Anna and I hit an intense 5 mile hike down to Lower Whitewater Falls today. Hiking the Blue Ridge Mountains of SC and NC is one of our favorite things to do together. We spent time praying for friends and loved ones who are battling cancer or carrying heavy burdens, as well as for the many needs of the church I have the enormous privilege of pastoring. It was really Anna, me, and the Lord on the hike.

I love this so much. instagram.com/reel/Dc9B5jxtI…

It was the absolute best birthday I’ve had. Having Micah here would have been the only thing that could have made it better. Eli, Judah, Tommy, and I played 18 up in Cashiers, NC. I praise God for His mercy to me. He redeemed me and is sanctifying and preserving me. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

Judah is driving with me as we head to the Blueridge mountains. I’m playing a @davematthewsbnd show and breaking down the genius of Dave. It’s been nostalgically surreal listening to what I was I listening to 30 some years ago when I was his age! open.spotify.com/track/28M6W…

New audio and video of a sermon preached at Church Creek PCA in Charleston, SC: "Kingdom Calling" (1 Samuel 3) church-creek.org/sermons/ser…

This is a subject to which all Christians should give serious consideration. It is a pressing need for believers to learn how to care for those in the body who are dealing with comprehensive or chronic suffering. Karrie Hahn gives us a great deal of help in "Limping Heavenward."

In light of @Pontifex's take on the death penalty, I thought it apropos to repost this @Reformation21 article. Principles of biblical justice regarding the death penalty and the propitiatory death of Christ for our redemption are inexorable related. reformation21.org/retributio…

I have meditated often on the teaching of the Westminster Standards on the fifth commandment regarding the requirements and prohibitions of inferiors to superiors and superiors to inferiors, but I have never meditated on the requirements and prohibitions of “equals.” The Westminster Larger Catechism answers the question of the sins forbidden in regard to equals to one another. The members of the Assembly write, “The sins of equals are. . .the undervaluing of the worth, (2 Tim. 3:3) envying the gifts, (Acts 7:9, Gal. 5:26) grieving at the advancement or prosperity one of another; (Numb. 12:2, Esth. 6:12–13) and usurping pre-eminence one over another. (3 John 9, Luke 22:24).”

“Eve fell through pride. . .The serpent makes her “feel herself impaired.’ Her beauty lacks spectators. . .She ought to be adored and served by angels: she would be Queen of Heaven if all had their rights. God is trying to keep the human race down: Godhead is their true destiny. And Godhead is what she thinks of when she eats. She still has a further decent to make. Before leaving the tree she does “Low Reverence’ before it as to the power that ‘dwelt within.’ . .She who thought it beneath her dignity to bow. . .to God, now worships a vegetable. She has at last become ‘primitive’ in the popular sense.” – C.S. Lewis on Milton's description of the nature of Eve's sin

"When the Church loses the Word of God it loses the very means by which God does His work. In its absence, therefore, a script is being written, however unwittingly, for the Church’s undoing, not in one cataclysmic moment, but in a slow, inexorable slide made up of 'piece by tiny piece' of daily dereliction.” – David F. Wells

“I suppose that if anyone were told that at a certain location, on a certain day, on a certain hour, a voice was to be heard from heaven––that if that were plainly certified that a voice would be heard from heaven in a certain place, on a certain day, on a certain date, at a certain hour––I'm sure that it would be filled with people from hundreds of miles away. . .That a word from heaven was going to be arguably spoken on that particular occasion, I don't suppose the place would hold them. Just that they would be there out of curiosity, if for no other reason. And yet, in the Scripture we have the voice of God just as surely as if God spoke directly from heaven in an audible voice. And it is more sure because it is more permanent.” – John Murray

"We must make a great difference between God's Word and the word of man. A man's word is a little sound, that flies into the air, and soon vanishes; but the Word of God is greater than heaven and earth, yes, greater than death and hell, for it forms part of the power of God, and endures everlastingly." – Martin Luther, Tabletalk

"In a day when people will turn away from the word of God, Paul emphasizes a solid determination to preach the word of God. What is the remedy when people do not want to listen to preaching? The remedy is preaching! Nothing else will provide the pharmaceutical for a generation that turns its ears away from preach than preaching that will cause those ears to turn back to preaching." – Sinclair Ferguson on 2 Timothy 4:1–5

“Prior to 1549, [Calvin preached] three weekday sermons at five in the evening, and three Sunday services, one at daybreak, another at nine o’clock and the last at three o’clock. After that date the number was increased to one daily sermon, and it was thereafter Calvin’s constant practice, unless hindered by illness or by occasional absence, to preach at nine and three each Sunday, and, alternate weeks, to give one sermon every weekday! Thus he commonly preached no less than ten times a fortnight to the same congregation.” feedingonchrist.org/how-to-b…

“A man’s character is revealed by what makes him laugh and by what makes him cry.” — @hbcharlesjr

Andrew Bonar, brother of Horitius Bonar, and close friends with Robert Murray McCheyne, struggled with seeing his friend and his brother rise in popularity above him. Determined to put away his envy, he wrote an entry in his diary stating, “It is amazing that the Lord has spared me and used me at all. I have no reason to wonder that He used others far more than He does me. Yet envy is my hurt, and today I have been seeking grace to rejoice exceedingly over the usefulness of others, even where it cast me into the shade. Lord, take away this envy from me!” What a heart and what a prayer for us to make our own!

"Biblical Guidance for Parents of Prodigals" (Luke 15) sermonaudio.com/sermons/9122… – A talk given at Christ Church Presbyterian in Charleston, SC in which I share my testimony as I reflect on the ways in which the Lord used my parent's faith and pursuit of me in my conversion.