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I fell for it: click bait. I moved over to a major news outlet’s website and scanned the headlines to see the news for the day. There I found this headline: “Feds Raid Jared’s Home – Follows child porn arrest of Subway pitchman’s aid.” It turns out that Jared has a foundation dedicated to helping childhood obesity and that the head of that foundation (Russell Taylor) was recently arrested for child pornography. Jared, thus far, has not been charged or tied to anything for which I am thankful. However, I found a tragic line in buried the news article. Mr….

I love sports. I love competition. But loves are dangerous things. Loves can be misplaced and misused. Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated highlights these dangers in his interview of U.S. Goalkeeper Tim Howard on the release of Howard’s new book: The Keeper: A Life of Saving Goals and Achieving Them. In the interview, Howard is asked, “You also write that your pursuit of greatness made staying married difficult. Is that more common among top-level athletes than most people realize?” Howard responds to the divorce question with stunning candor: “I think so. The divorce rate among athletes is staggering. You see…

Introduction Sometimes atheists love the Bible: at least portions of the Bible that fit their narrative. One particular portion that New Atheists1 love is the account of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac in obedience to Yahweh (God). For such atheists, Abraham’s “child abuse” provides them with a sort of bully club that they can use to bash all those who would cling to the Bible. These atheists club Bible people in two ways. First, they use the Abraham/Isaac account as a means to demonstrate that Christians do not really think the Bible is a good standard for morality since it…

As a followup to Sunday’s Message “God is Love,” here is a great hymn text to consider. It was written by William Rees: Here is love, vast as the ocean, Lovingkindness as the flood, When the Prince of Life, our Ransom, Shed for us His precious blood. Who His love will not remember? Who can cease to sing His praise? He can never be forgotten, Throughout Heav’n’s eternal days. On the mount of crucifixion, Fountains opened deep and wide; Through the floodgates of God’s mercy Flowed a vast and gracious tide. Grace and love, like mighty rivers, Poured incessant from…

Tim Challies recently gave some excellent thoughts about the upcoming release of the movie “The Son of God.” I encourage you to read them! I can tell you that I am not planning on taking my family to it though I may some time in the future see it more out of curiosity. Then again, I never did bother to see Mel Gibson’s Passion and I don’t feel I have missed much.

Here is a great hymn text to consider. It was written by Dorthy Greenwell in 1873.   I am not skilled to understand What God hath willed, what God hath planned; I only know that at His right hand Is One Who is my Savior! I take Him at His word indeed; “Christ died for sinners”—this I read; For in my heart I find a need Of Him to be my Savior! That He should leave His place on high And come for sinful man to die, You count it strange? So once did I, Before I knew my Savior!…

“Philosophy and science have not always been friendly toward the idea of God, the reason being that they are dedicated to the task of accounting for things and are impatient with anything that refuses to give an account of itself. The philosopher and the scientist will admit that there is much that they do not know; but that is quite another thing from admitting that there is something which they can never know, which indeed they have no technique for discovering. To admit that there is One who lies beyond us…requires a great deal of humility, more than most of…

The heavens declare Thy glory, Lord, In every star Thy wisdom shines, But when our eyes behold Thy Word, We read Thy name in fairer lines.” – Isaac Watts

O God, we need Your mercy. For we live in the midst of a people who have unclean lips, eyes, ears, hands, and hearts. These last 41 years, the nation You have given to us Your servants has trounced Your great Name by slaying those You have gifted to us. The weakest among us we have not upheld. The innocent we have not treasured. The unborn, we have not loved. We plead for Your mercy, not on the basis of our cleanliness (for all are sullied in Your sight), but on the desire that in Your lovingkindness You might spare…

Over the next couple of weeks I am going to post 100 ways in which church members can show family love for one another as a followup to last Sunday’s Sermon. This list is not meant to be exhaustive. Rather, you should see it as a jumpstart for your thinking on how we at Sunrise can demonstrate our status as Brothers and Sisters in Christ. The start of our list focuses on 15 ways in which we can show family love while at church. Have more on ways to show love at church? I would love to see them on…