Matt is the Lead Pastor of Wellspring Church in Madison, Mississippi.
Does the Old Testament have authority for New Testament believers as scripture? One of the most common questions that my students ask is “What’s the difference between the covenant in the Old Testament and the covenant in the New Testament?” Often...
One cannot be a serious Christian without being strong and courageous. There are two particular elements of growing in Christ that require courage and both are a result of being obedient to Jesus. First, obeying Jesus in public life requires great...
Life is filled with boundaries and divisions. These are good. According to the creation account in Genesis, creating boundaries was a crucial part of how God brought order out of chaos. God first created a boundary between light and darkness. He...
The annual Jewish holiday of the Feast of Tabernacles (sukkot) is coming quickly! (Sept 23–30). This is one of the annual festivals that makes me wish I was Jewish. It’s a time filled with activities, parties, and lots of delicious meals. It is...
Do you ever feel like there’s just way too much to do and you’re out of strength to do it? Serving in Haiti makes me feel this way often. I think this is to be expected when doing what God asks us to do. God is in the business of assigning God-sized...
Four weeks ago my wife gave birth to our fourth child. This time around was different. This time we decided to deliver here in Haiti. By God’s grace, everything went extremely well and mom and baby are doing great. One of the downsides to having...
In this post I wrote about the phrase, “incline your ear” as an idiom meaning “please pay attention!” I said that this frequent expression in the Psalms reminds us that it’s okay to feel desperate in the Christian life and that God expects us to...
The phrase “incline your ear” appears in the Bible approximately seventy-six times. As is relatively evident, it generally means “pay attention!” It appears a lot in the book of Psalms when the psalmist asks God to incline His ear to the psalmist’s...
One of the most famous passages of the Old Testament is Exodus 3:13–14. It says this: “But Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what...
Last week I wrote about Elkanah and his family situation as described in the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel (chapters 1–2). We looked specifically at the fact that Hannah, one of Elkanah’s wives, had both internal (she could not bear children) and...
