Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. (Col. 3:18-19) Scripture never justifies dictatorial rule by one spouse, nor does it require the abandonment of personal dignity by another. Despite the controversies of our age over Scripture’s instruction, the Bible’s marital […] The post Devotion for July 26, 2024 appeared first on byFaith ..read more

In The Giver of Life, John Fesko reminds Christians the Holy Spirit is more focused on making you look more like Christ than he is making you look good to others. The post The Holy Spirit in the Age of Self appeared first on byFaith ..read more

Two Butler-area PCA churches are grappling with their hometown being the scene of a historic event, what they can learn, and how they can help. The post Butler-Area PCA Pastors Respond to Shooting appeared first on byFaith ..read more

You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:18-19) Minister and church leader, Alexander Whyte, told the story of an older saint who was nearly destroyed by […] The post Devotion for July 25, 2024 appeared first on byFaith ..read more

My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. (Prov. 3:1-2) When we love God, pleasing him pleases us. Loving God and loving ourselves are not competing motivations. When we please the One we love the most, we find our own greatest pleasure. Satisfying the One we most love satisfies us most fully. So, we do not need to see pleasing God as an onerous burden that we assume simply to make him happy. As a loving Father, he teaches us to follow paths that are good and safe, thereby adding to the lengt ..read more

Five years. According to a modern rule of thumb, that’s how long the average new pastor lasts in a ministry position before burning out or moving on to another church. That’s barely any time at all, not even long enough to see a baby that this new pastor baptized reach first grade.  But for every rule, there’s an exception, and in this case, that exception is Bob Hayes. Active in ministry for 50 years, and serving the same congregation for half of that time, Hayes is a model of longevity in an increasingly transient field. Born and raised in Panama City, Florida, Hayes graduated from Refo ..read more

If you spend enough time around Christians when discussing difficult issues, you will undoubtedly hear someone state, “We need to show grace.” This statement appears in meetings and conversations all the time, whether it’s deacons deciding to assist someone in financial need or couples talking about raising teenagers.  Even the apostle Paul appeals to grace when instructing the Corinthians to give to the Jerusalem church. His pleas for generosity reach their rhetorical climax with the words: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that, being rich, for your sake he became poor, s ..read more

You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…. (Rom. 8:15-17) Here the apostle Paul puts us into the middle of a court hearing in which he asks two important questions: Who are the heirs of God’s inheritance, and how can they prove they are heirs? Before we dismiss the inquiries as irrelevant to us, Paul explains that we are the heirs in question, and that our status is established by the testimony of two witn ..read more

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4) You may remember Brit Hume as a national news anchor, but not know that he became a committed Christian during one of the hardest times in his life. Challenges drive some people away from faith; others see the necessity of Jesus through them and are drawn closer to him. For Hume, his greatest challenge came from the suicide ..read more

The PCA pastor who overtured the 51st General Assembly for a committee to examine the PCA’s relationship with the book “Jesus Calling” is transferring to another denomination. At Eastern Carolina Presbytery’s most recent meeting, Teaching Elder Benjamin Inman was dismissed in order to join the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America.  In a statement provided to byFaith, Inman explained his reasoning behind the overture: “The ‘Jesus Calling’ overture was purely an act of repentance for my failure to pursue the issue in 2013. I learned in 2023 that the book had sold 42 million copies ..read more