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I’ve met many Christians who’ve struggled with the doctrine of election, especially the question of whether they are in God’s elect. It often became an obsession that dominated their lives so much that it squeezed out every other truth. Election silenced their praise, paralyzed their service, and stopped their prayers.

Recently I’ve heard of Christians are struggling with the presidential election. It has dominated their lives so much that it’s squeezed out everything else. It’s silenced their praise, paralyzed their service, and stopped their prayers. I must be honest that it’s affected me more than it should as well. But, today, I found Psalm 40 a helpful corrective. It turned me from the presidential election and to God’s salvation. It said to me, Re-focus on personal salvation to revive your songs, resurrect your service, and rouse your prayers.

Sermon notes on Daniel 3.

Podcast. Instagraphics. Website. iTunes. Spotify

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, was published in May 2020 and quickly became a New York Times bestseller. It already has over 7,000 reviews on Amazon. Chapter one is entitled ‘The Worst Breathers in the Animal Kingdom.’ That’s us. The author, James Nestor, argues that poor breathing is harming us. He therefore teaches us to breathe better to be better.

The author of Psalm 39 also wants us to breathe better to be better. He teaches us a simple breathing exercise that will not only help us be better but die better. Breathe better to be better and die better.

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Parenting has many pleasures and some pains. The greatest pain is disciplining our children. We love our kids and it pains us to pain them. But we know that, sometimes, it’s the only way to correct them and so prevent far worse pain for them in the future. It’s still really hard, but we know the Bible commands it and warns us of far worse consequences if we don’t.

As our Father, God has to discipline us. It gives him no pleasure, but he loves us too much to see us sinning without correcting. In Psalm 38, David was flinching under the pain of God’s correction but used the experience to teach us how to respond to correction with confession.

Sermon notes for Psalm 66.

Podcast. Instagraphics. Website. iTunes. Spotify

Three weeks have passed since the terrible Capitol riot in Washington. A seething sense of injustice that had built up over many years boiled over in destructive fury. While the rioters were wrong to take the law into their own hands, I understand the pain that fueled it. I too have been the victim of injustice, and I too have lashed out in anger at the perpetrators, though not with my fists but with my tongue. God used Psalm 37 to quell my inner riot against injustice and to replace it with calm trust in God’s justice. It says, don’t do wrong because of wrong done, but calm your inner riot with God’s rules and God’s reasons.