Is the Lord Among Us or Not?
By Bradley Gray
04/09/26
30mins

Is the Lord Among Us or Not?

What Israel’s story makes painfully obvious is that following the Lord is a lifelong lesson in “I believe, but help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).
When God is Unkind
Bruce Hillman
Bruce Hillman
04/08/26

When God is Unkind

Faith holds on to the truth of who Jesus is revealed to be, despite our sometimes incongruent experience with God.
The Authority of the Holy Scriptures
Adam Francisco
Adam Francisco
04/07/26

The Authority of the Holy Scriptures

This is an excerpt from the first chapter of A Reasoned Defense of the Faith by Adam Francisco (1517 Publishing, 2026), pgs 1-3.

All Articles

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
01/05/13

Visiting the Dead at Christmas: The Fight to Forgive Family

People take off their public masks when around relatives. They let their darkness shine. That’s why Manuel spends his December 25 in the graveyard, talking to the dead.
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
12/13/12

Washing Down Antidepressants with Eggnog

Perhaps part of the mistake we’ve made is in forgetting that the first Christmas, the actual birthday of Jesus, started out as the worst of times.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
11/28/12

How a Badger Taught Me That God Has Ears

I didn’t pray for forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, or world peace. All this ten-year-old wanted was a badger. So that’s what I asked for.
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
11/14/12

Cobwebbed Beauty

Our hearts are half Amish at times, hankering to live in the past, for we dislike the present or fear the future. But therein lies a grave danger, for nostalgia can easily become the gateway drug to despair.
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
10/24/12

My Three-Year-Old Daughter's Sermon: Baptism Theology at Its Finest

Sometimes, the best sermons aren’t preached by preachers at all.
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