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“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Verses like this one lead to statements like: “Your lifestyle is as much a part of evangelism as your words." “Let your marriage be a light to the watching world.” “You’re an ambassador for Christ at your workplace.” Have you heard similar statements, or made them?

One of Alexander the Great's army officers had a wife named Thessalonica. Not a common name, for sure, but she is the reason that we have a letter in our New Testament named 1 Thessalonians, the subject of our next sermon series. More to the point, the city that bears her name—still, by the way, even after 2500 years—is where the apostle Paul and three of his gospel co-workers planted a church somewhere around 50 A.D. You can read about that in Acts 17:1-10.

Sunday night Ricky Wright challenged our youth group in the area of fearing God. His appeal was to fear God and not man, and he used Proverbs 29:25 to challenge us. Here is the gist of what he said. We are sharing it on the blog, because as we all know, the fear of man doesn't stop when you become an adult.

This video was sent to me last week. I thought it might encourage others facing hard things where the temptation is to think they are meaningless.

This past Sunday John McLawhorn shared about his family's involvement in the Scott Moonen home group. What he said painted a vivid picture of the benefits of living life with other Christians in this kind of setting. I hope it inspires you to get involved in a group if you're not currently in one, and to get even more involved in your group if you do attend one.

Preparing for the Sanctity of Life Sunday sermon this weekend I read parts of Kevin DeYoung's, What is the Mission of the Church? In the book he tackles the thorny issues surrounding social justice in the complex world in which we live. He has many excellent thoughts to offer in this work relatively brief work, but below is an excerpt I thought particularly rich.

This past Sunday we looked at what it means to call God our "Father." It was a rich study reflecting on God as an eternal Father of Jesus the Son, a Father who is the source of all things (1 Cor. 8:6), and a Father who is over all things (Eph. 4:6). Yet, thinking of God as our "Abba! Father!" (Gal. 4:6) was a special highlight of our time. In one of the great chapters on the subject, J.I. Packer writes about the Fatherhood of God in Knowing God.

If you're fairly new to Sovereign Grace Church you may find a lot of our music unfamiliar. We recently updated our Music and Worship page to include links to many of the Sovereign Grace songs that we use in worship. You can either listen with a free Spotify account, or click through to the Sovereign Grace Music links to download sheet music, guitar charts, lyrics, or mp3s.

Enjoy! 

As we approach a new year, many of you may be considering a fresh start with your Bible reading. I encourage you to take an honest look at your own spiritual disciplines, and to look for fresh ways to know God better through his Word. Remember that in order to worship God in spirit and truth, we need to know God accurately through his Word.

The familiar Christmas passage in Luke 2 ends at verse 20: “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.” In 1642, John Milton published a poem that takes as its subject the events of the next verse: “And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus.”