How God Works Through Tragedy

Introduction

Life can seem pretty vicious sometimes. As a church, over the last about five weeks we've had two major tragedies within our family here ...

Rachel Weeping

The story behind the sermon (by Ken Langley)

Pastors struggle to find a fresh word at Christmas. We also struggle with expressing authentic sermonic lament ...

A Christian's Happiness

Introduction

If you're a Christian, you know that Christianity is supposed to be about joy. You probably also know that you're supposed to experience ...

Tragedy and the Providence of God

In light of the events of this past week I decided to step out of our study of the book of Genesis and address instead the topic of tragedy and the providence ...

What to Do with Trouble

The continuing dilemma of the Christian life is how to cope with recurring instances of trouble and travail in our lives. There is a prevailing notion ...

Memorial Service for Robert Huizenga

Introduction

Even if we're Christians, life involves some enormous contradictions. Doesn't it? We pray for one thing, and the opposite seems to happen. ...

Why It's Hard to Worship

Introduction

A few years ago, songwriter Michael Card wrote a book and recorded an album focusing on the subject of lament. The project grew out of a series ...

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Introduction

"No one ever told me that grief felt so much like fear." That is how C. S. Lewis begins his book A Grief Observed, a compelling account of ...

The Christian's Happiness

Text: Romans 8:28–30
Topic: Our joy can be constant no matter our life circumstances.

From the editor

Romans 8 is such a beloved, oft-quoted section ...

Taming the Beast

Text: Genesis 4:1–16
Topic: How to battle envy

Introduction

A few years ago, two high school girls in California—well liked, talented and ambitious—attended ...

Beyond Comfort

Introduction

Where do you turn for comfort when you encounter loss, pain, or disappointment? Some people turn to food. For some reason, certain foods—like ...

Unbreakable?

Introduction

M. Night Shyamalan's film Unbreakable begins with a train wreck. Everyone on board is killed—over a hundred people—except for ...

Sense Out of Nonsense

Text: Luke 24:1–11
Topic: How to make sense of chaos and suffering

Introduction

Ancient sailors puzzled over why some of their colleagues who sailed ...

Remember Me

Introduction

Several years after Jimmy Cagney had become famous portraying gangsters in Hollywood films, he and his wife were getting into a car in New ...

Embarrassed by God

Introduction

I want to tell you about my Aunt Julie, because everybody has an Aunt Julie in their family or an Uncle Harry or a cousin Jessica—someone ...

On Suicide

Introduction

Death is never easy. But death is even harder when someone is too young to die or dies under especially difficult circumstances. The tragic ...

Jesus Wept

Introduction

I have a friend, a businessman, who sat in a hotel room in the Midwest watching early news reports of an airliner hitting the World Trade ...

Dream Child

Introduction

A man shared with me that for years he went to church and watched as the advent candle was lit by these beautiful families, so well-dressed ...

Why Is There So Much Suffering and Evil in the World?

Introduction

Here are two photos, both showing scenes from two earthquakes of similar magnitude that happened within just days of each other just last ...

The Blame Game

Introduction In his spiritual autobiography, William Barclay, the venerable Scottish scholar, tells the tragedy of losing his 21-year-old daughter and ...

Harassed but Hopeful

Introduction

On November 14, 1999, thousands of churches around the world observed the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. This day ...

The Supremacy of Christ in an Age of Terror

The supremacy of God in all things—no exceptions One of the truths of the Bible that we embrace with trembling joy is the truth of God's supremacy ...

Only the Grateful Believe

Thankfulness is difficult for most of us. An elementary school teacher was trying to teach thankfulness to her students, so she asked them to write down ...

The Sleepy Invasion

The stage was set. It was finally the fullness of time. The world had long been in prison, caught in a web of sin and death, controlled by a network of ...

Belonging and Becoming

The relentless creativity of God has affected my life in such a consistent manner that I'd like to share with you what I'm learning.

The plane I got on ...

Making Sense Out of the Storm

We are approaching a time meteorologists have identified as hurricane season, storm season. As we read the papers, we see storms in a variety of shapes ...

Two Sets of Plans

I, like many of you, am overwhelmed. What's particularly overwhelming for me, in the midst of a devastating crisis like this one, is having to stand ...