Historical Questions How old was David when he struck down the giant? When he was anointed? The only definitive age given for David in the Bible is that he was 30 when he became king and he reigned 40 years. His age at his anointing and when he fought Goliath are not given. However, we have some …
Personal, Silly and LCC Questions from Sunday’s Q&A
Personal / Silly Questions What is your favorite letter of the alphabet and why is it E? Jessica, our keyboardist loves the letter "E" and a couple weeks ago, I was kinda teasing her about it, so she asked this great question and a number of you voted for it. I don't think my favorite letter would …
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More Questions from Sunday’s Q & A
See previous question & answer posts here. Q & A On Sunday, we had another Live Q&A session, and this time I think I got more deep doctrinal questions than ever before. Because of the depth of the questions and also because many questions came in that never made it to the screen, I …
Does God Control Evil Spirits?
There is a confusing verse in 1 Samuel 16 (italics mine): Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him. 1 Samuel 16:14 NIV This has been an incredibly uncomfortable passage for me. I have studied this passage a number of times in a number of …
No, Sunday Worship is Not the Mark of the Beast
Someone recently drew my attention to a series of videos on Amazon Prime going by the title, "The Days of Noah." I hate to draw attention to videos that are filled with misinformation, but I fear that someone else might come across them and so, I'm posting this here in case that someone is …
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Next Steps for the Church in America
Today in the New York Times, David Brooks published an opinion piece about the Evangelicals who are trying to save evangelicalism from itself. Evangelical is a word that I used to fully embrace for myself because I thought it was a word that described a commitment to the gospel, a commitment to the …
Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail
Photo by James Eades on Unsplash In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day yesterday, I thought I would take a look at one of his most important works. As a white man, my knowledge of the life and work of Dr. King is almost entirely limited to his "I Have a Dream" speech, and I thought that in …
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Christ-Centered Interpretation of the Bible
In my message last Sunday, I encouraged everyone to build their lives on the foundation of understanding God's Word. Specifically, I gave this as our take-home principle: I’ll build my life on a JESUS-CENTERED understanding of GOD’S WORD. At the core of this statement are two important …
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An Open Letter to My Christian Friends About COVID
Dear friend, I know we share deeply divided opinions on all things COVID, but I want you to know that I've been trying really hard to see things from your perspective. I've been working to learn all I can about how you see the world, and I think I do understand you. I don't blame you (anymore) …
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Real Talk: A Series of Letters to My Friends
Over the past two (really six) years, I have seen among my Christian friends, church members and family members an unhealthy, illogical, and hypocritical allegiance to unbiblical and un-Christlike matters. Both as a pastor and friend, I have tried at times to address these unbiblical allegiances. …
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Bringing the Outsiders In (Part 3)
The Scary Part In the first post (Part 1) in this little mini-series, I walked through the first 16 verses of Matthew 21 to show how the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem and cleansing the Temple was all about how much Jesus hates it when insiders keep outsiders out. In the second post (Part 2), …
Bringing the Outsiders In (Part 2)
Remember the Lesson Yesterday, I posted an article analyzing the first 16 verses of Matthew 21. Putting the Triumphal Entry and Cleansing of the Temple stories into their Old Testament context revealed that Jesus was stepping fully into his role as the King of the Outsiders. The outer court …
Bringing the Outsiders In (Part 1)
Sunday's Message was one of the longest messages I have ever taught. I had to go through many Old Testament passages because Matthew had quoted them, and I wanted you all to see Matthew's quotations with the context that I'm sure Matthew knew, but we might not remember. Looking at all those passages …
Time to Begin Again
With the departure of Joe and Megan Hill, the lifecycle of Lafayette Community Church has come full circle, and if we are being honest, we are a church that needs to basically begin again all over from scratch—with the one exception that we already own a building. But before, I get into what …
Pastors + Public Opinion: A Good Thing?
I have been avoiding controversy on social media for over a month now... and I have avoided most of my Facebook feed for a few weeks, and, in some ways, my ignorance has been bliss, but one day back on Facebook, five minutes reading my news feed, and I'm instantly convicted all over again that …
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Please, Church, Reject Trump (Transcript)
Today, I posted a video to my YouTube Channel imploring Christians to stand in opposition to Trump even if you choose to vote for him as the "lesser of two evils." Here is the full transcript of my video. Good Morning Church! In today’s video, I’m calling on Christians to give up on …
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