How exciting to merge our lives with His eternal plan! How humbling to be used to accomplish what God has already promised to do! Our lives are a paragraph (for some, maybe a short chapter) in His multi-volume book-set called The Story of Divine Redemption. This should influence how important we think our to-do lists are and shape how we make disciples – and everything in between! The only thing better than having God on your side, is being on His. And Joshua beautifully models for us how we can have the same correction in our thinking when he bows in worship and says, “What does my lord say to his servant?” (v.14)

This Friday is good, because we are not.

Well, I suppose it’s not quite that simple. You see, seven times God declares His creation is “good” right out of the gates in Genesis chapter 1. He was not content to move on in His description of what was created next before expressing His delight in what He’d just made – first, the light to divide night and day (v.4) and the division of land and sea (v.10), then seed-bearing vegetation (v.12) and our sun and moon (v.18), finally creatures to fill the sea and sky (v.21) and creatures to fill the earth. But it is only in v.31, after mankind has been made from the earth and in the very image of triune God, that God modifies His description; He still uses the word good but this time adds the Hebrew word meod (meh-ode) to communicate that now, with the addition of man, His Creation is very good.

In the original Greek, the word is pantelace (παντελής) and it means “entirely,” “completely,” or “perfectly.” Notice how it’s difficult to overstate its extent. Essentially, the writer of Hebrews is saying there’s nothing missing from Jesus’ salvation! But there's another layer to this word’s definition. Pan-telace is actually a compound word made up of the words pas (“all” or “every”) and telos (“end” or “limit” ). This helps highlight the temporal meaning of the word and its why the NASB translates verse 25: “…he is able to save forever (pan-telace) those who draw near to God through him…” This forever salvation makes sense, because as we read in verse 24, it is a result of Jesus’ forever or “permanent” priesthood.

The Ten Commandments are often misunderstood and therefore, like most things that are misunderstood, go largely unappreciated. To many the Ten Commandments seem old and dirty, even outdated or irrelevant. Sure, we see the functionality of them and may even be able to cite six or seven from memory. After all, they remind us not to steal, sleep around or commit other obvious acts of violence. The Ten Commandments are good, we concede, but are they necessary, and do they have any real value in the Christian life? What active role does God’s moral law play for those who have the Holy Spirit and enjoy grace because of our faith in Jesus? There may well be a deeper understanding and a newfound beauty available to us as we consider God’s timeless foundation of morality: the Ten Commandments.

It is a really good thing Jesus is alive!

Easter is the most exciting annual celebration of the Christian faith. More people will attend, return to or visit local churches on Easter Sunday than any other Sunday, and for good reason - He is risen! (Say it if you know it, “He is risen indeed!”) Yes, Jesus is alive and this is great news, because (as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15) if He wasn’t raised, that means He wasn’t who He said He was, His death on the cross was not sufficient to forgive sins, our faith in Him is pointless and we’re hopelessly lost. But… since He has been raised from death, we have hope of forgiveness of sin and eternal life with God!

This has certainly been a year to remember and one that many might like to forget. The past nine months have been some of the most difficult and divisive any of us have seen. From quarantine and civil unrest to the politicization of everything and, of course, masks, our country has been in a constant state of tension. What’s worse, each of these issues have, in their own way, been used by the enemy to disrupt the unity and the peace of many churches where they were not “diligently preserved,” according to Ephesians 4:3.

Last Sunday, I said, “A sermon is not unlike a meal that the preacher prepares for the church.” There are other ways to prepare sermons, but this is my standard 4-step “recipe.” It follows closely a process taught by Alistair Begg in his book, “Preaching for God’s Glory.”

Dear Church, are you thinking about voting?

The question is not whether or not you’ve considered voting at all, but rather… is voting something you’ve thought about, meditated on or even prayed about? We hope so and while we're at it, Paramount Elders want to help make sure everyone is thinking like Christians in this political season. This article will address whether Christians should vote in the first place and, if so, how should they go about it. It goes without saying the political context of the Bible writers was much different than ours is today where we live. That said, God has revealed clear and compelling principles in His Word that can guide us.