his most self-effacing...

As we close our series through I John, we are reminded that God is the source of love and only as we see His great love for us in the finished work of Jesus can we then move in gratitude to love others and flee from idols that can never love us like Him.

As we look for hope and strength after the storm, Paul reminds us that as we are comforted through Christ in the midst of suffering, we can then be compelled to reach out to others with the same gracious comfort we’ve been given.

CENTRAL TEXT: Psalm 62

1 For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.

2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

3 How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning...

CENTRAL TEXT: 1 John 4:1-6

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus...

I

n the second half of chapter 3, John returns to a familiar theme of loving one another but this time we hear a new counter melody featuring Cain from the tragic story in Genesis 4. Cain had a love problem. And it turns out we are more like Cain...