Blog

A couple years ago Mike Marshall did a blog for us on God's grace. He mentions the change of heart he had at the funeral of a deceased friend. It seemed a fitting blog to post this week as we mourn his loss but celebrate God's grace at work in his life.

In our last post we introduced Daniel's seventy weeks, this mysterious reference from Daniel 9:24-27. It is often used as a defense of a 7-year time of hardship called "the great tribulation." Yet, we are taking a different approach to the passage. We began with verse 24 yesterday, and today we will look at the rest of the passage going verse-by-verse.

If you've read much of anything connected to the end times, you've likely heard about "the great tribulation." Or maybe you've even heard about Daniel's 70 weeks. These issues are connected to our view of the end times or eschatology, "the study of the last things." All of this can be endlessly fascinating but also wildly speculative. Arriving at solid conclusions from the biblical text can be difficult at times, impossible at others. Here we want to examine one piece of this complex puzzle, Daniel 9:24-27.

Just under three years ago our church lost Scott Monroe, but our collective loss was nothing compared to what the Monroe family experienced themselves. It taught all of us a great deal about the earthly side of death—a side very different from the heavenly side of it that Scott joyfully experienced in a brilliant moment. As a church we are still learning how to come alongside those who have faced trials and tragedies very different from our own, but this is what Christian love and compassion call us to do. In this note from Carla, she shares something of the way the church has entered into her suffering these last several years. We hope it is both encouraging and challenging for you.

This Sunday morning we have the opportunity to do something unique, life-changing, vitally important to every facet of our life, and also mysterious: We can draw near to God. James 4:8 says, "draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." The author of Hebrews calls us to "draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (10:22).

This past Sunday I preached on the seven seals from Revelation 6-8. In the sermon I touched on the 144,000 from 7:4-8 and said that they represented all the elect from the nation of Israel (with the new covenant people represented by 7:9ff.). Well, that wasn't correct. Looking again at this symbolic group, I missed a key parallel text in Revelation 14:1-3:

Phil wrote this for the Sovereign Grace blog. It is an excellent piece on the importance and meaning of our singing. He is also commending a sermon by Bob Kauflin in this post.

I feel like I am the last person who should be writing about holiness. Or maybe, in God's economy of first and last, this is exactly what I should write about. But when Daniel Baker first suggested this topic, I have to admit a little trill of fear rushed through me while standing in church that Sunday morning. Growing up, I had always expected that by the time I was this age it would be much easier to be holy. This past year has simply proven that, in my own power, I am entirely inadequate in any form of personal holiness. Any goodness, purity, or holiness in me is only directly proportional to the grace I have been given and look for each day in a growing love of Jesus Christ.

For a recent home group meeting, Eli asked us to think about the attribute of God that had been blessing us specifically lately. I immediately began ruminating on all of the usual attributes: grace, love, justice, mercy, holiness, omniscience, etc. But I wondered how I could pick just one.