Blog: April 2018

Last week I was in Minnesota to visit my dad, Ken Nelson—he’s 98 and “home” now is an assisted living apartment.  I stayed in the guest suite in his building, accompanied him for meals and activities, took him to dentist and doctor appointments, and drove him to visit his sister Grace 100 miles away in Wisconsin.  We had a good time. Dad snoozes a lot; if he sits down for very long at all, he’ll nod off.  And sometimes he gets mixed up—seems like his dreams linger into the awake moments.  He moves very slowly and he’s virtually blind. As ...

Rome was one of the most important cities in Paul’s day. Paul understood that it was essential that the church in the capital of the Roman Empire be anchored in the gospel. Unlike many of the other churches we read about in the New Testament, Paul didn’t help plant the church in Rome; in fact, he hadn’t even visited yet. Paul was planning his first visit to this important church when he wrote a letter to make sure the believers there properly understood the gospel. The Book of Romans contains one of the clearest explanations of the gospel ...

Last week I had the chance to share a “word from the Word” with our area pastors group, and I decided to comment on Acts 20:17-38. About the text—Paul is traveling from Greece to Jerusalem, and his ship stops for a few days at Miletus, a port city near Ephesus.  This gives the Apostle a chance to share a “farewell address” with a team of church leaders he’s lovingly discipled for some three years. The tone of the speech is serious and weighty.  Paul doesn’t expect to see these “loved ones” ever again in this world.  So he gets right to ...

To all in our Goshen family:  Based on last week’s passage from John 13 and Jesus’ charge to “take up the towel,” let’s commit to serve one another with self-giving, preference-dropping, Jesus-imitating love. When he had washed their feet…, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you?  You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.  If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to ...

The apostle John had been one of Jesus’ closest friends. Along with Peter and James, John was part of the innermost core of Jesus’ disciples. John even referred to himself in his Gospel as “the one whom Jesus loved.” It is not surprising that 50 years after Jesus returned to heaven, John wrote a letter to help believers understand who Jesus is. At the center of John’s message was one key theme: love. John wrote that God is love, and if believers truly love God, then we will love one another. Our love for one another should be so deep that ...

As we move past Holy Week on the church calendar, the stun­ning, self-giving love of Jesus on the cross reverberates in my heart.  “What wondrous love is this?”  The New Testament repeatedly points to Jesus’ suffering as “substitutionary”—Christ bore our guilt, he died in our place—for us, for you. Hear the Word of God—let it pour over you; bask in the wonder of the Savior’s substitutionary atonement: >>Romans 5:8, But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. >>Romans 8:32, He who did not spare his ...