Have you marked your calendar for Ascension Day on May 9? How many of us have even heard of Ascension Day? Or perhaps just a sermon about Jesus’s ascension into heaven? It is impossible to overstate the importance of Good Friday, when Jesus died for our sins, and Easter Sunday, when he was raised from the dead — but Jesus’s earthly ministry did not stop there.

After the resurrection, Jesus taught his disciples about God’s kingdom for forty days (Acts 1:3) and then he was “taken up” to heaven (Acts 1:2, 11). The cross and empty tomb are at the very heart of the gospel message proclaimed by Jesus’s followers throughout history (see 1 Corinthians 15:1–4). However, for many evangelical Christia…

Continue Reading →

Psalm 1:1–2,

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

Psalm 1 presents two (and only two) ways to live: the way of the world or the way of the Word. Those who “walk in the way of the wicked, stand in the way of sinners, and sit in the seat of scoffers” are simply people oriented around the world’s values. This is the wide and easy gate leading to destruction (Matthew 7:13).

Be the Tree, Not the Chaff

“The wicked” of Psalm 1 are those who seek independence from God, those who have only a human or earthly per…

Continue Reading →