A Better Reason to Celebrate October 31st

One day a young aspiring lawyer was traveling on a road to Erfurt in Germany when a violent storm came upon him.  This young man cried out in terror, “Help me, St. Anne, and I will become a monk,” (quoted from The Reformation: How a Monk and a Mallet Changed the World by Stephen Nichols).  

Worship the God Who Calls

Paul, along with Timothy, Silas, and Luke the physician, traveled into Europe, to Philippi.  At Philippi, they waited for the Sabbath intending to preach the Gospel in the synagogue, only there was no synagogue.  

Pastor, a.k.a. "Mr. In-Over-His-Head"

I am serving during my first year as full-time pastor at Granite Hills Baptist Church in Reno, NV (ghbcreno.org) by the grace, kindness, and sovereign humor of God.  God has brought me and my family to a church that is filled with His Spirit, with love for one another, and with wonderful opportunities to share the Gospel in a very spiritually dark and dead community.  There is a wise senior pastor, a secretary, me (associate pastor), and several lay leaders.  This past week, the senior pastor was on vacation which left me as the only pastor.  God has grown me by leaps and bounds just this week by putting me in the middle of situations that were simply beyond anything I could handle without His Spirit and His word which points to hope in Christ.

Risen for Real

I went to the theatres a few days ago and saw an interesting movie called Risen.  Here's a link to a preview.



In light of Easter coming up soon it prompted this thought: if Jesus rose from the dead, would it not validate his claim to be God (not in a self-actualized or subjective sense, but in a universal, Creator sense).  Jesus claimed He was God (John 5:18, see below).  Then, He claimed He would rise from the dead (Matthew 16:21), to which even his followers initially were confused.  But after He rose from the dead, His followers came to worship Him as God (John 20:24-29). So, if doubters were changed to believers because of His resurrection, maybe looking into the claims of Easter would impact any doubter today?  If so, then this Easter may God prompt us to talk often and openly about the empty tomb!