Author: Pastor Rich Lusk
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Charles Spurgeon on Masculinity
Charles Spurgeon on Christian faith and masculinity, from his 1898 book “A Good Start”: When I say that a man in Christ is a man, I mean that, if he is truly in Christ, he is therefore manly. There has got abroad a notion, somehow, that if you become a Christian, you must sink your manliness and turn milksop. It…
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Got a problem with the church?
Maybe Eugene Peterson can help: “Every congregation is a congregation of sinners. As if that weren’t bad enough, they all have sinners for pastors…. There’s nobody who doesn’t have problems with the church, because there’s sin in the church. But there’s no other place to be a Christian.“
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Ecclesiocentrism (Again!)
This is a repost from 2022. Ecclesiocentrism is incredibly simple to understand and absolutely ubiquitous in Scripture. The church is the central and most important thing in the world and in history. That’s it — that’s the fundamental claim. Ecclesiocentrism can be found on almost every page of the Bible. Some examples: These paragraphs from…
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Trinity Tavern Thursday
About 18 years ago, the men of Trinity Presbyterian Church began gathering monthly for “Trinity Tavern Thursday.” This is a letter I sent out to the congregation to explain what we were doing and why. It’s republished here for a new generation of men at TPC, in the hopes that the TTT tradition will be carried on…
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Barbie and the Patriarchy
I can’t believe I’m actually going to comment on the Barbie movie….but here goes. A couple disclaimers: First, I have not seen the movie and do not intend to any time soon, so this is not an attempt to review the movie. In general, I would refrain from commenting on a movie I have not…
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Sermon Follow Up: Living in an Enchanted Cosmos
“There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” I want to give a little follow up to my sermon from 7-30-23 entitled “The Christian Cosmos” on Ephesians 1:20-23. I preached other themes from this same passage on Ascension Day this year; last Sunday’s sermon was really intended to…
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John Frame on Scripture and Natural Revelation
God has given us Scripture, or “special revelation,” both to supplement natural revelation (by adding to it the message of salvation) and to correct our misuses of natural revelation. As Calvin said, the Christian should look at nature with the “spectacles of Scripture.” If even unfallen Adam needed to interpret the world according to God’s…
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Triple Threat
Lately, I’ve seen some Facebook controversy amongst my friends over masculinity, particularly between those (mostly older men) who want to emphasize the spiritual aspects of masculinity (being a good man) versus those (mostly younger men) who want to to recover the physical aspects of masculinity (being good at being a man), like weight lifting. Some…
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Jesus vs. the Family
I got a good question today about Mark 10:29:31. How do we make sense of Jesus’ words about leaving family members when Scripture puts a emphasis on our duties to other members of our household? This is how I responded: I think Jesus is addressing situations where one who would have to choose between Jesus…
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Where Do We Fight: 2021 CREC Council Talk
WHERE DO WE FIGHT? “FIRST BATTLE” CREC COUNCIL TALK – OCTOBER 27, 2021 Video available below and HERE. I have been tasked with answering the question, “Where do we fight?” I am inclined to answer that question with a quotation. Remember Winston Churchill’s famous World War II speech? “We shall fight on the seas and oceans,…
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