Christ came, “to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God…” (Luke 1:76-78). The birth of Christ in Bethlehem was always about the death of Christ at Calvary. Therefore, forgiveness, which brings relational peace between God and man, is at the very heart of the gospel. However, forgiveness is on...

At the heart of the Christian message is the fact that we are now delivered from sin and death to the hope of resurrection and eternal life because of Jesus Christ. But what did Jesus do that made the difference? ...

Today is October 31, which most people know as Halloween. A smaller number who have backgrounds in liturgical churches would think of today as All Hallows' Eve, the day before All Saints’ Day. Still fewer remember that, 497 years ago today, a cranky and combative monk walked up to the door of the Wittenburg cathedral and nailed a list of debating points, hoping to provok...

It is now time in this last newsletter of October 2014 to look at the actual work of mortifying our sin. We have considered John Owen’s thoughts on the need for mortification, the nature of mortification and what we have to consider in preparation for the work. Now it is time to ask the question, “What will be the means or the agent of the mortification of our sin?�...

Having looked at the necessity and that nature of mortification, it is now time to set ourselves toward the work itself. John Owen in his book, “Of the Mortification of Sin in the Believer”, puts forth both general and particular directions for the work itself. In other words, he gets his reader to consider their own sin so as to know their enemy. He also gets his read...

Last week we began a look at what it means to mortify one’s sin. Borrowing heavily from John Owen’s writings on the mortification of sin, I tried to highlight the necessity of it. In the words of Owen, if we are not actively killing sin, sin will be killing us....

Anyone who has been to Calvary Grace Church for any amount of time has hopefully realised by now, that we have a lot to say about sin. To be sure, we have much to say about grace as well, but you can’t fully appreciate grace until you’ve spent some time pondering sin. Unfortunately, people can fall victim to a morbid introspection where your sin is all you see and gr...

One of the songs that we have recently introduced to Calvary Grace is called "My God, My Father, Blissful Name." It was written by Anne Steele in 1760. The song is a reflection and proclamation of the realities of the Christian walk. In the first verse, we reflect on the astounding position we have as children of God. It echoes Colossians 1:11-12 which says, "May you b...

It is a joy to be a part of Calvary Grace Church. We all benefit from sound preaching as we worship God together. As elders, we talk about keeping the main things central. We don’t want to compromise our high view of God’s Word and God’s promise to accomplish His purposes in His people through the Word. This means that sitting under good preaching is not an end in it...

For many Christian families, the stress of the back to school scramble is compounded by decisions regarding how to school their children. Do we choose to home school? Do we send our kids to public school? Christian School? How do we decide what’s best for our family and is right in the eyes of the Lord? I would like to encourage us all to think about how we can encoura...