As you may or may not know, I am a bit of a perfectionist. My perfectionism isn’t in everything, but I find that it comes out most intensely in the things that I care about the most.

I’m sure many of you aren’t familiar with the name Edward Kimball. Edward Kimball was a Sunday School teacher at Mt. Vernon Congregational Church in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 1800s.

This past week, I was excited to preach my sermon from Genesis 1:1-5. Seeing as it was the first Sunday in Epiphany, I was looking forward to using this Old Testament text to talk about the Epiphany, which I had never done before.

The beginning of this month marked the three-year anniversary of my time here at Praise. Before I took the call to serve as a lead pastor, my biggest fear was that somehow I would drive our church into the ground!

I think that we can all agree that promises are easy to make, but hard to keep. No doubt there are times where we have broken promises that we’ve made, maybe not maliciously, but broken them nonetheless.

Over the last 20 years or so, there have been 28 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies that have gone into production starting with the Iron Man in 2008. This marvel universe is filled with characters like the Spider Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man who all have an “origin story” of how they became super heroes.

In the early 2000’s, there was a craze with TV shows that focused on survival. From shows like “Survivor,” to “Survivorman” (a man named Les Stroud who would be left in various locations in remote wilderness to survive for seven days), to “Man Vs. Wild” (which followed Bear Grylls who didn’t just try to survive

“How much arsenic is too much arsenic in your diet?” I had a friend ask me this one time and it was some interesting food for thought (pun sort of intended). It may not be considered poison, but I often eat things that aren’t that good for me.

I’m at the point in my life where I am realizing that my motivation for learning and doing new things is waning. Now, that doesn’t mean that I don’t like to try things or that I am unmotivated, but rather that I know that my time and energy in life is limited and it is currently taken up with my family, work, and hobbies that I already have.

My kids are just around the ages where they like Beth and I to read the old Berenstain Bears books that came out when I was a kid. In each of the Berenstain Bears books, there is a usually some kind of problem, a solution, and a moral/life lesson that accompanies it.

Being a father is one of the greatest gifts that I could have been given on this side of glory. It is simultaneously rewarding and scary that it is my job as a father to help our kids grow, mature, and develop into the young men and women that God wants them to be.

Have you ever wrestled with what it means to pray? Prayer is one of the greatest gifts that God has given us, but though it is a great gift, I get bogged down on so many minutiae that make it sometimes feel more like a curse! Should my eyes be open? Closed? Are my hands folded?

Another Christmas season is upon us! As we move closer to Christmas day, there is much to prepare; there are cards to be sent, presents to buy, meals to prepare, parties to plan, decorations to be hung, and so on and so forth. Even as I write these words, I find myself having mixed emotions.

As we’re getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, I can’t help but to think back to the first Thanksgiving celebrated by the settlers in 1621.  After a difficult crossing from Europe in 1620 that took sixty-six days, the settlers endured their first brutal winter where many remained on board their ship

For some reason, I have a hard time accepting things from people whether it’s help, gifts, compliments, or even just small tokens of kindness. (Ahem...PRIDE...Ahem. At least that’s what it is for me many times.)

In 1984, there was a “mocumentary” comedy called “This Is Spinal Tap,” that followed a fictional English heavy metal band called “Spinal Tap” on a concert tour in the United States. One summary of the movie said that, “The film satirizes the behavior and musical pretensions of rock bands,” or, in other words, it make fun of how these rock bands act and perform.

Over the last month (and even longer, really) I have been asked the question, “Are we in the end times?” Most of the time this question is asked by someone who sees the state of the world around us and is scared/nervous/anxious about what the future holds for them, their families, and their loved ones.

Last week my family and I were serving at Tuscarora for Teen Week. Teen Week is a week-long teen camp (I know, a misnomer, right?) designed to be a retreat for students to get away from their everyday lives, cut out distractions, and allow the Lord to speak.

Part 3 of 3. The Gospel is Good News! Our sins have been forgiven because of Christ’s finished work! Now what? Do we keep the Law again? Do we act as though the Law never existed? Is the Gospel all there is now?

Part 2 of 3. In the study of theology, Law and Gospel are two crucial themes throughout Scripture that must be rightly understood. Last week, we focused on the Law of God, which focuses on God’s standard for our lives and how we fall short of that standard because of our sin.