Blog: January 2022 — December 2022

Our Fall Focus on Missions will take place over two Sundays, Oct. 30 and Nov. 6. The theme this year is "God so loved the world"--the beautiful truth from John 3:16.  Our prayer is that the Lord will help us all more and more to share his heart for those who are lost and have not yet experienced the saving compassion of Jesus Christ!  Plan to join us.  And pray that God will move in all of our hearts; pray also that the Lord will raise up among us more mission workers to send into his harvest! Oct. 30, 8:30 & 11:00 a.m.:  Pastor Josh ...

In our Prayer Gathering this past Wednesday, we read passages of Scripture high­lighting God’s spectacular abilities: “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,…” (Jude 24).  “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,…” (Ephesians 3:20). Isaiah 40 emphasizes God’s power:  he created all of the stars and named them, and “not one is missing” (40:26).  What’s more, God never ...

The moods of the Psalms range from exuberant praise to sober confession, from peaceful thanksgiving to restless lament.  No matter what you’re facing, no matter what’s going on in your heart and home and family, these passages speak to our need.  So make sure you’re spending time in the Psalms regularly. If I asked you which of the Psalms is your favorite, I wonder what you’d say.  I’m guessing these chapters would be high on the list: Psalm 23—probably number one overall.  And understandably so, reminding us of God’s caring and ...

I recently finished reading Augustine’s Confessions.  The book is in the form of a prayer; Augustine pours out his heart to God as he looks back and tells the story of his life: “You made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you” (p. 21 from the Penguin 1961 edition). “But my sin was this, that I looked for pleasure, beauty, and truth not in him [i.e., God] but in myself and his other crea­tures, and the search led me instead to pain, confusion, and error” (pp. 40-41). On his view of the Scriptures before ...

In June the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that made abortion on demand the law of the nation. I can’t count how many times over the last 49 years I’ve prayed and written and spoken out in favor of the pro-life cause.  From Scripture it’s plain that human pregnancy involves God’s creative handiwork (Psalm 139:13-16), and thus abortion amounts to taking one’s stand in opposition to God! Over the years I’ve repeated the question that’s so often dodged by abortion advocates, namely:  What is the evidence that ...

If Goshen is your church, let me speak with you for a moment.  It’s important to pause and think about the mindset we all need to have when we come together on Sundays. I draw attention to this because it’s oh-so-easy to get it wrong.  The temptations luring us away from the outlook God wants us to have are powerful.  Put it this way:  if we don’t deliberately adopt the necessary mindset, we’ll invariably and swiftly fall into a contrary way of thinking, to the detriment of all. So what is this mindset to be adopted by every Goshen member ...

One of the very special features of our church life is Sunday School.  We have a long-standing practice of gathering each Lord's Day not just in our Worship Services, but also in age-specific classes for teaching, discussion, sharing, and encouragement.  Sunday School is a great way to feel "connected" here in our GBC family! Summer Sunday School runs from 9:30 to 10:15 a.m.  Locations and age groups are as follows: Adults:  During summertime we combine our four regular classes and meet together in Fellowship Hall (see details here)....

This Sunday we begin a sermon series exploring the Psalms, and we’ll kick it off with a foray into Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is an elaborate, passionate tribute to God spotlighting the wonder of his Word:  the Lord has spoken (rather than stand­ing in silence and leaving us to fend for ourselves in this harsh world); he’s given us commands, testimonies, precepts, promises, ordinances, laws … truth for life!  Without Scripture we’d be lost.  God’s Word is “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (v 105). To change the analogy, Psalm 119 is ...

I recently saw a commercial from Viking Cruises.  It was narrated by the company chairman, Torstein Hagen, who mused about the meaning of life: “When you really philosophize about it, there’s only one thing you don’t have enough of, and that’s time.  Time is the only truly scarce commodity.  And then, when you come to that realization, I think it’s very important that you spend your time wisely.  And I think most of us have no regrets about things we did, but I think we can have regrets about things we did not do.  More people have come ...

If you’re a follower of Jesus, you need to be growing in spiritual wisdom.  And if you’re advancing in wisdom, you’ll want to know the difference between legitimate concern and sinful worry. Our studies in 1 Peter bring us to one of many Bible passages teaching believers not to worry:  “Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (5:7).  Of course, Peter echoes Jesus:  “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on” (Matthew 6:25).  ...

We’ve gone deep into the pressing, practical truth of 1 Peter via the current sermon series.  And we’ve been confronted again and again with the major theme:  encouraging Christians to stand firm in their faith while sojourning in a hostile world.  This letter is a travel-guide for exiles living in “enemy territory.”  Peter is blunt:  suffering and loss are to be expected as part of the normal Christian life (by contrast, a life of ease and comfort for Jesus’ people would be truly strange—see 4:12). But there are other important sub-themes ...

1 Peter mingles realistic teaching on the fact of trials and trouble in the Christian life today, together with a relentless hope in the future glories of union with Christ forever.  And the vision of future wonder sustains us through pressures in the present. The theme of suffering is pervasive in Peter’s letter:  Christians face various trials (1:6); we undergo unjust suffering with patience (2:19-20); we follow in the steps of the afflicted Christ (2:21); we suffer for righteousness’ sake (3:14, 17); it’s not strange for us to endure ...

1 Peter speaks to Christians living under pressure.  Facing scorn or insult or even intense suffering for one’s faith in Jesus is a reality addressed repeatedly in the letter (e.g., 1:6; 2:20; 3:17; 4:12; 5:9). In a time when hostility toward Bible-based Christian faith is on the rise, it’s more important than ever that we who follow Jesus stand firm in our beliefs and stand resolutely beside one another.  Today’s world resembles the pagan context of Peter’s time (see, e.g., 4:3), and in such a setting the Enemy (i.e., Satan) is eager to ...

[Note:  I wrote this in 2011, a year before my mother passed away.  Photo above is from 1965.] ---------- This Mother’s Day, I’d like to offer a short bio of and tribute to my mom.  Grace Constance (“Connie”) Sjolund was born a “PK”—pastor’s kid.  Her mother was an artist (painter) and home­maker, and her father pastored the First Swedish Baptist Church of Minneapolis (now Bethlehem Baptist Church) from 1928 to 1948.  My mom came to faith in Christ at a young age and more or less grew up in the church.  She met her future husband in the ...

The pursuit of God’s will is a life-long priority for all Christians. But just what is the Lord’s purpose for us—for you, or me?  In a sense, every biblical teaching on how to think or speak or act points us to “God’s will.”  I suppose 1 Thessalonians 4:3 sums it up:  “This is the will of God, your sanctification.”  Growth in holiness and Christ-likeness is the Father’s design for all his children. One issue we don’t often think of in connection with God’s will, how­ever, is suffering.  Is it God’s will for us to face pain and ...

Let’s talk about talking.  James 3:1-12 stresses how much damage our words can do:  “The tongue is a fire, a world of unright­eous­ness”; the tongue is “set on fire by hell”; “no human being can tame the tongue”; “it is a restless evil”; it’s “full of deadly poison.” The Bible is not subtle:  when we give in to the tempta­tions of gossip, slander, lying, and any other speech sins, we dishonor our Father and hurt our loved ones and mislead an on-looking world and heap misery on our own heads:  it’s lose-lose.  Of course, temp­ta­tion ...

“Pray for Ukraine!” Yes, of course, but how?  For peace—that by God’s sovereign hand, peace would break out and end this monstrous violence.  That Russian aggression would be stopped, that cooler heads would prevail, and that lives would be spared. Another way to pray is that governments would see the wisdom of following God’s design.  I’m thinking especially of Romans 13: “For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.  Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, ...

The Bible gives us God’s truth, and while the bad news is worse than we might ever imagine, the good news is more glorious than we might dare to believe.  The Gospel is about coming face to face with our sin in all of its vile dimensions and damning conse­quences AND about how God, out of the awesome grace and goodness of his heart, made a way for his enemies (i.e., us!) to be forgiven, reconciled, and justified as joint heirs with Jesus and God’s beloved children forever!  Consider key texts in Romans: The “low” of the Gospel is very low.  ...

This week our trek through 1 Peter brings us to 3:7 and the charge to Christian husbands to be considerate toward their wives, “since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”  It’s especially that last remark I want to pick up on here—about prayer being hindered by our sin. This theme is found throughout the Bible:  “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Psalm 66:18).  God says that the foolish and rebellious “will call upon me, but I will not answer” ...

Friends, read and listen to these lyrics to put Good Friday into its biblical and theological perspective.  Ask the Lord to allow the weight and wonder of the cross of Jesus Christ register deeply in your soul.  And when you come to the startling line at the end of verse two, read Isaiah 53:10 and Acts 2:23 and Acts 4:28, and bow in silence.   "Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted (Thomas Kelly, 1804) Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, see him dying on the tree! ‘Tis the Christ by man rejected; yes, my soul, ’tis he, ’tis he! ‘Tis the ...