This past weekend at Eastbrook, we continued our preaching series entitled "Joy Appears," which continues our celebration of Christmas and the joy that has appeared in Jesus our Messiah and Savior. In this second and final week of the series I take us through speedy exploration of themes of joy in Paul's epistle to the …
Three Ways God Uses Suffering in Our Lives
We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5) The sufferings we endure are not meaningless …
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A Letter from Prison (Philippians, pt 2)
This is the second in a series of posts in which I reflect on Paul's letter to the Philippians. These posts are personal reflections taken from devotional reading of the book. Paul looks at the motivations behind how we live. He wants his readers, and us, to live worthy of the gospel, be like-minded, and …
Family Camp at Fort: The Art of Prayer
In the last week of June I had the opportunity to speak at Family Camp 2 for Fort Wilderness in McNaughton, Wisconsin. If you're not familiar with Fort, you should definitely consider their amazing range of ministry opportunities throughout the year. Every Winter our Student Ministries takes a group for Winter Retreat up in this …
Praying with Paul: Philippians 1 [30 Days of Prayer]
“In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.” (Philippians 1:4) It is fitting that this last day of the 30 Days of Prayer devotional ends with Philippians. This letter of Paul is jam-packed with lived theology as the Apostle writes an epistle of joy from prison to believers suffering greatly. …
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Matthew Erickson 