But then came JESUS….   Good Friday is one of my favorite services each year.  As Christians, we love the jubilation of Easter morning but we can’t fully celebrate the complete sacrifice that our Lord paid on our behalf unless we focus (as much as our human minds can fathom) on the costly price of that sacrifice.    In Isaiah 1:11 the Lord says, “What to me if the multitude of your sacri…

“‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” Matthew 22:32   Some of the religious leaders in Jesus’ day did not believe in the resurrection, so they posed a challenge to Jesus about a woman who was widowed and remarried several times. Given her natural history, who would be her husband after the resurrection? To them,…

“A community of transforming grace.” Is this still what we believe the Lord envisions for DPC? Considering the testimonies of the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) and the subsequent fruitful ministry of Paul & Timothy (Acts 16ff), then our answer is YES – absolutely. This was affirmed at the recent Elders Retreat. Likewise, our mission remains rightly the same – “Inviting everyone to love and follo…

Philippians is a unique letter among Paul’s in many ways. One of the most striking aspects of it (if often breezed over in our reading) jumps out at us immediately, in the first verse. Paul, in addressing his letter to the Philippians, identifies the senders as himself and Timothy, “Servants of Christ Jesus.”   Now, this is somewhat unique because in Paul’s surrounding letters–Galatians, Eph…

Psalm 92:1-4  It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord; I sing for joy at what your hands have done.   In his devotional, “The Songs of Jesus,” Tim Keller writes the following:   This…

Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. (Joshua 1:3)   In 1778, France and the new United States signed two treaties: the first declaring recognition of the US as an independent nation, permitting commerce between the two sovereign states; the second was a treaty of alliance, in which both nations promised aid to the others in…

Acts 15 narrates moments when decisions were made and actions taken by the leadership of the early church – “having come to one accord… it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…” (v.25, 28) – the result being joy and a furthering of the gospel work. Your elders and deacons experienced this during our recent Joint Officers’ Meeting, exercising our vows to shepherd (elders) and to administrate th…

Psalm 1 is a gorgeous opening to the songbook of God’s people. It opens the Psalter with a description of a blessed one, and what makes up that description is not looks, talent, ability, or status. What describes the blessed one is this: He (or she) is one who “walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law…

What is Blended worship? Very simply, it is a modern term that usually refers to musical choice in worship, using both traditional and contemporary selections.   Controversies over worship music selections often betrays (not always) a consumer mentality in worship rather than participant mentality. God is the only One worthy of worship and our service should be all about Him and the glorious thing…

In responding to this question posed in a letter-to-the-editor, British writer G. K. Chesterton wrote this answer: “Dear Writer, I am.  Sincerely G. K. Chesterton.”   Do we have a sense of our contribution to the notion that all is not right with things?  The Bible says that God is merciful and gracious, but it also says he won’t clear the guilty.  God is just.  The idea of an absolute, compr…