The Festival of Joy

Handley C.G. Moule (pronounced Mowl) was Bishop of Durham at the turn of the 20th century, and was a staunch Evangelical. He wrote scholarly commentaries on the New Testament that are very useful to this day, as well as many other books. One of my favorites is his book The Sacred Seasons, which has a [...]

Service of Nine Lessons and Carols

The service of Nine Lessons and Carols, held Wednesday evening at our Church was astounding and moving from start to finish. We were blessed to have a large community choir, a brass ensemble and a handbell ensemble provide traditional Advent and Christmas music at our church.
Humanly speaking, I was very proud of the choir and [...]

What’s In A Name? Worship Experience Vs. Worship Service

By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (Hebrews 13:15)
Something has rolling around in my head for a few months and I couldn’t quite pin down what it was. It all started when I noted that among some [...]

Frontier Faith At Jamestown

This is the memorial church at Jamestown. The tower dates back to the late 1600s, but the church behind it was built in 1907 as a tribute to the earlier churches that stood on the site.
The earlier settlers had a brick church by 1620, it appears. That building stood until Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676, when [...]

Three Things Every Christian Should Do

I want to give you three simple things that every Christian can do to make the churches of our nation stronger. While I am personally committed to doing what I can to help my congregation in particular to grow, the truth is that I hope that all of the Evangelical, orthodox churches in our nation [...]

Great quote from Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry (1662-1714) is well known for his extensive commentary on the whole Bible. Pastors and laypeople alike consult him.
A lesser known book is his The Communicant’s Companion, a volume of meditations on receiving Communion at one’s church. It bears the marks of a writing style that has passed out of favor with the world, [...]

Receiving With Meekness…The WORD

James 1:21  Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
There is something we are to “DO” in the Christian life, and there is something we are to “RECEIVE.” Doing is active, receiving is more passive. We are to “lay apart” [...]

Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy

I was reading in Luke 13 this morning–I’ve been preaching a series of sermons from that chapter. As I came to Luke 13:10-17, I read with great interest about our Lord being at the synagogue that day, where He encountered the woman with the “spirit of infirmity” as the King James Version puts it. This [...]

Happy Easter!

This is the text of the meditation I gave at our community sunrise service. We held it at the fieldhouse of our local RECC. The sun came up at 6:32 a.m., so we started the service at 6:20 a.m.
It was a cold morning, about 34 degrees, but clear, and we had a very large attendance–about [...]

Holy Week

Holy Week, an ancient designation for the week preceding Easter, begins this Sunday with Palm Sunday.
Our Baptist congregation usually observes Palm Sunday in an understated way–we do not have elaborate processions. Sometimes the children come in with palms, and we do usually have traditional readings and choral songs.
Following Palm Sunday, we participate in our ministerial [...]