If you want a seed to grow, the first step is to plant it. You must open the soil, place the seed deep within, and bury it with dirt. With the right elements around the seed it will be nourished into fruitful growth. The same thing is true of sin in our lives. If you …
Saturday Prayer 43
Have mercy on me, O God; according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. (Psalm 51:1) Search through my soul, O God. Reveal my hidden sin. Cut through my self-deception, And cleanse me from within. Apart from You our souls are lost. We're blind to our wrong ways. We …
This is the Message
This weekend at Eastbrook Church, we launched into a new series entitled "Love Letters," where we are walking through the letters of 1, 2, and 3 John. My message this weekend was entitled, "This is the Message," and drew from 1 John 1:1-2:2. You can listen to my message online at the Eastbrook web-site here. …
Imagination and Temptation
During this past year, I read through Alan Jacobs' book Original Sin: A Cultural History. Jacobs was a professor of mine at Wheaton College and is an astute cultural commentator and author. In the midst of Jacobs' comparison of the original innocence of Adam and Eve with our own original sinfulness, he makes an interesting …
The ‘If’ of Temptation
The devil said to him, 'If . . .' (Luke 4:3) The serpent said to the woman, 'Did God really say?' (Genesis 3:1) The accuser brings questions of truth. In the time of temptation, the beginning point is a questioning of what we would otherwise know to be true: Is it really that big of …
Matthew Erickson 