“Advent” is the season in which we “prepare” ourselves afresh for the coming of Christ to earth. As Isaiah prophesied that John the Baptist would do: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ” (Mark 1:3) Advent is the season when we walk afresh in the steps of John’s message. In those days, when […]
Any time we hear a sermon like the one I delivered last week, we (me included) are bound to hear one thing and, because we are struck by it, don’t hear the next thing. Nothing wrong with that – it’s human nature. So I thought I would reiterate a few comments from Sunday: We are […]
Christians know that the wheels of justice should not move slowly (Eccl. 8:11), and yet so often it does. Sometimes the injustices of this cursed world are not made right until the end. Yet God has appointed means for justice now – police, and judges. The court cases that the COVID lockdown orders have spawned […]
It’s been quite a year, for all of us. And though it’s not quite over, I thought this old Puritan prayer, from The Valley of Vision was fitting for us right now: “O Lord, We launch our bark on the unknown waters of this year: With Thee, O Father as our harbour, Thee, O Son, at our […]
Note: After posting the article below, the Sacramento County Health Department made a comment similar in spirit to that of Sheriff Scott: “Sacramento County has continued to take an education over enforcement stance with the local public health order.” You can read that here: https://m.facebook.com/SacramentoCounty/posts/3446100245444038 In light of the Governor’s (now densely hypocritical) limiting of […]
Introduction The lack of toilet paper at Costco tells the story: we may be headed for more stringent lockdowns soon. Trials of a certain kind may return. Yes James still says, tersely, directly, in James 1: “Count it all joy.” Perhaps there’s joy to be had in a protracted lockdown after all? It Depends . […]
Greetings! I’m writing to tell you about our plan for indoor worship this Sunday. As always, the elders will review our approach on Sunday night. Please let us know if you have any feedback or suggestions. We know that there is a spectrum of opinion regarding COVID itself, and the government’s lockdown. At the same […]
Our republic chicken has laid its electoral egg. The question remains of what will appear once it’s cracked. We fear the taste of the breakfast that will be put before us soon, and the racket in the kitchen. As we wait for whatever the short-order legal cooks will bring out (and to put this strung-out […]
Games of Thrones The narrative of 2 Kings 9-10 is unmatched in our mob and “palace intrigue” movies. The writers of “The Godfather” and “Game of Thrones” needed only to read the succession stories of the kings of Israel for good material (and they probably did). So if it’s been a while since you’ve read […]
It seems to me a good time to remind you or reiterate some of our thinking behind our responses to COVID and the government’s orders. From the beginning, our default approach to COVID has been to follow the County health authorities’ guidelines. At the same time, we have intentionally not made commands to the congregation, […]