Sarah and Jonathan Edwards: An “uncommon union”

One of my heroes of the faith, Jonathan Edwards, died suddenly and unexpectedly after taking a smallpox vaccination in 1758. Shortly before his death, he wrote to his daughter Lucy: “Dear Lucy, it seems to me to be the will of God that I must shortly leave you; therefore give my kindest love to my […]

The so-called “gospel” of Protestant liberalism

In the 1950s, Yale’s H. Richard Niebuhr described the so-called “gospel” of Protestant liberalism poignantly: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” Each clause is telling. First, more like Mr. Rogers than the judge of all the earth, the sentimental […]

Numbering Our Days

Several years ago, a good friend of mine alerted me to a book he was reading. The book was Denial of Death by Ernest Becker and to say the least, my friend found it engaging. To this day I have not read the book, however, I do like the title. I really believe that most […]

Our Role in Sanctification

Does God have a role in our sanctification? Without question. Paul writes, “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). But we have to be careful that we don’t take the saying, “let go and let God,” too literally. I’ve used that maxim from time to time and maybe you […]

What’s the big deal about the blood of Christ?

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.” (Ephesians 1:7) “You who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13) “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to […]

What are we to do with Harry Potter?

Over the past 14 years, I have not kept up with the Harry Potter mania that has swept across the globe. I did not read any of the 7 books and only watched one of the movies. Safe to say, I am in the minority. The book series has now sold in excess of 450 […]

Knowing Christ

Every day I learn new things about my wife. I thought I knew my wife 3 years ago when I married her, but that knowledge has been trumped many times over as I continue to learn more about my wonderful wife. My current knowledge of Stephane will likely seem elementary in another three years. I […]

Lessons From the Book of Job

There are matters going on in heaven with God that believer’s know nothing about; yet, they affect their lives. Even the best effort at explaining the issues of life can be useless. God’s people do suffer. Bad things happen all the time to good people, so one cannot judge a person’s spirituality by his painful […]

How the Stegeman’s Practice Family Worship

In my brief tenure as a pastor, I have discovered that just the thought of “family worship” can be overwhelming to Christian parents. It seems to me that one of the reasons is because parents think they need to duplicate the Sunday morning worship service. The reality is that family worship doesn’t have to be […]

Verses That Speak of the Imminent Return of Christ

1. “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you […]