Grace is Not an Excuse
By Luke Kjolhaug
10/16/26
12mins

Grace is Not an Excuse

In Jesus, God acted first, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:5).
Jesus Is God: The Old Testament Says So
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
10/13/26

Jesus Is God: The Old Testament Says So

Yahweh who is pierced and mourned in prophecy is Jesus who is pierced and mourned in fulfillment.
World Mission and Inner Mission
John W. Hoyum
John W. Hoyum
10/09/26

World Mission and Inner Mission

There is indeed a responsibility for the church to share the gospel in the world, but never at the expense of the church’s charity and mercy for those neighbors who are nearby.

All Articles

Chad Bird
Chad Bird
01/03/15

My Secret Struggle with Atheism: Seeking Answers to the Wrong Questions

That’s what I mean when I say that I’ve struggled with atheism. And still do. The suffering me becomes the questioning me who becomes the doubting me who becoming the unbelieving me.
Jessica Thompson
Jessica Thompson
01/02/15

Feeling Restless and Finding My Resting Place

I woke up this morning feeling restless. It could be the 7,000 holiday calories I have eaten every day for the past two weeks or it could be that a new year has started and so follows the resolutions.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
12/30/14

When the Psalms Pray Me

Yes, I pray, but it is the Spirit who prays for me, in me, through me. I no more make up my own prayers than I made up the English language.
Daniel van Voorhis
Daniel van Voorhis
12/24/14

Death and Christmas

I know it’s a rite of pious holiday passage to complain about the commercialization of Christmas and to remind everyone to keep the “Christ” in Christmas. And don’t forget the secular “war on Christmas." Whatever.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
12/15/14

The Dad Who Didn't Have to Be a Dad: Even God Needed a Father

The Son that He is sending into this world will need more than a mother; He needs a father.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
12/10/14

Heaven's Gaze in a Child's Eyes: An Eight-Month-Old Teaches Us How God Loves the Outcast

As God is prone to do, He sometimes shows us who He is through people whom we would never think of as teachers, much less imitators of God.
12/02/14

Misunderstanding Luther, St. Paul, or Both?

Martin Luther has proven to be one of the most important figures in church history in light of his teaching on justification, which resulted in the sixteenth-century Reformation. However, in our own day many are seeking to rethink Luther.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
11/26/14

Dumpster Diving for Good Deeds

One of the sad truths I realized about myself long ago is that I do nothing from completely spic-and-span motives. I mean nothing. When I hear someone say that they’re “utterly sincere” or they’re doing something “from pure motives,” I smell a lie.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
11/24/14

Everything I Needed to Know About Vocation I Learned at the Lord's Supper

We usually understand vocation in a very narrow sense; it’s your job, your “calling.” Vocation, however, is not so much what you do for a living but what Christ does through you for the living. It’s a 24/7 calling, not a 9 to 5 occupation.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
11/16/14

Taking the Road More Traveled By: The Benefit of Tradition in the Church

Ultimately, however, I fell in love with traditions—and specifically, traditional worship—for a single, overarching reason: its components, to varying degrees, are all in the service of the Gospel.
Steve Byrnes
Steve Byrnes
11/12/14

Preaching Through A Yearly Lectionary Rocks - But What's Being Missed?

Generally, we call that path the lectionary. I’m a big fan of the lectionaries in general. They do several things.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
11/08/14

Here's What Happened on the Day of My Funeral

The pastor put a hand over my mouth, another between my shoulder blades, and backward I fell into the dark waters, buried beneath Noah's flood, the Red Sea, Jordan's stream, all the way down into a borrowed tomb outside Jerusalem where a crucified man lay waiting for me.
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