Failing at Friendship, and the Freedom to be Known
By Ryan Couch
09/04/26
21mins

Failing at Friendship, and the Freedom to be Known

The greatest obstacle to friendship in middle age isn't that nobody wants friends. It's that everyone is waiting for someone else to go first. But here's the good news: Christ has already gone first for you. And because He has, you are free to go first for someone else.
Eternity is Written on our Hearts
Russ Lackey
Russ Lackey
09/02/26

Eternity is Written on our Hearts

Ecclesiastes tells us that there is a time for everything under heaven. But God has also placed eternity in our hearts, and that makes us strange creatures: able to rejoice in this life yet always aching for a life that only Christ can give.
The Priest Had No Chair
Bradley Gray
Bradley Gray
08/28/26

The Priest Had No Chair

What does it take to draw near to God? It takes a perfect priest, a finished work, and a broken body to open the way. In short, it takes everything, which is exactly what Christ has given for you.

All Articles

Chad Bird
Chad Bird
05/21/13

Out of the Depths

For since it was not enough that the Lord of heaven and earth hung on your every word, his Word was made flesh and prayed among us, a priest in the order of Melchizedek, “offering up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save Him from death,” (Heb 5:7).
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
05/14/13

The Spirit of the Old and New

The Spirit, who endowed the tabernacle architects with wisdom from on high, overshadows Mary's womb, the new holy of holies, where Wisdom is incarnate below.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
05/13/13

If Cows Had Gods

The second truth, however, is that just because God has become a man does not mean he thinks, desires, or speaks as man generally does.
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.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
02/06/13

Two Hymns on the Transfiguration

The prophets had foretold, His coming Incarnation; The Word would make our flesh, His only habitation.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
01/12/13

Rehearsing Confession

Never are we more Hollywood than when we admit wrongdoing. Our confession is scripted, edited, practiced. Move over Brad Pitt; I’ve got this role down pat, for it’s my version of me.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
01/01/13

Bringing Skin to the Fore: Circumcision and Why God's Manhood Matters

Strange though it be, however, it is marvelous in meaning: for this was his way of writing his covenant into the very flesh of his people. What was not there, was a sign of what was there.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
12/30/12

Vulnerability in the Pulpit

A few weeks ago, the pastor of my congregation did something in his sermon I’ve never heard a pastor do: he confessed a failure. He had once been ashamed of his brother, he admitted, and had acted in a way toward him that was not in keeping with love.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
11/21/12

Whiskey Baptism

A few people can endure a Job-like hell, get up, bless God, and face the future stronger than ever. Most of us aren’t such saints. We hobble along, half-walking, half-crawling into the will-be from the what-was.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
11/13/12

A Ninety-One Year Old Newborn

Ingram Robinson was 91 years old and had seen it all—well, almost seen it all. For what his eyes were about to behold, as the sun rose on his ninth decade in this world, was something entirely, and radically, new.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
10/31/12

Marriage Hymn: “Adam and Eve in Paradise Were Wed”

In Mary’s womb, Christ and His Church were wed; United as one Body and one Head.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
10/29/12

Animals Named Adam

Some men work like a horse for they’re greedy as a pig Some are drunk as a skunk for many beers they swig.
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