Salvation is both free and costly. As a gift of God’s unmerited favor, redemption is wholly free. By no amount of good works or religious activity can we earn the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Salvation in Christ comes by faith alone, apart from human effort. “The free gift of God is eternal life…
A Reformed Church in Wasilla, Alaska
Blog/News (Page 3)
Last month five of us – Rob and Thomas Renner, and Scott, Maggie, and Sander Johnson – from Grace OPC in Wasilla flew south to New Bern, North Carolina, to take part in the OPC’s ongoing Hurricane Florence relief work. Since Fred de Ru, a deacon of Grace, is the site manager in New Bern,…
We recently welcomed new members to the congregation of Grace OPC. One lives at an assisted-care facility and is no longer able to attend worship at Grace, as she has in the past. So instead of taking her to church for her profession of faith, we took the church to her. A few members of…
“He’s the most humble man I’ve ever met.” A seminary classmate said this of a local pastor whom we both knew. I don’t know why, but her compliment always stuck with me. We all love to be praised and approved by others. And so we covet those qualities that – we think – will produce…
My sermon this past Sunday was on Luke 13:31-35, and I preached on the theme of the faithfulness of Jesus. The Pharisees warned Jesus that Herod wanted to kill him. Herod Antipas, the ruler of the territories of Galilee and Perea, is the same Herod that beheaded John the Baptist at the request of his…
Salvation, the forgiveness of sins, eternal life – these are all gifts of God’s amazing grace, freely given (Romans 6:23). We do not work our way into God’s kingdom, but through faith in Jesus Christ we obtain the promise of heaven. All we bring to God is our sin and need; our salvation was wholly…
When I lived in rural Japan many years ago, I often saw elderly “oba-san” (grandmothers) who were permanently bent over, their backs virtually parallel with the ground. Decades of bending over in the rice fields made these women literally unable to straighten themselves out. I thought those women must have led a hard life. And…
The coming of the New Year often brings thoughts on the passage of time and the brevity of our days on earth. We do well to reflect on the shortness of our lives, for doing so strengthens our resolve to devote our allotted time to serving the Lord and pursuing that which has eternal value.…
Two weeks ago we were rocked by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake. It was the strongest tremor I had ever experienced, and that includes living for three years in earthquake-prone Japan. Even so, I think I felt it less intensely than most people, since I was in my vehicle at the time, stopped a stop light. Thanks…
In our adult Sunday School class we’ve been studying eschatology, which is the doctrine of the last things. We’ve looked at what the Bible teaches concerning the return of Christ, considering the various signs that indicate his return and the events surrounding his Second Coming. It would be a vast understatement to say that Bible-believing…