Advent may have started on Monday, but it’s not too late to begin an Advent devotional to help focus our hearts and minds on what this season is truly about. To help get you started, we collected a few for you to choose from.
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)
Continue reading Focusing on Christ in the Midst of Christmas Craziness
More people have asked me this question recently than ever before: “Should I attend a friends same-sex wedding?” Or, “Should I attend my brother’s same-sex wedding ceremony?”
Continue reading Should I attend a friend’s same-sex wedding?
HPC MISSIONARY SUPPORT: This money allows us to give our missionaries a Christmas gift and encourage them and their families during the holidays. In addition to that, many missionaries are below the amount they need to stay on the field. As other churches shrink in size and as missionaries who stay on the field for long terms are forgotten, new sources of funding have to be built-in to keep those missionaries on the field in a way in which they are adequately resourced and not constantly coming back to the United States for funding. This funding helps make that possible.
Continue reading 2014 Year End Gift: Explanation and Description
The word sovereign doesn’t technically mean “in control.”
It means “in charge.” It means that something is rightly under someone’s authority or within their dominion.
Some will read that and say I’m playing with words, but the difference is important. It’s important because it means that we can’t say all actions are “caused by God.” Things that God says he finds terrible or evil are related to God in more complex ways. As the One who chooses how to interact with the created world, he may prevent it, permit it, direct it, or limit it (for a helpful reading, see Millard Erickson’s Christian Theology, pg. 372). As God works all things for the good of his own glory and name, as well as for our good, his rule still interacts with the amount of rebellious independence he allows to humans. This relationship is enormously complex, and I have never read a completely successful explanation of it.
Continue reading Trusting the God Who Doesn’t Explain Himself
See this short video for three great recommendations:
The video is intended as satire, but the three titles it recommends are all great places to start:
Well, summer is coming to an end. The only thing that is comforting in light of that realization is the fact that the fall is also a beautiful time in Wisconsin, especially if you love hiking, hunting, picking apples, football, winter squash, walleye fishing, and a bunch of other things I’m sure.
Things are pretty exciting here at HPC. We just got in the copies of the book BLUEPRINT in the office last week. I really believe the six weeks of the fall series are going to be great. Let me put in writing exactly why we’re doing this and what it’s meant to accomplish:
Engage & Equip 