How to Get a Camel through a Needle's Eye …
With God all things are possible. That is the basis of our prayer and our giving and our evangelism.
The Importance of Knowing Our Sin …
You don't have to give in to temptation in order to know your sin.
Planting a Passion for God: A Dream for Bethlehem in 2002 …
A Call to Focused Prayer, Soul-Searching, and a Church-Wide Dream
All Things for Good, Part 1 …
Three things that love for God is not.
For God's Sake, Let Grace Be Grace! …
No one's obstinance can stop them from being saved, because God can remove the hardness.
Israel, Palestine and the Middle East …
What does Scripture say about the Promised Land and Israel's rights to it today?
Build Your Life on the Mercies of God …
Of all the things Paul could have chosen as the foundation of your life in Christ, he picks the mercies of God. Why?
Present Your Bodies As a Living Sacrifice to God …
We were given bodies to make the glory of God more visible, especially through merciful behavior.
Doing Mercy to the Brothers of Jesus and the Broken Neighbor …
If we are true Christians we will want to show mercy to suffering people.
Consider How to Stir Up One Another to Love …
Don’t be a loner in the Christian life. God did not design it that way.
Each One Should Be Fully Convinced in His Own Mind …
There are a hundred things we can disagree on in which both convictions can be done to the glory of God.
Life Is Not Trivial …
Sunday Evening Message
The world is hungry for people filled with life because they see a reflection of eternity in everything.
The Wisdom We Speak …
The remedy for the darkness of man's mind is not mindlessness but light.
The Shepherd, the Host, and the Highway Patrol …
Summer Psalms
Sunday Evening Message
I feel myself drawn with David not so much to love the green pastures but the good shepherd, not so much to love the lavish banquet but the bountiful host, and not so much to love the trip to Miami or the bungalow but to love the highway patrolman.
The Liberating Law of the Spirit of Life …
The death of Christ does not turn away the wrath of God from all people. In order to benefit from the work that God has done outside of us, we must now experience the work that he does within us by the Holy Spirit. What is this work and how is it related to the gift of justification?
I Will Magnify God with Thanksgiving! …
What does an all-sufficient God, who owns and controls all things, demand from the creature he has made? That we cease to be great in our own eyes and become small that he might appear great.
The Virgin Birth of the Son of God …
Sunday Evening Message
You may have never heard of Nazareth, and this young girl may be poor and obscure, but don't judge by merely human outward appearances. Her son is going to be great.
For Our People and for the Cities of God …
Installation Service for Glenn Ogren
There are six things that should characterize every effort at team ministry in the church.
Sex and the Single Person …
God's Word is every Christian's infallible guide to maximum sexual fulfillment.
Today You Will Be with Me in Paradise …
Good Friday
Both thieves wanted to be saved from death. But O how differently they sought their salvation.
The Power of Hope …
Easter Sunday
If we are going to love like Jesus loved, even in times of great stress and worry, then we must be filled with living hope.
Do Not Labor for the Food Which Perishes …
Labor to feast on Jesus. Satisfy yourself with his beauty and his hope-filled fellowship.
Worship Is an End in Itself …
Only worship is an end in itself. Only worship should not be done as a means to achieving something other than itself.
The Evil Origin of a Good King …
The way we seek to have something may be wrong, when the having, itself, may not be wrong.
I Will Raise Up for David a Righteous Branch …
The promise will be fulfilled in spite of all judgment.
The Third Word from the Cross …
Good Friday
When Jesus commits his mother to John's care, he is showing us how our needs will be met when we leave everything to follow him.
Fear Not, You Worm Jacob! …
The good news of the Bible is not that we are not worms, but that God helps worms who trust him.
From Bethlehem in the Majesty of the Name of the Lord …
God uses little towns and youngest sons and slingshots to magnify his glory by contrast, to show that he is not the least dependent on human glory or greatness or achievement.
Worship the Risen Christ …
Easter Sunday
If your life is flat, empty, without exhilaration, without significance, without a single and fulfilling orientation, it is because you do not see the risen Christ for who he really is.
Only a New Creation Counts …
The mindset of the new creation does not just agree that Christ died for sinners; it glories in the cross.
Prayer: the Power of Christian Hedonism …
Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing.
The Holy Spirit: Author of Scripture …
Bible confirms its divine origin again and again as it makes sense out of our experience in the real world and points the way to harmony.
The Holy Spirit Will Help You Die …
In their hour of greatest trial God gives his children courage and faith.
The Lofty One Whose Name Is Holy …
The lofty One whose name is Holy dwells with crushed and humble saints.
Ambushing Satan with Song …
Singing to God is not a nice little emotional trip to spice up a worship service—it is a matter of life and death.
Job: The Revelation of God in Suffering …
It is presumptuous to assume you can counsel God about how to run a more just world.
Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep It Holy …
Humbly accept the fact that your true advancement in life depends far more on God's labor than yours.
I Will Sing of Thy Might and Mercy …
Authenticity and depth in worship characterize those who suffer with Christ by bearing the burdens of others.
Holy Women Who Hoped in God …
Mother's Day
The daughters of Sarah fight the anxiety that rises in their hearts. They wage war on fear, and they defeat it with the promises of God.
Urgency and Gratitude …
How are we supposed to understand and live out the paradoxes of Scripture?
The Pleasure of God in Election …
God takes pleasure in election because it magnifies his name.
Avoiding Sexual Sin, Part 1 …
Pitfalls and Protections for Christian Leaders
Sunday Evening Message
Ten reasons people fall into sexual sin and ten ways to protect ourselves.
The Glory of Priestly Success …
The ministry of the Word can destroy and the ministry of the Word can save.
The Danger of Being Merely Human …
There is a group of people whom Paul calls not spiritual and not natural, but "fleshly," or "babes in Christ."
When I Fall, I Will Rise! …
Since we sin against God every day, we should be broken; and, since the throne of God is a throne of grace, we should be bold.
Battling the Unbelief of Bitterness …
Anger is very dangerous. If it takes root in your heart and becomes a grudge or an unforgiving spirit, it can destroy you.
The Prayer of an Old Saint …
Some Scriptures can only be fulfilled by recognizing the generation gap and owning up to the fact that it is good.
The Word Became Flesh …
Christmas Eve
God came to live in a tent so we can watch him more closely. God wants to be seen and known in his Son.
A Call for Courage in the Cause of Truth …
Bethel College Chapel
Twin Cities, MN
The Fear of God and Freedom from Goods …
A holy, happy fear of God makes our material possessions insignificant to us, except as means to serve others.
Stephen's Crime: "Jesus Will Destroy the Temple" …
Palm Sunday
How did Jesus destroy the temple? Why did saying so cost Stephen his life?
Looking Back to Witnesses, Up to Jesus, and Forward to Joy …
The author of Hebrews knows nothing of coasting Christianity.
Execution, Escape, and Eaten by Worms …
How the Word of God Grew
If we stay with Jesus, we win, and if we oppose him, we lose.
Christ and Those in Him Will Never Die Again …
Easter Sunday
What if it's true that Christ rose from the dead?
Why the Saints Minister to the Body …
The aim of your ministry as a Christian is to build up the body as a whole.
Advancing and Sustaining the Covenant Community …
Every Christian has a crucial need for covenant relationships, regardless of how un-American it may be.
That Your Prayers May Not Be Hindered …
There are ways live that hinder prayers and there is a way to live that helps prayer.
Do Not Forsake Your Mother's Teaching …
Mother's Day
All the commandments are full of promise, but God goes out of his way to emphasize that of honoring mother and father.
Cities of Ruthless Nations Will Revere Thee …
Missions Week
Great affliction + deep poverty + abundant joy = great generosity.
A Fast for Waters That Do Not Fail, Part 2 …
Let's trust the Great Physician—the Lord, our healer. Let's accept the fast that he has prescribed for us.
This Man Receives Sinners and Eats with Them …
The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. He sought them, he received them, he ate with them, and he saved them.
Good News to the Poor …
Unfolding Bethlehem's Fresh Initiative #5
The fact that Jesus was born to a poor couple in a cow stall tells us something about the way God meant to reach the world.
He Made Purification of Sins …
Maundy Thursday
The purification that was made was made once for all.
A Passion for the Supremacy of Christ—Where He Is Not Named …
What convictions drive world missions at Bethlehem Baptist Church?
Amen …
A Word Common to Many Languages
God's beauty is magnified when it is echoed in prayer and preaching with agreements like "Amen!"
Not Ashamed of the Gospel …
The gospel elicits shaming behavior in those who will not believe it and it gives freedom from shame to those who do.
God's Response to Hypocrisy: Kindness and Judgment …
God's justice does not demand that he punish us for our sins immediately. His kindness leads him to forbear and to be patient with us, to a point.
Let God Be True Though Every Man a Liar …
Who are they whose condemnation is just? Those who play games with the Word of God.
Why Did Christ Come? …
Be Ready This Advent Season with the Meaning of Christmas
Wilderness, Worship, Treason and God …
Learn from David what to do in a brokenhearted, terrifying moment: Worship.
Truth and Love …
Truth aims at love; love aims at truth. Love shapes how to speak the truth; truth shapes how to show love.
Hope-Giving Promises for Triumph over Sin …
If God works to bring about obedience in our heart, then sin will not be lord over us, God will.
Pierced By the Word of God …
Use the Bible to know yourself and confirm your own spiritual life.
Teaching Doctrine to a Six-Year-Old …
How and why to teach kids the complex and essential doctrines of the Bible.
Lessons from Lisa …
A 9/11 Widow Trusts in the Sovereign Goodness of God
September 11, 2001 has served to prove at least these ten truths about the sovereign love of God.
How to Query God …
It is okay to question God if you do it humbly and teachably.
Is God Calling You to Give Your Life for His Sake and the Gospel in Missions? …
Ten Means God Uses to Compel Those Whom He Calls
An Open Letter To Governor Tim Pawlenty Concerning the Expansion of State-Supported Casino Gambling in Minnesota …
The desire to be rich is suicidal. Endorsing it by encouraging gambling is cruel.
Making Room for Atheism …
Thoughts on the Supremacy of God in a Pluralistic World
How do we express a passion for the supremacy of God in a pluralistic world?
