As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I’m listening to Eugene Peterson’s authorized biography. Here are some paraphrased excerpts from the book: The temptation to be “an expert” is relentless. He began to notice a latent messianic complex, where he was drawn to locate the emotional problems of people and then “FIX THEM EFFICIENTLY.” […]
In Acts 7 a guy named Stephen tells the story of Abraham’s Offspring. It’s a fascinating & lamentable anomaly of a story. It starts out with the God of Glory revealing Himself to a pagan fella named Abraham. God tells Abraham to leave the only land he’s ever known (leaving behind his family, friends, culture, […]
Well, it’s Christmas time! And of course that means we’re all ready to die. Right? Christmas time and death? …What do these have in common? What is Tyler talking about? Has he gone cray cray? …Has Tyler been overly-influenced by Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)? Is Tyler denouncing the consumerism commercialism […]
I recently stumbled upon a little book by a fellow named Derek Thomas called, “Let’s Study Revelation.” At the beginning of the book Derek makes observations about the particular Words of Jesus Christ to the particular churches addressed in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. I found these observations to be sobering, convicting, and edifying all […]
It’s been a long time since the last blog post here on the ECPC website. I know that all of you faithful blog readers have been going through withdrawals, but alas – here is a fresh blog post! Disclaimer: blogging is not my “unique ability” (at least I don’t think it is …but one can […]
She loved to gossip, and she was good at it. She was quite masterful when it came to the art of hearsay – the delicate procedures of simultaneously striving to please people while besmirching people were now second-nature to her. And “the best part” was that she was blissfully unaware of the devastating relational wreckage […]
Lamentation flows from a heart of humility. Lamentation is a form of worshiping the only True & Living God, and an indispensable means of maturing in our trust of Him. Problem – – – > we have zero humility. We have buckets ‘o plenty, and storage units galore, and train cars by the […]
There is a lady who knows a great deal about neediness, desperate dependence, reliance, and what it actually looks like to receive the Kingdom of God LIKE A CHILD (Mark 10:15). For her, it’s not mere head knowledge – it’s experiential knowledge; she is a woman who has not only recognized her neediness, but relishes […]
Five years ago, I had no idea what “church planting” was. Now, I am a pastor called as part of a team to the task of planting a church! As the seed for the idea of church planting was planted in me several years ago, I took it upon myself to delve more deeply into […]
A few months back, we had a conversation at one of our life group gatherings about the idea and benefits of fasting. The context of the discussion was a study of Acts 13 (specifically verses 1-3), in which prayer and fasting are mentioned briefly as something the church at Antioch was doing in preparation to […]