Yesterday, our dear sister Aprel passed away. Though older in age and experiencing severe cancer, she was a Christian woman with a vibrant love for Jesus and an eagerness to put his word into practice. Even while on her deathbed, she was listening to the Bible/sermons and exhorting her sisters to trust in the Lord.…
Last Sunday, we were reminded from the Bible about how much we need the precious mystery that is God’s church. Yet there is a way of overreacting to the Bible’s teaching on the church to the point of becoming too emotionally and spiritually needy toward people in the church. Like Peter who went from wrongfully…
I am excited to announce the new fall ministry schedule! We have made a few adjustments from last year in an effort to better serve the families of Calvary and enable more participation. Our new ministry season begins the week of Sunday, September 11. The biggest change that we’re making this year is that we’re…
Some Poignant Counsel Shortly before getting married, I received poignant counsel about something to expect in marriage. A friend told me that, in the beginning, marriage to my wife was going to feel overwhelmingly exciting; everything would feel new, unbelievable, and thrilling. But, as I continued in relationship with my wife, this feeling would change:…
I used to be an avid American football fan, but there was one football game each year that I could not bring myself to watch: the Pro Bowl. In the Pro Bowl, the top players of each of the NFL teams are brought together onto two different teams to play against each other in a…
Something from Pastor Babij’s Sunday sermon that stood out to me was his statement about cultivated love: the real tragedy in a relationship is not a lack of love but a failure to cultivate love. How true this is! As a biblical counselor, I am amazed how much cultivation of love or lack thereof impacts…
On Sunday, we looked at Psalm 133, a psalm that encourages us to seek and celebrate the united gathering of God’s people as the place of blessing. Considering, though, that Psalm 133 is a model prayer-song, we might ask whether Christians have indeed followed the psalm’s model and made more music that praises God for…
One unique aspect of studying the Psalms is the self-contained nature of each psalm. After all, the different psalms were composed by different people on different occasions and only later assembled into a collection of worship songs for Israel (the collection covers approximately 1410-450 BC). Each psalm is an independent work, so it’s like the…
Something I recommended in my recent sermons on the spiritual discipline of prayer was praying through the model prayers of Scripture. I mentioned that I started this practice myself in seminary and that praying this way has reshaped my prayers to be more biblical. Well, the catalyst for my beginning to pray this way was…
How do you know if God has answered your prayer? In last week’s blog post, we saw that one error we can fall into as Christians is to believe that God has answered our prayer and given us the good for which we have asked when he hasn’t. Circumstances might line up in remarkable ways…