Posts by Pastor Eric (Page 19)

Posts by Pastor Eric (Page 19)

The Devil’s Schemes

• The letter below was sent to CPC officers last June, then later used as a note to the congregation. I woke up thinking about it and wanted to send it to you again. It applies to all of us as we pursue God. In the opening quote from 1 Tim 3, Paul is conflating the work of the enemy and the decline of a man’s character and reputation. Our sin is the work of the…

The Body of Christ

• Men’s ministry tomorrow at 8:00am. Join us for good food and fellowship in the Word. Gatherings like Men’s Ministry or small groups may seem like luxuries, or trivialities, but they are not. I’ve watched good men go from leadership in Christ to spiritual ruin in a matter of years, usually because they lost the presence of “many witnesses” (1 Tim 6:12) and the natural…

Ammo

• As you know (maybe too well), I’m always intrigued by arguments from non-believers against the dominant secular worldview. I am more at ease as an evangelist when I know that views opposed to Scripture are seriously flawed, even from the perspective of the non-believer. I find such arguments to be useful tools. They enable me to defend the faith from a posture of peace,…

Love and Law

• From Luke 13: “Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years…. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” …But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There…

On Homosexuality

• I think the rancor of the Culture Wars is a betrayal of God in tone and method, but there is a battle to be fought nevertheless. I’m working on a longer piece on homosexuality in the Church (the realm of my own responsibilities), and below is a portion of that. 

The Hope of Faith

• Monday after our celebration of the Resurrection, I listened to the book of Acts while working in the garage (I use the ESV app for phones, which has a “listen” option, then plug the phone into one of those little speakers).  I thought I’d try to get a little distance from the text and let someone else just read to me “what happened next” after the Lord rose from the…

Suffering then Glory

• No week throws death and life into such sharp contrast as this one. The death of Jesus by crucifixion must have stunned the disciples. To them he had “the words of eternal life” and was beyond the power of vindictive kings and governors. Jesus’ death was more than a tragedy in itself, it was the death of a hope they had begun to embrace, a hope they had not known until…

Faith Not Sight

• Be careful of the silent expectation that the life of faith ought to be, really, a life of sight (“for we walk by faith, not by sight” – 2 Cor 5:7). The demand that everything be as certain as gravity will only insure you never take any bold action on behalf of Christ and his Bride. It places the premium on personal safety and security, not obedience and action.…

Misreading the OT

• Critics of orthodox Christianity now constantly employ a misunderstanding of the Old Testament, namely that the Bible is nothing more than a static book of ethical prescriptions, some of them monstrous, nearly all of them outdated. So, Muslim apologists will complain that Christianity is just as violent as Islam (just look at the conquest of Canaan!), and LGBT advocates…