This side of Easter, this side of the Crucifixion, how can we say anothing but “Jesus Alone” is all we need for our salvation, and praise God for the resurrection of Jesus, His ascension to heaven where He rules, and the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost so that we can have Jesus in our hearts from now until eternity.
We need not prove ourselves to God. We don’t need elaborate rules to follow, or duties to perform. We…..
It’s Here! Easter has arrived. The longing for this day through forty days of Lent ends in the celebration of the greatest event in the earth’s history: the resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus, the Christ. Hallelujah!
While some of the traditions of Easter follow ancient celebrations of spring after a cold, long winter of hibernation, it is fitting that both occasions occur simultaneously. The…..
Photo: Desolation, Desmond Almarales, with permission 
Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane wrote ten hymns in the years between 1872-1874 in a collection called Family Treasury. From what I’ve read on the website Hymnary.org, her hymns appear in hymnbooks in at least ten languages throughout the world, and this is one of my favorites. On Good Friday, it makes the crucifixion…..
I’ll be cleaning the house this week, preparing for Easter. I’ll fluff up the bouquet of silk flowers, bright yellow ones with forsythia, reminding me of springtime in the North. I’ll put out the iris dish and the vase with purple iris on it, and hang the iris paintings on the wall behind it. I love spring…..
Most of us have weeks that are busy, perhaps significant, and looking at our calendars, we sometimes wonder where the strength will come from to accomplish our tasks. Jesus had such a week, his last as He faced the cross. He had the joy of adulation on Palm Sunday when He was hailed as king. Unlikely, though, He was riding on a…..
According to Luke 1:32, “No word from God will every fail.” His plan for salvation can be traced from the beginning to the end of Scripture. God’s attributes are revealed on every page: His sovereignty, His judgments, His mercy, His power, His righteousness, His patience, His healing, His love, His plan, His victory, His compassion, His benevolence, His presence with us.
No more picture of God in all His aspects can be seen in the events of Holy Week. He reveals…..
This is traditionally April Fool’s Day, a time when, as kids, we played pranks or told weird stories or thought of news that wasn’t news at all, and after careful narratives, ended with a hearty, “April Fools!”
I’m afraid much of which we are experiencing in the news and in rumblings of new détentes, the arrest of a former President, news of yet…..
As humans, we are all indicted, charged with crimes against God, since early in our creation. The minute early inhabitants, created by God, decided their own way was better than God’s plan, we were doomed to the specter of death and enmity between ourselves and God that we by ourselves can never change. But God, in His love for us, provided a pathway to…..
In this life there are many trials. The last few days we have heard stories of war, of crime, of murder of children and church-school staff adults, of enemy nations consorting together, of political rivalries, of WOKE, of alternate lifestyles, of riots and disputes. Yes, negativity sells papers, they used to say. Murder mysteries and spy…..
Once more we grieve. This time at a PCA church school in Nashville. We ask once more, how can good come from senseless tragedy? How does the pastor of this church lead his people while mourning his little daughter, Hallie? How is the timing part of the tragedy as we prepare for Holy Week?
Without the resurrection of Jesus on Easter, we would mourn without hope. Only when we know that God still limits the power of satan or we…..