What is Love?

According to the artist “Haddaway” love is best known as, “Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me no more.”  Google defines it as “an intense feeling of deep affection.”  A cynic on urban dictionary defines love as “nature’s way of tricking people into reproducing.”  How about the Bible?  Can we get a reliable definition of love from God’s perspective?  Yes, in Jesus.

When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.  John 13:1

John prepares us for the picture of love in the life of Christ.  Jesus is the best definition of love - a faithful unbroken love to the end.  Consider five pictures in Jesus’ final hours we get of love:

The Wisdom of God

Have you ever pondered the wisdom of God?

Everything He does is wise.

Clear Winter Nights Book Review

Book Review
Author:                 Trevin Wax
Title:         Clear Winter Nights: A Journey Into Truth, Doubt, and What Comes After
Publishing Company: Multnomah
Copyright Year: 2013
Pages:         162
Difficulty Level: Beginner
Topic(s):          Apologetics, Evangelism
Rating (out of 10):  6/10

Vacation Bible School (VBS) for God's Glory

Vacation Bible School (VBS) is something I participated in as a child.  I think I remember the cleverly decorated room, the sugary snacks, and the fun recreational games.  Now, as an associate pastor, I help our church during this fast-paced week of children's ministry.  Amidst all of the jumping and running children, the sun and planet decorations, and the tired volunteers, we have seen the following blessings from continuing to do Vacation Bible School.

Behold the Lamb of God

"Behold the Lamb of God" declared John as he baptized by the Jordan and saw Jesus.  What follows is a short story retelling the events of John 1, Matthew 3, Mark 1, and Luke 3.  The aim of this story is to help us think clearly and warmly about this precious historical event in the life of Jesus Christ.  Enjoy!

Prayer is the Most Real Thing

May God be so kind as to bless all of us with a thirst and a burning that can only be satisfied by times of genuine, humble, desperate, glorious prayers.  In Isaiah 37:14-20 King Hezekiah prays first about the grim situation: the Assyrians were threatening to besiege and destroy Jerusalem.  

God's Not Dead and I Love You Enough to Say So

Daniel Dennett is a professor of philosophy at Tufts University and an atheist.  His great life project has been to prove that evolution alone explains human consciousness.  According to Al Mohler, “Dennett suggests that the persistence of belief in God is not all it is often thought to be, because if you scratch just beneath the surface, you find that fewer people believe in God than may first appear.  Instead of believing in God, he says, they believe in belief,” (Mohler, Atheism Remix, 47).  

Isaiah: The Gospel in the Old Testament

From beginning to end the prophet Isaiah was called to deliver a message confronting God’s people for their many sins against their Sovereign God who created all things and had covenanted with them.  The message was both painful and uplifting: God would execute judgment on those who worshiped foreign gods or the idols their own hands had made, but He would graciously save a remnant who would believe in Him.  

Life Begins at Conception and So Does Personhood

Sunday, Jan 15th at Granite Hills Baptist Church, we were blessed by Dr. Randy Guliuzza from the Institute of Creation Research (icr.org). Here is a link to an article that backs up one of Dr. Randy's main points - that baby drives its own development within mom (http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2017/01/17222/).