Posts from May 2026
Abba (Part II)
Read Part I Historians believe the Jews never used, “abba” to refer to God in the time of the Old Testament. It was only after Jesus said, “abba” in the Garden of Gethsemane that Christians began to copy him, and do the same. By the time the Apostle Paul said “abba” in Romans and in Galatians, Christians in Palestine were referring to God the Father as, “abba” everywhere. As I mentioned last week, the word, “abba” appears altogether three times…
The Whole Story from Creation to New Creation!
There was a radio announcer many years ago that would use a famous line in his broadcast when he said… “now you will hear… the REST of the story.” (Paul Harvey). It is extremely common for us at church to state over and over again… “read your Bible regularly!” Why do we do this? Well, simply put, the Bible is God’s Word written for us. It is completely worth the time to study how we have the Bible, and the…
The Steadfast Promises of God
Beloved LifeWay family, I pray and hope God has been near to you through his word and by his comforting Spirit. By his grace, I have been comforted by the steadfast presence of God through his word and his people, especially this week. I was at a short conference with 100 other pastors in the PNW. We sat under the Word, prayed for one another, and we were refreshed by God’s presence through his word. My prayer is that this…
Abba (Part I)
My father turns 90 years old this year. So this October, my wife, our son, and I will travel to Taiwan to celebrate him. I call my father, “daddy” in the English. But I haven’t always called him that. Growing up as a little boy in Asia, I called my father, “baba” in Chinese, a common way to say “dad” or “father”. Some call their fathers simply, “ba”, a shorter, more casual version of “baba”. The Koreans have the equivalent…
The New Heaven and New Earth: The Reality and Hope of Eternity
Have you ever spent time thinking about what heaven will actually be like—not as a vague idea, but as a real place God has promised? As believers, heaven is our eternal home and our hope should be in the eternal promise of our Creator. Scripture stretches our vision far beyond our human imagination and into the solid, stunning promise of a New Heaven and New Earth. This Sunday we’ll be in Revelation 21 and 22, where John gives us a window…
The Already But Not Yet Kingdom
I have the privilege this Sunday to bring a message out of Revelation 12:7-12. We continue in our sermon series called Creation to New Creation. This week we see the heavenly and spiritual reality behind our personal experience in the “already but not yet” kingdom. Why does the Bible talk about the defeat of Satan in a decisive and real sense, yet on the other hand still portray him as powerful? Put another way, why is Satan in one sense…