The other day I listened to about 20 minutes of Billy Joel. It’s more Billy Joel than I’d like to listen to. Don’t get me wrong, I can jam to We Didn’t Start the Fire and it’s hard to beat She’s Got a Way as a love song. But Summer, Highland Falls is a song that makes fingernails down a chalkboard seem like a welcome relief. It was that song that finally jolted me out of my stupor. Spotify’s newer feature, an AI DJ, decided that I wanted a set of Billy Joel songs. Not a horrible suggestion—but not really a good one. I can maybe name 300 other artists I’d rather listen to than Billy Joel. And y ..read more

What started as a new dishwasher turned into an expensive kitchen remodel. When we pulled our broken dishwasher out of its happy spot, nestled under our cabinets, we soon discovered a rotting floor. We had mold. We decided to keep pulling up floor, tile, cabinets, walls, whatever, until there was no more mold. We came to a stop when we got to our bay window area over the kitchen sink. The whole wall, studs and all, was covered in mold. That outside wall had to go. When we got further into the project we discovered an even bigger problem. The issue which gave rise to all of our problems was a f ..read more

“Greet one another with a holy kiss…” –2 Corinthians 13:12 That encouragement from 2 Corinthians is now obeyed in the form of “Stand and greet one another…” And we fulfill the obligations of Holy Writ in about 2-3 minutes at the beginning of our Sunday morning worship. Well, we don’t. At Calvary we don’t have this formal greeting time. When I first came it was still there but we gave it the axe a few months even before COVID. There are a few strategic reasons for this. What Do Visitors Say? Many churches have this allotted time for the sake of visitors. After all, we don’t want to risk someone ..read more

I finally have a bit of an answer (at least for now) to one of the questions that has stuck in my craw for well over a decade. Why have some of the most dedicated “Christians” been the ones who have done me the most harm? Let me explain a little better. I’m not talking about a mere professor. I’m talking about those who read the Bible daily, faithfully attend church, do missions, engage in small groups, witness to others, etc., etc. I understand how some of those can be smokescreens to hide deplorable behavior. The dude in Matthew 7 that Jesus “depart from me” seems to have been quite the miss ..read more

If you read the gospel of Mark in one sitting you’d be shocked by what happens at the beginning of Mark 6. Think of all that Jesus has accomplished up to this point. He has really become quite the celebrity. Crowds are following him everywhere. He is healing the sick, preaching to packed crowds, and doing things which have never been done before. He’s calmed a storm, raised the dead, and even touched a leper. He cast out demons by the word of His mouth and healed a bleeding woman that nobody else could fix. He’s done so many marvelous things that everyone is beginning to wonder, “Who is this ..read more

How’d they get here? 2014: This has been an incredibly difficult year. We have lost so many things. We grieve, but thankfully our church family has been right there with us. 2016: I feel so alone. We still carry the scars from loss. Less and less people seem to want to carry this burden with us. Yet we remain grounded in the truth of the gospel! 2017: Do people even believe this stuff? It feels so performative. Do I even believe this stuff? Yeah, I do. Lord, hold my heart. Lead us into truth. 2019: I’ve been rethinking some things. I once strongly held this belief, everyone in our church holds ..read more

We live in a world that is oversaturated with knowledge but woefully lacking in wisdom. The Book of Proverbs is all about helping us goobers learn how to live wisely—to live as God created the world—instead of living like fools. For a few years now I’ve tried to read a chapter of Proverbs every day. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs and no more than 31 days per month. I find every day that there is something in each proverb where God imparts wisdom to my soul. I want to share those reflections with you. To that end, I began a new project called Proverbs4Today. The goal there is to provide a Ch ..read more

You’ve likely heard this popular quote from Spurgeon: Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies; and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay, and not madly to destroy themselves. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for. [C. H. Spurgeon, “The Wailing of Risca,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 7 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1861), 11.] But did you know the ..read more

Picture a scene with me. Your beloved daughter has been horribly sick. It has swallowed up every bit of your time, your resources, and your mental energy. And rightly so. She’s your baby girl. She’s your world. A couple days ago you had a glimmer of hope. You’d heard word of this new treatment that would cure her. One sip of this medicine would cause the darkness of disease to flee and vibrant life would once again course through her precious little veins. The husband goes to procure this medicine. But it’s too late. She dies before he gets back home. When he comes back–cure in hand–sorrow pil ..read more

Okay, this post is going to be incredibly weird for a moment. I’m warning you up front. Oh please, please, please—don’t skim this and do read all the way to the end…I’m risking a moment of sounding like a total weirdo because I believe it’s going to teach you an important principle in biblical interpretation. Okay. Let’s just get the weird sentence out of the way first. Did you know that Proverbs 12:10 teaches us that if you’re righteous you’ll have sexual relations with your animal? Let me show you why I say that. Proverbs 12:10 says this: “Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his ..read more