TPC Pastor's Page

Blog

  • Thoughts for Young Men: One Small Act of Courage Can Change Your Life

    Thoughts for Young Men: One Small Act of Courage Can Change Your Life

    One small act of courage can change your life. Small acts of courage lead to bigger acts of courage, and big acts of courage can change the world. As someone who grew up in the 1980s, I can say this was built into our psyches. Politics and pop culture alike taught us the virtue of… Read more

  • The Body Is a Battlefield 

    The Body Is a Battlefield 

    This is a follow up to my sermon from last Sunday. Christians are not Gnostics. Some Christians have had gnostic tendencies over the course of church history, but Gosticism is an enemy of the faith. Gnostics tend to confuse the physical and the ethical, and thus they find the source of sin in the creation itself.… Read more

  • Baptism as Sign and Seal

    Baptism as Sign and Seal

    We are gathered here today to celebrate the sacrament of baptism. In Reformational theology, baptism is considered a sign and seal.  Signs in the Bible are mighty works of God. The plagues God put on Egypt are called signs. Jesus’ miracles are called signs. Baptism is called a sign because circumcision was called a sign;… Read more

  • The Creation of Man and Woman

    The Creation of Man and Woman

    Why was man made from the dirt and woman from the man? There are several ways to tackle this question. I like Peter Lombard’s explanation: “The woman was created not from just any part of the man’s body, but from his side.  This was to demonstrate that she was made for loving communion with him.  She… Read more

  • Baptismal Exhortation: Types and Shadows of God’s Salvation

    Baptismal Exhortation: Types and Shadows of God’s Salvation

    To understand baptism, we cannot just look at a few NT passages that mention baptism explicitly. The apostles clearly believed there were events in the OT that prefigured Christian baptism. For example, Peter says the flood, in which Noah and his family were saved by water in the ark, was a type, or foreshadowing of… Read more

  • The End of An Era

    The End of An Era

    Last Sunday was the end of an era for the Lusk family. For years, I have watched my wife and kids in worship; I’d be upfront leading the service or preaching and I’d see them all lined up, usually across the front row. When we first moved here at the end of 2004, our kids were… Read more