“Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it” (Proverbs 13:11). Hastily acquired wealth can disappear as quickly as a federal budget surplus. A lottery winner hits the jackpot, wins a large fortune, and relaxes, ready to glide through life without a financial care in the world. But his “good luck” doesn’t last. Within a few years his relationships are in shambles, his fortune gone. Likewise an inheritance launches a young man on a spending rampage. Within a matter of months he ends up with as little as he began, and for the remainder of his life, he’s haunted by a once in a lifetime opportunity squandered away. The sad failure of both men is…
Read MoreWestminster Home Groups
Several Westminster small groups meet this fall The group I lead meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month at the home of Matt and Rebecca Harness. A 6:00 p.m. dinner will be followed by a time of prayer, and a Bible study and discussion about what it means to imitate Christ. Childcare will be provided at the Harness home. We start this Thursday, September 12. If you have questions, please call Matt, Rebecca, or me. We would love to have you join us.
Read MoreI never knew my grandfather, George Thomas “Tom” Wingard, Sr. He died eleven years before I was born. I always enjoyed listening to my Dad talk about his father, a man of strong Christian character. Tom Wingard was born August 26, 1892 at Elmdale, the Wingard family farm in Montgomery County, Alabama. On December 27, 1922, he married Dorinda Thompson (1894-1980). They met at a church fair. My grandmother baked a pie he liked, and life together began. This picture of my grandmother is from the late 1940s. Life was hard for my Grandfather and Grandmother, especially during the Great Depression. In 1939 they moved from Montgomery County to Forrest City, Arkansas, my Grandmother’s hometown. My Uncle John provided me…
Read More“What our contemporary writers often do not understand is why our Western experience washes away at our own personal reality. Of course, our Western societies are consumer-driven, suffused with change, large and anonymous in how they work. They favor – indeed, almost demand – a self that is flexible, malleable, light, and free, that can move when movement is called for and adapt when adaptation is called for. A flexible biography, a self that can remake itself, shift and change, refurbish itself, reinvent itself, reimagine itself, is the counterpart to our market-driven economy with its constantly changing conditions, demands, and opportunities. This, of course, makes a mockery of what was once thought to be a virtue – the ideas of…
Read More96. What does God require in the second Commandment? That we in no way make any image of God, nor worship Him in any other way than He has commanded us in His Word. 97. May we not make any image at all? God may not and cannot be imaged in any way; as for creatures, though they may indeed be imaged, yet God forbids the making or keeping of any likeness of them, either to worship them or to serve God by them. 98. But may not pictures be tolerated in churches as books for the people? No, for we should not be wiser than God, who will not have His people taught by dumb idols, but by the…
Read More“KEEP, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy: and, because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. – 1662 Book of Common Prayer
Read MoreClick here for tomorrow’s bulletin. MORNING WORSHIP (9:30): Charlie Wingard, preaching: 1 Kings 8 ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL (11:00): 1. READING THE BIBLE BIBLICALLY A study of how to use the structure, genres, and themes of the Bible to read it with more wonder, depth and understanding. Having considered how these aspects are seen throughout Scripture as a whole, we will apply them to reading select books of the Old and New Testaments. 2. INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIAN ETHICS Using the Westminster Larger Catechism, the class surveys important moral decisions that contemporary Christians face. Issues include the role of God’s law in a believer’s life, the sanctification of the Lord’s day, abortion, capital punishment, end of life issues, sexual purity, fidelity in…
Read MoreVarious & Sundry: September 6
Articles of interest I read this week: A prayer of Brownlow North. Does Facebook make us unhappy? “Any Harvard Law School degree obtained by a woman who then chooses not to use it in any sort of professional capacity throughout most of her life is a wasted opportunity,” insists one writer. An Ivy League graduate, stay-at-home Mom disagrees. (HT: Erica Parker) Sinclair Ferguson on assurance, the greatest of Protestant “heresies.” A pastor apologizes to his former congregation. In response to pleas for moral responsibility, a hotel chain stops offering pornography in its rooms. Nicholas Carr on “Paper versus Pixel.” (HT: Craig Bosma) Do laptops belong in classrooms?
Read MoreMy book club’s next meeting is Monday, October 28, 6 p.m. We’ll discuss The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough. Just read the book, come, and contribute to the discussion. We’re usually done in 90 minutes. If you’re not already a member of the group, please let me know if you plan to attend. Watch Brian Lamb’s “In Depth” interview with the author.
Read More“If an inquirer thinks he ought to settle absolutely every question, great or small, before becoming a Christian, he little appreciates the limitations of human life or himself.” Augustine of Hippo, Epistolae 102.38 in Henry Chadwick’s Augustine of Hippo: A Life (Oxford, 2009), 29. (“St. Augustine in His Study,” by Vittore Carpaccio, 1502)
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