FIRST PRESBYTERIAN

Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep nor shall your tears run down. Ezekiel 24:16 “Son of man, behold….” Son of man is the biblical emphatic form of “man,” meaning human being, and occurs 93 times in the Book of Ezekiel. When we yearn to pray differently – in order to make the difference Jesus desires on behalf of His Father’s glory – we first learn to unlearn former prayer habits. Forget

Let it alone, sir, this year also, till I dig about it and put on manure. And if it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down. Luke 13:8-9 Christ’s forerunner lost his head to an axe. We hang on to ours by hanging on every word of Bible commentary that identifies the fig tree of Christ’s parable as the Jewish nation. We figure this particular talk, as was the viper talk, was for “them,” not us. We are barely off the hook when the vine talk of John

Let it alone, sir, this year also, till I dig about it and put on manure. And if it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down. Luke 13:8-9 The hothouse Christian would just as soon grow ornamental fruit. His face grows waxen at the prospect of a spirited worker showing up armed with a spade and sheep dung. While getting his fly swatter and face mask, Mr. Fastidious glimpses an even more ominous device of demise on the man’s handcart. He cannot bri

We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ… 2 Corinthians 10:5 After seeing the risen Lord on the Damascus road, Saul was blinded for three days. That is when it dawned on him that in persecuting the Church, he rose up against Jesus, the Light of the World, personally. To the astonishment or consternation of many, he emerged from the encounter as the missionary to the Gentiles. Once he showed up in Jer