Gratitude: The Essence of Ethic for Grace
For Lord’s Day September 22, 2013 Dear Saints, I had Ligonier Ministries’ RefNet online radio playing on my computer while working this week, and Dr. R.C. Sproul said something in a message that I thought was very much worth our meditation.…
God’s Beautiful Timing of All Things Can’t Be Stopped
For Lord’s Day, September 15, 2013 Dear Saints, I just saw on the news an encouraging testimony to the truth of Romans 8:28. Kirk Cameron was just interviewed by Religion Correspondent Lauren Green on FoxNews’ “Spirited Debate” about his upcoming…
The Great Exchange for Sweet Peace
For Lord’s Day, September 8, 2013 Dear Saints, The Scottish Puritan and Westminster Divine, Samuel Rutherford wrote: “I find it a sweet and rich thing to exchange my sorrows with Christ’s joys, my afflictions with that sweet peace I have…
Choose to Fill Up Others with Life by What You Say
For Lord’s Day, September 1, 2013 Dear Saints, Tomorrow evening, we will continue studying the Scriptures with the guide of the Larger Catechism 135 on understanding our duty to preserve and save the life of ourselves and others, as implied…
Defining Yourself in Christ
For Lord’s Day, August 25, 2013 (Image Source: www.wxyz.com) Dear Saints, I was blessed to read in my devotions recently the following verse: … ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s (1 Corinthians 3:23). It reminded me who I am…
A Merry Heart Can Make Things Peachy Keen
For Lord’s Day, August 18, 2013 Dear Saints, Today, I was a little disappointed. I took a break from sermon preparation to inspect the several fruit trees in the manse’s backyard. I have been nursing several of them to health…
Prepare to be Holy
For Lord’s Day, August 11, 2013 (Image Source: versaday.com) Dear Saints, One of our brothers from the East who (with his family) worshiped with us earlier this year while in San Diego on business recently shared this quote: “The reason…
Put on Christ Himself
For Lord’s Day, August 4, 2013 (Image source: ) Dear Saints, Not infrequently, we turn to Ephesians 4:22-24 for motivation on how to grow in grace and walk in the light: … put off concerning the former conversation the old…
Enduring Pain and Suffering With the Lord
For Lord’s Day, July 28, 2013 Dear Saints, At our Session meeting this week, Elder Paul Huffmaster shared some things God taught him during his six-week stay in bed with terrible back pain. I asked him to write what follows…
Who Are You?
For Lord’s Day, July 21, 2013 Dear Saints, I just watched a movie recommended to me, called The Letter Writer. While I’d have a few minor theological disclaimers, it was a sweet movie in which the young leading lady lived out…
Secrets of Sanctification
Dear Saints, Mindful of the recent sermon, “Be Prepared”, Jennifer and I have been reading through a book we’ve been meaning to for some time, written by a lady we are acquainted with in the RPCNA. Dr. Rosaria Champagne Butterfield’s…
How to Witness in Your Job and Keep It
Dear Saints, Do you want to get a job? Keep your job? Advance in your job? Increase your pay? Improve your benefits? Receive favor by your boss and work well with your co-workers? Over the last two weeks, the Westminster…
God Corrects and Then Affirms
For Lord’s Day, June 23, 2013 (Photo source: www.lordscountrysticks.com) Last week, we saw that Moses was corrected by God for making constant excuses against obeying Him. It got to the point where God got angry. And while He made some…
Show Honor to Be Honorable
Dear Saints, I received an e-newsletter this week from Stand to Reason that I thought would be good to send to you all as this week’s e-devotion, as it relates very well to the evening series we’ve begun in…
A Triple Affirmation
For Lord’s Day, May 19, 2013 Dear Saints, You might remember a really helpful nugget I shared in a sermon a while back from Pastor Jeff Stivason about Peter’s triple denial of Jesus Christ in the Gospels before the cock…
Christ Can Use You, You Cracked Pot!
For Lord’s Day, May 12, 2013 Dear Saints, Jennifer and I are about to leave a two-day home schooling conference in Escondido held by Christian Family Schools of San Diego County. We have a lot of great general life and…
Going Out of Our Way to Get to Church
For Lord’s Day April 28, 2013 Dear Saints, What is “Baca”? That’s what one of my daughter’s asked after singing Psalm 84 together this week in family worship. I have often meant to look it up, and so we did. …
A Worry Webinar
For Lord’s Day April 21, 2013 Dear Saints, As Elder Huffmaster’s Sabbath class is taking us through John MacArthur’s book on worry, Anxious for Nothing, and as I will be preaching this Lord’s Day evening on one of the book’s…
Jesus Came Down from Heaven to Give us Heaven While Throwing Satan Further Down to Hell
For Lord’s Day, April 21, 2013 Dear Saints, In my personal devotions this morning, something stood out to me I’ve found beneficial to meditate on today that I hope you too will find meaningful. In John 6:38, Jesus says, “For…
Watch Your Sabbath Attitude
For Lord’s Day April 14, 2013. Dear Saints, In preparation study for sermons the next few weeks on the heart of the fourth commandment, I was very challenged by Chuck Baynard’s commentary on the Westminster Larger Catechism regarding its sections…
Cheerfully Celebrate
For Lord’s Day, April 7, 2013 Dear Saints, As we prepare to partake of the Lord’s Supper tomorrow evening, I want to challenge us to check and prepare our disposition with this comment from Geerhardus Vos (father of J.G. whose…
Abide Under the Almighty
For Lord’s Day, March 31, 2013 Dear Saints, Last week in the evening, we considered the second part of the Westminster Larger Catechism Q&A 117 about preparing for the Lord’s Day to properly sanctify it and the Lord in our…
Pray Without Ceasing
For Lord’s Day, March 24, 2013 Dear Saints, During this Wednesday Night’s study on Revelation 8:1-6, entitled “Pray without Ceasing”, we saw a vivid vision of Christ’s mediatorial role in receiving and answering our prayers, and a great encouragement to…
Family Time with the Father
For Lord’s Day, March 17, 2013 Dear Saints, For this week’s devotion, I’d like to share one of a number of Pastor Jeff Stivason’s emails to his congregation this week preparing them for the Lord’s Supper. His message equally prepares…
Be Thankful for Your Life and Your Heavenly Father
For Lord’s Day, March 10, 2013 Dear Saints It is wonderful to see so many of you support in various ways our church’s participation of the Walk for Life today at Chollas Park to show we want to help bring…
The Cries of Christ for You
For Lord’s Day, March 3, 2013 Dear Saints, Why do we cry? We cry when something hurts either on the outside or on the inside so much that it has overwhelmed us to the point of expressing our deep need…
Carefully Hallowing God’s Name — Watch the Euphemisms
Dear Saints, This week, I heard a sermon by a fine, nationally known Reformed pastor, in which he said several times something like, “Holy smoke”, and it was a euphemism, not an exultation of prayer or praise. Frankly, after our…
Rebounding as a Rule of Life
For Lord’s Day, February 24, 2013 Dear Saints, When you fall short of your goals, especially spiritually and morally as a Christian, how do you handle your setbacks? Let me encourage you to set up your next shot. What…
Worship the Sovereign God of All Things
For Lord’s Day, February 17, 2013 Dear Saints, The heat hasn’t worked all week at the manse, so we had someone stop by Friday afternoon to take a look. It’s now fixed, although thankfully God has made the weather warm…
Sail On!
For Lord’s Day, February 10, 2013 Dear Saints, Before this week’s e-devotion, I’d like to let you know about something I hope as many of you as possible can participate with me and my family in on Saturday, March 9. …
Self-Denial Says and Lives “Jesus is Lord”
For Lord’s Day, February 3, 2013 Dear Saints, I was struck this morning by a comment in a sermon I was listening to by Pastor Jeff Stivason of Grace RPC in Gibsonia, PA. He was preaching on Mark 14:1-11, and…
Family Feasting
For Lord’s Day, January 27, 2013 Dear Saints, First, a reminder we’ll be watching Sherwood Pictures’ “Courageous” tonight at the Church in the Fireside Room. Bring popcorn to share. Remember, these Homemaker events are for fellowship for the WHOLE covenant…
It’s in the Waiting
For Lord’s Day, January 20, 2013 Dear Saints, What’s the use in waiting? Something in particular stood out to me in Elder Huffmaster’s leading of our Psalm 27 devotion last Lord’s Day morning which addresses that question. The last verse…
The Rider on The White Horse is Conquering
For Lord’s Day, January 13, 2013 Dear Saints, In my devotional readings this week, a verse really stood out to me in light of our Wednesday study of Revelation 6:1-8, where Jesus opens the scroll’s first four seals and unleashes the four…
Apply Providence to Alleviate Anxiety
Dear Saints, The elders and I often find ourselves marveling over God’s providence in how so many things each Lord’s Day work together without our planning it. The Sabbath School lesson (including for the children) and the Psalm devotion in…
Hinds’ Feet on High Places
Dear Saints, I have been blessed to meditate on Elder Huffmaster’s sermon, “You Can Be Perfect” in relation to Psalm 18:28-37 that we sang before he preached on Lord’s Day, December 16. The sermon pointed out from 2 Timothy 3:16-17…
The Pitter-Patter of Providence
For Lord’s Day, December 23, 2012 Dear Saints, It’s been raining a lot lately. Or, rather, as B.B. Warfield tells us the Jews would observe and comment on the weather, let me say, “God has sent us a lot of…
Acceptable Sacrifice to God
For Lord’s Day, December 16, 2012 Dear Saints, Last Lord’s Day evening we heard from God through Micah 6:8 (noted by some as the Golden Rule of the Old Testament and the summary of the Ten Commandments). It was a…
Heat Things Up
Dear Saints, Is Jesus about to puke you out of His mouth? How would you know? By taking your spiritual temperature. He called us to do that individually and as a church this Wednesday in our evening study of His…
The Tapestry of Providence
Dear Saints, Last Lord’s Day’s bulletin quote for meditation was titled, “The Tapestry of Providence”. Mrs. Linda Renner was reminded by it of a lovely poem on one of her favorite bookmarks which I’d like to share with you for…
On a Wing and a Prayer
For Lord’s Day December 18, 2011 Dear Saints, I got a call late Thursday night to inform me of what had happened to my Mother. She had left on the plane that morning. I dropped her off at the San…
Face Your Fears to Conquer Them
For Lord’s Day, December 25, 2011 Dear Saints, Face your fears this week saying the following verse five times in the morning when you wake, five times at your lunch break, and five times before you go to bed. I…
Reading Your Bible in a Year
For Lord’s Day, January 1, 2012 Dear Saints, We enter a New Year together this Lord’s Day! As we begin the next year of our Lord, I encourage you to try reading the entire Bible through 2012. Even if you…
Resisting Temptation
For Lord’s Day, January 15, 2012 Dear Saints, I’d like to share with you some excerpts from a book by John Owen entitled, Temptation Resisted and Repulsed. Elder Huffmaster noticed it in our library recently and was curious about it.…
Redeem Your Time
For Lord’s January 22, 2012 Dear Saints, Paul writes: Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming…
All Things Work Together for Good
For Lord’s Day, January 29, 2012 Dear Saints, Jesus spoke to us last Lord’s Day evening in Romans 8:28-30 about our unbreakable, irreversible union with Him that is based on His forelove for us and thus His purpose and plan for…
Wise Wardrobes
For Lord’s Day, February 5, 2012 Dear Saints, I remember back in high school, one of my wrestling buddies challenged a cheer leader not to wear make-up to school for just one day, and if she did, he’d pay her…
Worry Robs You Today
For Lord’s Day, February 12, 2012 Dear Saints, I’d like to ask you all, how much does worry dominate your life? I venture a guess that the answer is a good amount. This guess I think is likely accurate because…
Totally Rely on God
For Lord’s Day, March 4, 2012 Dear Saints, As we move on in our Genesis sermon series to Isaac and now Jacob, I would like to share a few last thoughts about father Abraham that did not make it into…
How to Listen to a Sermon
For Lord’s Day, March 11, 2012 Dear Saints, How should one listen to a sermon? The email below poses and answers this question. It is something I mentioned recently at a Wednesday night study that I had received and would…