Blog: August 2017

This past week we’ve been reflecting on the life of our dear sister in the Lord, Anne Horn, who passed away at the age of 60 on August 7.  The experience of meeting with the family and helping coordinate the memorial service has been deeply moving to me—in ways that are both uplifting and unsettling. I am so encouraged by the blessings of the Lord in Anne’s life—how he cared for her in her early years despite the tragedies that came upon her parents, how he gifted her with new birth and a boundless faith to trust in Jesus for all that life ...

The recent rally of white supremacist groups in Charlottesville, Virginia, is deeply disturbing—and from multiple angles.  Let me name just two—the national, and the spiritual. Right at the heart of being an American is affirming the vision of humanity that's enshrined in the Declaration of Independence:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”  All people—including those of any and every racial background.  Therefore, the drive to elevate one racial group above others is fundamentally un-American. And ...

Last Sunday we dove head-long with David into his prayer of humble confession in Psalm 51.  There are a few questions on temptation, sin, confession and forgiveness I’d like to address now after the fact. David succumbed to temptation by first allowing his eyes to look in a certain direction (2 Samuel 11).  And the heart follows the eyes.  So where are you looking?  Amidst his turmoil, Job reveals this convic­tion:  “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” (31:1).  And Jesus says “everyone who looks at a ...