One Sunday morning a man approached me in the church parking lot and demanded that I sell him a car. I informed the man that the church didn’t sell cars. He said, “Nonsense! This parking lot is full of cars, and I demand that you sell me one!” I tried to explain that these vehicles […]
THE KINDNESS AND SEVERITY OF GOD A good friend recently reminded me to, “Always remember the kindness and severity of God.” Evidence of God’s kindness is everywhere. The ability to form a coherent thought and type this sentence is a testimony to God’s kindness. The lines painted on the pavement and the traffic lights that […]
Today I decided to write a book. I sat down to write the aforementioned book, but I couldn’t decide what to write the book about. So I decided to put-off writing a book for another day. But now we find ourselves in an awkward predicament. I boldly told you of my intentions to write a […]
My friend Brian recently forced me to imaginatively inhabit Romans 14. It’s always necessary to imaginatively immerse yourself in Romans 14, but 2020 is an especially ripe year for this perennially relevant passage. Romans 14 talks about how God’s kids are diverse. For instance, some of God’s kids are strict about rules, and have a […]
I recently had a brilliant idea for a blog post. But I forgot what it was. I’m not sure if it would have solved majority of the world’s problems, but given the absurdity of most of my assumptions I am inclined to believe that it had great potential to remedy anywhere from .12% to 94.6% […]
I have often heard the leaders of ECPC say to people, “Pray the Psalms!” If you heed this counsel, you will find it fairly straight forward so long as you happen upon prayers like Psalm 5, wherein your participation involves personally adopting the words, “Through the abundance of Your steadfast love, I will enter Your […]
I had the privilege of baptizing Mason Smith yesterday. Naturally, for Presbyterian purposes, I wanted to work the word “sprinkle” into the baptism schpeel, and so I quoted from Hebrews 12:24 where it says, “Jesus, the Mediator of a New Covenant, and His sprinkled blood which speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” […]
Over the past 6 years ECPC has many times wondered, debated, and wrestled with the question, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” And Christ’s prophetic and pastoral response has consistently been, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child […]
Imagine your sibling needs medicine for a chronic medical condition. Your family struggles to make ends-meet, and the needed medication is expensive. Through creative budgeting tactics your family is barely able to afford the daily doses. The average pressure of this predicament is stressful, but to make matters worse there is a brutal chief tax […]
One of my favorite words is “subversive.” Ask Justin …he’ll back me up on that. So you can imagine my excitement when I read this excerpt from Eugene Peterson’s book, “Subversive Spirituality.” The emphasis of ECPC has always been on SAVORING the King of kings, and of course slowness and savoring are inextricably linked; but […]