Where Pride Fails, Grace Breaks In
By Donavon Riley
06/11/25
11mins

Where Pride Fails, Grace Breaks In

You are a soul. Not an algorithm. Not a hashtag. A soul knit together by a God who does not mock, does not abandon, and does not lie.
Why I Needed a Church That Gives Jesus: On Rooted Faith and Real Absolution
Michael Gibney
Michael Gibney
06/10/25

Why I Needed a Church That Gives Jesus: On Rooted Faith and Real Absolution

What I was missing—what so many are missing—is a Church that doesn’t just speak about Christ, but delivers him.
August Hermann Francke: A Practical Pietist
Sam Leanza Ortiz
Sam Leanza Ortiz
06/09/25

August Hermann Francke: A Practical Pietist

Though several generations removed from Luther’s generation, Francke came of age right on time for a new wave of spirituality to collide with the Reformation in the movement known as Pietism.

All Articles

Chad Bird
Chad Bird
12/09/13

The Uncivilized Baptist: Why John Beckons Us to the Wilderness

Why does John make you uncomfortable? You know. It’s not just the clothing; it’s not only the hair; it’s not even really the diet. John the Baptist is uncivilized—that’s the problem.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
11/26/13

God Doesn't Celebrate Thanksgiving: A Turkey Day Reflection

Eat, yes, but season your turkey with the ashes of repentance as it preaches just how little your faith is, just how little you trust God, just how little you believe the Father is good to you.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
11/22/13

Norman Rockwell's Nightmare: The Screwed Up Biblical Family

There is no whitewashing of evil within the biblical family. The sheer fact that it is recorded, that of all the events in these people’s lives, these were chosen to be chiseled into the stone of the church’s remembrance, tells us something.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
10/30/13

Burying the Hatchet: Why Forgiving Others Is So Hard Yet So Liberating

I believe, however, that lurking behind every reason we don't forgive is one fundamental impulse: the desire, real or perceived, to control the offender.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
10/16/13

The Three Friends Who Sought to Kill Death: A Cautionary Tale for Preachers

What is most remarkable about this tale is not how clever it is, but that the original storyteller was just as greedy as the three fictional young men were.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
10/03/13

Bloodshed at the Altar: The Genesis of Worship Wars

Why would God reject from Cain what he later accepted from and mandated of his people? So as far as the material itself, neither Cain’s nor Abel’s offering was superior.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/19/13

Enemies with Benefits

Indeed, our Lord pronounced no beatitude upon the man who is loved by his wife and cherished by his children, but He does say, "Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me," (Mt 5:11).
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/24/13

A Compartmentalized Life: Keeping God in His Place

I don’t need to watch a blood-soaked story on CNN or visit someone of death row to familiarize myself with the beast of depravity crouched within the human heart. I just need to look in the mirror, to stare deeply into the eyes that are a window to a soul that has journeyed down dark paths whose only illumination comes from the fires of hell.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/16/13

When Fathers Are Failures

I lack the wisdom, and the experience, to counsel those who have been hurt so deeply. There is no pain like the pain of being mistreated by those who, above all others, you expect to love you unconditionally.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/10/13

"I Sure Hope SHE'S listening to this sermon!"

She against whom I preached, in her unexpected response actually “preached” to me three truths I have never forgotten.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
05/14/13

Why Christ Poured out the Spirit on Pentecost: The OT and Rabbinic Roots of Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks

Though the theophanic elements at the Jerusalem Pentecost were not as diverse as those at Sinai, there is one prominent commonality between the two: divine speech out of divine fire.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
04/11/13

Let Him Who Is Without Sin

Let him feel the heft of stone cradled in his palm, and consider the gravity of guilt cast upon the hypocrite.
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