Pastor’s Corner – Christ Alone Church

Malachi 3:6 ESV “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. Hebrews 13:8 ESV Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. While we praise God in the fact he does not change, we have to acknowledge a simple truth: we do. Our communities change, as does our culture. Humans in their fallen nature and in coming to greater levels of divine wisdom will change their tune if it seems advantageous. The same should be true in churches. However, we can get the unchanging word of God mixed up with the varying gifts and...

Happy New Year!

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. Not sure about you all, but I look forward to the New Year as a time to reassess where I've been and concretely direct where the Lord is prayerfully leading me now. The word to focus on is “new” in our continuing walk with Christ. See if what follows makes sense as I reflect on what a “new you” should take into consideration. How has our gracious King stretched and grown you during this last year?...

September is coming!

Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of youbut to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? As we prepare to enter into our Fall programs, I wanted to touch briefly on my rationale for New Members Classes or our Men's Study on 1 Timothy beginning September 22nd. Being made in the image of God is assumed by most believers. However, due to the world's distaste for pinpointing or calling out actual sin, even believers can fail to grasp the damage sin has wrought in our lives and how...

Summer and Sabbath Rest

Mark 2:27 ESV And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Here is a prayer I plan on sneaking in for y'all on a semi-regular basis: “Lord, please give them Sabbath rest.” I can't tell you how often I see what looks like deep fatigue on many of your faces on Sunday mornings. Given that most of you do not burn the midnight oil or are raging the night away in some wild party, it simply means you are very busy. When the Wednesday Bible Class would show up at church at...

Who is to Serve?

James 1:2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. I thank the Lord when folks occasionally challenge something I've said or done in church because of what they've understood to be true in God's word. It keeps me sharp - to ensure I am rightly dividing the word of truth. They have searched the scriptures, like the Bereans, to see if what I have said is accurate. As you know, I encourage everyone to do the same. My prayer is for our church family to be wonderfully scripturally literate....

4th Lenten Reflection

Matt 10:37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. How much of who we are is Jesus worth? This is a great question to reflect on during our Lenten Journey. Some folks treat Christ like a shakedown artist who is trying to extort from us what is rightfully ours. When we start...

3rd Reflection in Lent

One of the challenges during Lent is redirecting how we pray. We do family worship at home most evenings, and I've noticed it becomes easy to get into a repetitive rut of what we say during extemporaneous prayers. With that challenge in mind, I want to give you a couple of ancient supplications that really capture the spirit of Lent. The first, from St Ephrem, continues to be used in the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Churches even today. Ephrem the Syrian was born in 306AD and died in 373AD. This is a prayer from the earliest days of the church!...

2nd Reflection in Lent

Ps 19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the Lord is clean,enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. As we enter the third week of Lent, there is great value in taking in a bit of divine wisdom to continue our path towards sanctification...

1st Reflection in Lent

Titus 2:12 ESV Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, “Giving something up for Lent,” has always struck me as unhelpful. I only say this because people truly struggle with the notion of being deprived of anything. As a spiritual exercise, we are aiming for something much deeper than simply giving up our caffeine addiction. Few folks realize our lives are filled with countless distractions and idols which draw us away from our holy Savior. Like the “hoarders” we see on TV, we surround ourselves with stuff that...

Opportunities for the New Year!

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. As 2020 winds to a close (Good riddance!), and the hope of a New Year awaits, I thought we'd talk about what is “new” on the horizon! Traditionally, the church has offered a New Members Class at the beginning of the year. A new class for the new year for new members! Who am I to argue? My focus is less “all things Presbyterian” in this instruction, and more, “What does the bible specifically call members...