Grace Blog

Every year, I pick a one word theme for the year. This year I am repeating the same theme from last year—Revival. I know the idea of revival has a lot of baggage. It has often been misunderstood and even abused to manipulate people to follow a pastor’s personal dream, which can often be nothing more than self-glory. I pray that I will not be ...

Last weekend Kyle Kaurin, a pastor friend of mine in Binghamton, NY, asked me how God has been working on my heart. I diverted his question because I was tired from working two long days—doing works of compassion for members of his church who were devastated by the flooding in September. I diverted his question because I knew I had a confession t ...

God’s generous grace produces generous saints. One of the marks of Grace Bible Church is that you are generous. When we asked you to roll up your sleeves and go to work to help another church in need, you responded with the generous use of your time—giving up a holiday weekend to serve flood victims. You are rich in good works, generous and ready ...

Repent is a word that is quickly falling from use in our no-fault culture. I doubt if it is used in the media, movies or TV shows. Yet God asks and even demands for people to repent from their evil and wicked ways. God is even presented as repenting. However, it is unfortunate that our English Bibles portray God as “repenting”, for God does not ...

One of the things I have discovered about myself is that I am a very poor putter on the golf course. However, I have found out that I almost always do better when I hit a putt for the second time. Although it doesn’t count, I need to prove to myself that I can do better. Unfortunately, we do not always get a “do over” or a “second time” with man. ...

Here’s an update of what is going on at Grace... Sneak Peek of this Sunday’s Sermon: Speaker: Dan Hopkins | Title: A Gospel Application to Marriage | Text: 1 Cor. 7:25-40... ...

It's that time again - for our annual All Church Picnic! The theme for this year's picnic is "A Taste of Grace" which builds upon one of the themes in the current sermon series of 1 Corinthians - unity in diversity. This year's picnic theme celebrates our unity, in that Grace is a gathering of people who are united in our belief that we are saved ...

UPDATE The download feature on the sermons page is working correctly again! Karen Thom at Pinix, by God's grace, worked with great patience and perseverance to find the fix to this nagging problem. Thank you Karen (and your team)! [to download a sermon directly from the website, click on the red circle with an arrow pointing down in it, to the ...

Good morning! They are calling for snow in the DC area late Saturday into Sunday. Please check the website on Sunday morning before coming to church, in the event it does snow. The website will be updated by 7am.--  Merritt Anderson ...

Parenting is hard. The details of daily life with children can quickly become overwhelming, for even the most organized parents. Meals, school projects, and sports practices keep us running around and keep us wondering if we will ever get a break. In all of our running around and busyness are we just checking off tasks or ...

One thing is clear when you read the Bible from beginning to end—God likes the marriage of a man and a woman—and He intends it to be for life. In 1 Corinthians 7, He counsels people not to divorce but rather to remain separated or else be reconciled. He even tells a husband and wife to stay in a marriage where the one spouse is not a Christian. E ...

Washington, DC seems to be magnet for single adults who move here looking for work. Consequently, many churches in our area have an unusually high percentage of single adults. We had a large group of single adults who faithfully volunteered in the youth ministry where Lisa and I served for nearly 19 years. Over the years we have gotten to know m ...

When discussing marriage, biblical writers most often quote God’s words when He brought Eve to Adam and said, “And the two shall be one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24) But God also makes clear in Ephesians 5 that the marriage union is modeled after, and is a public display of, the eternal union between the Church and Christ. Most of us have heard about t ...

Most people who know their way around the Bible know that God consistently warns of sex outside the marriage covenant as a violation of God’s design and purpose for sex. However, it seems that many do not know that God also strongly encourages a full, frequent and fun sex life inside the marriage covenant! Their uninformed thinking may have been ...

Sunday is Easter! Many of us celebrate Easter in various ways. Some of us grew up with a “sunrise service.” I have great memories of Easter sunrise services on top of a mountain overlooking our church in the valley below. Some of us buy new outfits for Easter Sunday, complete with new shoes and a hat! Some of us give gifts to our children as a wa ...

This past Sunday we heard Pastor Merritt unfold God's Word to us from Psalm 46. Merritt reminded us that "The LORD of hosts is in control and with us, through all trouble and rebellion." What a great truth to be reminded of! Even better is to know that since it was God who put Psalm 46 in our Bibles, we can trust that He will give us the grace to ...

For our date night this week, Lisa and I went to a garden park to walk, talk and enjoy the beauty of God on display. While sitting on a park bench, we noticed a mother goose sitting on a nest, affectionately and gently caring for a nest of eggs with hope and patient steadfastness. It reminded me that God is regularly portrayed as being like a mot ...

We had the priviledge of hearing from guest preacher Matthew Maka on the topic, The Gospel and Parenting from Luke chapter 6. You can listen to the sermon below or even download it from this post as well. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to ha ...

  Parenting is both thrilling and humbling. Parenting is thrilling because kids give and receive love so easily. Children are natural lovers who haven’t learned how to hold onto hurt, pain or disappointment. Parenting is thrilling because of the power of influence. Parents get to influence a life for good or for bad—for a life-time. Parenting ...

The below post is from Justin Holcomb over at The Resurgence. The Resurgence is a church planting ministry and Justin serves as Executive Director of the Resurgence and leads the Leadership Development department and also serves a pastor at Mars Hill Church.  There was a woman named Kathy who swiped credit cards in a cafeteria at the Univ ...

Christ in his passion was mocked on several occasions and each time the mockery occupied a unique place in his experience. First he was mocked by Israel, next he was mocked by the pagan world, then by a descendant of Edom, a false brother, and finally by all these together. He was mocked by the Sanhedrin, by Pilate's soldiers, by Herod and then b ...

No doubt everyone is aware that Easter Sunday is just a few days away. Because of God's grace many of us know Easter is about much more than chocolate bunnies and Reese's eggs (though Reese's eggs are hard to discount). The work Christ did (his life, death, burial, and resurrection) to make our redemption possible, is very likely to be on many of ...