Just over twenty years ago I was received into the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) as a minister. I joined a Gospel-proclaiming, grace-saturated Presbytery in a Good-Faith Subscription, warmly Evangelical denomination that was in partnership with other Presbyterian & Reformed Communions.

Since 9/11 the word 'evil' has regained some popular usage in our culture. The painfully essential revelations about the abuse of children and women by men with power in religious, business, political, and entertainment spheres have reinforced our awareness that evil is real and has to be faced. The recovery of ‘evil’ in our public discourse helps us to name certain actions and begin to deal with them in just and proper ways.

Life in soil has its origins in God. On the third day of creation, he spoke to the earth and by his living word brought life to the soil he’d formed and that soil brought forth plants and trees. They in turn ‘yielded seed’, the power to perpetuate life and growth embedded deep within them.

We are passing through an era of disconnection and everywhere I look I see something very much like scattered sheep who need to reconnect with their flock, scattered soldiers that need to reconnect with their unit, and scattered dry bones that need to be rattled and rejoined to re-member the body of Christ.

'Abba' is an ancient Aramaic word that is used of an intimate, personal, affectionate relationship between a child and his father. We might use the word, Papa. It’s the word that Jesus used in prayer when he spoke to God, and it’s the word that Jesus gives to us in our prayers. The astonishing truth is that we are now also God’s children, and we speak to God the Father with the very same word that Jesus used. We call him Papa.

Yes, I seek to be what Paul called ‘a diligent workman, accurately handling the word’ – there’s no substitute for reading, study, reflection, research, wordsmithing, and careful consideration of applications. And yet, even with all of that labor expertly done, there must be prayer on behalf of the workman. Preaching, after all, is a supernatural activity.

Envy of another's gift & contempt for another's need are both enemies of the fabric of community in the Church. We can say neither "I'm not needed" nor "I don't need you" to others in Christ's Body.

My friends, we can’t give up on the Church for the simple reason that Jesus gave up his life to redeem her. If the Church was worth his blood and is the object of his eternal affection, then surely the Church is worthy of our commitment and our service.