AUTHOR ARCHIVES :

My Son is Learning to Pray (Sort of)

Buddy is almost 3 years old, and lately he’s been asking if he can pray at meals and bedtime. He’s not quite sure how it works and often he just sounds like he’s mumbling (sometimes for a long period of time). But I can usually make out some of what he says. He thanks God for me and mommy, for each of his sisters, for grandma and papa, for grandma and tata, for Nero (our dog), and whatever else he thinks of in the moment.

Some of his prayers are more memorable (to me!) than others. This is part of Buddy’s prayer that my wife sent me around lunch time today:

Thank you God, and Jesus, for Nero, and John, and chicken nuggets, and sauce. Amen.

Maybe not the stuff of spiritual giants, but I do love to hear his prayers and see the beginnings of a childlike faith!

The Difficulties of “Devoting to Destruction”

The Difficulties of “Devoting to Destruction”

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In a sermon that I recently preached on Joshua 6, I had to address a difficult concept found in the Old Testament: God’s command for Israel to “devote” the peoples living in the Promised Land to destruction. In the sermon, I mentioned 3 observations that have helped me think Biblically about this practice. That doesn’t mean I’ve got it all figured out (it’s still difficult for me to wrap my mind around, to some extent). I’m still wrestling with these issues. Anyway, I actually had 2 more observations I wanted to share in the sermon but did not because of time constraints. Continue reading →

“Foolishness and Victory” (Joshua 6)

Here’s the sermon on Joshua 6 that I preached this last Sunday (February 23, 2014). It’s part of a sermon series on the book of Joshua that our church is going through. The story of the battle of Jericho is very familiar to most Christians. My goal in this sermon was to get beyond the typical “Israel was victorious by faith, and you can be, too!” angle. I wanted to put the emphasis on Christ’s work on our behalf…and then draw out how we can experience—by faith—the spiritual victory that He has already secured for us.