First Thoughts

Chaos, Correction, and Confrontation We are living in times of unsustainable chaos and pain. You see it in the wicked incompetence of elected officials, the moral confusion and corruption from cultural influencers, the convictional weakness of our religious leaders, and even in the spiking cost of eggs, milk, and rent. Everything is in a chaotic mess. Unfortunately, chaos is not the kind of thing you can drift out of. You have to bust out. It is a fact of history that a disruptive confrontati…

What expectations did you bring into this holiday season? We all have them. We cruise into Christmastime anticipating feasts and festivities, gifts and gatherings, rest and relaxation. Yet amidst the food, family, friends, and football lurks a saboteur, a prowling lion seeking someone to devour. “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). So many men and women will enter the new year racked with guilt over the forbidden fruit they ate in the …

New Year Tension People deal with drastically different feelings during the new year. Some shake their heads with stress. “New year, new problems.” Some embrace exciting opportunities and a fresh start. Some people run from their past. Some live in it. Some can’t wait for tomorrow. Some just want to make it through today. Our relationship with time is often a complicated one. How should I feel about the new year? How do I process this last one? As we live in the tension of a time between time…

Patches of stubborn November snow dotted the landscape, refracting the headlights of my idling ’04 Honda Civic. I had limped to the end of a full Sunday and sat motionless in our apartment’s parking lot. It was my first Christmas season as a worship pastor and I was crumbling under the weight of traditions, expectations, and the fear of man. My new wife, Emily, sat beside me, patiently waiting and praying for the Lord to shine light into the gloom of my discouragement. Our first Christmas tog…

Every year, we recommend daily devotionals to accompany your Bible reading. This year, instead of suggesting several options, we’ve selected one devotional for 2025. We are encouraging our entire church to use In the Lord I Take Refuge by Dane Ortlund. This devotional walks through the entire book of Psalms, showing how each Psalm is relevant to the Christian life. The chapters are short and easily digestible, making them manageable even on busy days. It is designed for 150 days and includes …

Every year, on a designated date after Thanksgiving, the Connells decorate our Christmas tree. Sometimes, it is planned in advance and attended to with ceremonial bluster (that is my influence), and sometimes, it is the result of spontaneously seizing a free evening amid the annual Christmas chaos that accompanies a Worship Pastor’s home at Christmas. Now that our children are older and establishing their own homes in other places, this year’s effort had to be both planned and seized. We knew…

The contemporary biblical counseling movement is facing days of significant challenges. Many voices with confused misunderstandings of biblical truth are seeking to redefine biblical counseling. They are attempting to blur the clear lines between approaches to counseling care that are uniquely biblical and those that are fundamentally secular. Nothing less than the faithfulness of the biblical counseling movement is at stake. In these confusing days, the authors in this volume believe it is t…

The Best and Worst of Times One of the very best Christmases of my life started out as one of the worst. It happened when I was in the fifth grade. Back then, my mother was depressed, completely enslaved to alcohol, and was violently abusive to me and my twin brother. Things always got worse in the lead-up to Christmas, and that year was no exception. Mom was so consistently drunk and disoriented that she was not going to work, was not sending us to school, and was not even trying to care for…

Thanksgiving is more than a cherished holiday on the calendar; it is a profound spiritual practice deeply rooted in Scripture. For Christians, the Thanksgiving holiday provides an opportunity to reflect on what the Bible teaches about thanksgiving and also how to tangibly apply that teaching in our homes. Here are seven biblical themes of thanksgiving and then seven practical ways to express thanksgiving during this season and throughout the year. Thanksgiving in Scripture 1. Thanksgiving for…

Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. Proverbs 24:11 Life in a Dobbs World On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with their ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Just like that, a half-century of court-imposed abortion ended, and we went from living in a world defined by Roe to one defined by Dobbs. As grateful as all Christians are for the decision, we also must admit that life in a Dobbs wor…