From the Pastors at Joy

“The splendor (or, beauty, KJV) of holiness,” is a remarkable phrase. These are not words that many people ...

This is a continuation of a three-part entry on why the church sings. Find the first installment here....

Every Sunday the church gathers together and one of the main components of that gathering is corporate singing. Why do we sing together? Do we sing when we are together because that’s what we’ve always done? Or do we sing because that’s just what happens before someone gets up to preach? What reasons do the scriptures give for God's people coming together and singing...

Back on May 22nd, I preached from Hebrews 10:1-18. In the passage, the writer quoted from Psalm 40 to describe the offering of Christ which has done away with the need for the animal sacrifices under the Old Covenant. Here are the verses from Hebrews 10 (verses 5-10):...

During last Sunday's service, I led a responsive reading based on Exodus 34:6-7. As I read those two verses before the responsive reading, I was struck by the words at the end of verse 7, that God "visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children and children's children, to the third and fourth generation." It was not mentioned in the responsive reading, but I wondered i...

The following is a liturgy based on William Bridge’s A Lifting Up For The Downcast (1648), in which Bridge uses God’s self-revelation in Exodus 34 to deconstruct the objections we raise against God’s grace. There is no more wonderful question than, "Who is God?", especially in relation to compulsive sinners. Exodus 34 is God’s own answer to that question. Here is t...

When reading through the New Testament, there are a couple undeniable truths about the relationship between Christians and the government they are under....

"My kingdom is not of this world."...

Praise God that He opens blind eyes and raises the dead!...

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is a very familiar passage, that makes a very powerful point: God rules over all the times and seasons. That seems to be the main point of this passage: "1For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven...", and then the list of "times" in verses 2-8 capture the full range of human activities, experiences and emotions, from bir...