Brought down in order to look up
For the entire month of August, my family has been dealing with COVID. First, my son and daughter-in-law got it. Then my daughter, who lives at home with us. Then my wife. Then me. And, finally, my other son, who also lives at home. Praise God all are well and mended. We threw the kitchen sink at it, getting into the doctor, taking medicines, taking [...]
On parables…
When people think about parables in the Bible, they often think about Jesus. There’s a good reason for the association of Jesus with biblical parables; he often taught those who came to listen to him with enigmatic short stories and analogies. But, we actually find parables in the Old Testament too. One of the most famous parables occurs in 2 Samuel 12, where the prophet [...]
Good News
I’m the oldest of three siblings in my family. I have a younger sister (Lindsey) and a younger brother (Ethan). Here’s the deal, though, I am TEN YEARS older than my brother Ethan. If you were to look at Ethan and I side by side now, you might not be able to tell the age difference, at least, I like to think so. But when [...]
It was the best of times…
The opening lines of the Charles Dickens classic, A Tale of Two Cities, goes as follows: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it [...]
Stand Firm
By: Didi Bacon Paul’s concluding remarks to First-Century Christians living in the Roman province of Asia Minor are captured in Ephesians 6:10-17. While we typically focus on the imagery of the soldier donning his armor in this text, I want you to read through this text and notice the call to action that runs throughout Paul’s exhortation (I have bolded the key phrases to help [...]
David and David! Staff changes at Mount Carmel
Did you know that we have three Tims on our staff? We also have an Erin and an Aaron! Well, we are soon going to have two Davids! 2021 is the final year of a five-year strategic plan that we put together in 2017. The most significant push of our plan was to increase our investment in discipleship. We wanted to intentionally reshape our ministry [...]