Rev. Nicholas Batzig writes: If you want to demean someone in the church, you simply have to use the “L-word” when speaking to or about that person. The number of times one believer has called another believer a legalist is inestimable. Name-calling often ensues when someone in the church believesContinue Reading
What is your experience of church? Is it a place where you feel like you can be your sinful self? Or rather a place where you have to keep up appearances like Mr and Mrs Jones in the pews next door? A former seminary friend of mine (name dropping alert),Continue Reading
In Matthew 5:27-30 Jesus calls his disciples to forsake lust for purity as the way of the kingdom of heaven. ““You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adulteryContinue Reading
In Colossians 2:19-23, the Apostle Paul admonishes the Christians at Colossae not to let their faith in Christ be derailed by false teachers who are insisting upon submission to all sorts of worldly rules, such as abstaining from food and drink. Like the Pharisaic version in the days of Jesus,Continue Reading
[Audio for this sermon can be found here.] Most people are left struggling with a measure of guilt when they do something wrong, especially when their actions hurt someone else. The question is: How does one deal with this guilt? The answer our popular culture gives is either ignore itContinue Reading
[Audio for this sermon available here.] How do we relate the Old Testament to the New? Because things are so much better in the NT, it can be tempting to downplay the importance of the OT or disregard it altogether. A close reading of the NT, however, reveals that itContinue Reading
[Sermon audio available here.] The scandal of Christianity is that central to its message is suffering and death. Suffering and death are the two things that the world tries to avoid at all costs. What our society values is in many respects the opposite of what Christianity holds dear. PopularContinue Reading
Over the last few weeks we have heard God speak to us through Paul’s letter to Titus. In this letter we have learned many things about our lives inside and outside of the church. Central among these truths is that God has saved us by his grace and not byContinue Reading
It could have been tempting for the Christians on the island of Crete, back in the first-century, to create their own gated-community and just shut out the rest of the world. Why? Because Crete was a very difficult place to live for believers. Remember, Christians were looked upon with suspicionContinue Reading
Why do you work? Well, it depends on what kind of work, doesn’t it? We work for our bosses to get a paid, for a good review and for promotion. If we don’t work, we will likely lose our job. As students, we work to get to the next standardContinue Reading