First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge

God knew that we could never keep our hold on him, so he has unbreakable, he fastened his hand to ours. God knew that we would be prone to wander and leave the God we love, so he has sealed our hearts and hemmed us in by his love, a love that will not let us go. God knew that we would doubt and wonder, that we would question and struggle, that we would fall back into sin time and time again, so he...

God’s promise that David's lineage would be on the throne forever had an immediate impact on David’s parenting. When we train our children well, we should expect our kids to want to flee temptation. We should expect our loved ones who profess the name of Christ to live holy and righteous lives. We should expect that our Christian family members to be a light in the darkness. We should expect these...

Why was God ready to judge Sodom and Gomorrah? Yes, of course, the sexual sin that is so graphically described in Genesis 19 is part of it, but that’s not the root reason. The prophet Ezekiel spells it out for us: “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable thing...

Evil doesn’t own more than a speck of this universe. Take your stand with Jesus by whom all things in heaven and earth were made. Though you have not seen him, you believe in him. When you do, you realize just who and what is on your side. Almost everything! The green earth belongs to Jesus. The world still rotates every 24 hours and revolves around the sun every year. Evil cannot stop this. Evil...

Sometimes, we have been so lost that we thought no one could ever find us. Perhaps we thought we had made a home in hell. Regular society seemed closed to us. We could never keep time with respectable people again. But as we remember the story of Hagar, we recall how God found us. We may have tangled our lives into such a mess that a ball of knotted fishing line seemed easy to unravel by compariso...

God is sovereign. He is sovereign over everything. And it is God who calls us. The Lord said to Abram, “Go.” What an amazing revelation this must have been for Abram having lived in the darkness of the Godless culture of Ur. Abraham had to have asked, “Why me?” Sad to say that ours is a pagan culture as well. The gods worshiped in our culture are just as dominant and demanding. And God continues t...

God was grieved in his heart that his creation would not look to him. He yearns to be our God and to care for us as his beloved people. He has made provision for us to be saved from the hell of trying to solve our lives on our own. He has made provision to save us from the hell of his loving wrath against sin. Psalm 95 tells us, “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” Look, this...

The question is “What is God calling me to do now? If this is the way it is, then how am I going to respond faithfully to God in the next moment?” Cain was having none of that. He got angry. The elder brother was supposed to realize the dream for the family. And he had been rejected. Genesis tells us that his face fell. There was a storm cloud across his countenance. These boys hadn’t yet learned...

"I love Denver as a city. Downtown is vibrant. But I’m always struck by a contrast when I fly out of Denver. Inside the city, it seems huge. But as you ascend and see the city against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, it starts to look tinier and tinier. All the great works of man diminish as the plane rises and you see the stunning majesty of God’s mountains. Eventually, Denver is just a dot a...

The world is askew, and that begins inside me. The story of temptation and fall in Eden explains so much. It tells us why there is something wrong with everything. It tells us why we feel in our bones that it’s not the way it’s supposed to be. Only the people with a mighty Savior could dare to tell the truth about the depth of our sin and lostness. Jesus is God come to us as a man, to live out the...

You were made intentionally. God did not create you at a transcendent unknowable distance when he formed you in your mother’s womb. Making his presence known, God has spoken life into your being from an up-close and intimate distance. He knows every intricate detail of the body he fashioned for you, and he creates good. #CovenantalRelationships #Genesis #created #godcreatedtheworld #imageofgod #se...

We know creation does not work like it was meant to. But we can envision and describe how life on earth was meant to be. Before the earth became the world that rebelled against the Creator. The echoes of his intent resound all around us. There is still so much beauty, so much love, so much possibility. We still can dream of justice and harmony. And we’re still called as creatures to acknowledge ou...

It’s a bit unnerving just to be asked, “Do you love Jesus?” Sometimes we don’t know how we feel. At any given time we might be too tired, too hungry, too distracted, too busy to find the place in us that loves Jesus. We might pass through a season of indifference to Christ. Or a season of willfulness and unrepented sin. My way not your way. And then we can’t connect to the deep place in our heart...

Imagine Jesus standing in the midst of your life. In the moments where you are not doing anything, but only thinking about everything. He arrives. Can you see him? He is there. He smiles at you. Holds out his hands. Speaks kindly: “Peace be with you." Imagine his deep exhaling of his Spirit. As he breathes out, breathe in his air, the Holy Spirit he gives. Say as you inhale, “I receive your Spirit...

God’s answer to suffering is not an explanation. But a person. Jesus Christ. Christ who took up flesh. Christ who died. Christ who is risen. Christ who will come again. To set all things right. "But remember this: if God is in it with you, sharing your suffering, it is also true that you are in it with God, sharing His redemptive activity and His victory. It is by the travail of the soul of Christ...

For at the core, Christ is about an invitation to change. He’s about the dawning of freedom. We don’t have to stay stuck where we are. We don’t have to stay stuck as we are. We don’t have to stay mired in shame, wracked with guilt, wandering in futility and just plain sick of ourselves. We can move from where we are. We can move into him. Jesus offers us freedom to move along a way of life, hope a...

Sir, we wish to see Jesus. That’s a lovely thing to say. But questions have to be asked in reply. Do you wish to see Jesus as a tourist or a disciple? Do you want to see Jesus as a detached observer, or will you submit your life to him? Do you demand that you stay independent and solitary, always in control, or will you risk dying with him? Will you let your ego be buried in order that you might r...

When Martha said, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” Jesus replied with a theological assurance. “Your brother will rise again.” He engaged Martha about the future resurrection of the dead, and astounded her with the news that he, himself, is resurrection and life. Jesus answered Martha with confidence and hope. He knew what was going to happen.  

From God’s view, death is not nearly as big of a problem as unbelief. Distance and time pose no obstacles to the purposes of the Creator who entered his creation. External conditions and events, even death, are not our main dilemmas. The inner darkness, the estrangement from the Father, and the enslavement to sin are the greatest threats to our eternal life. To the family and disciples, Lazarus se...

You need a king more than you know. The costly truth is before you. Will you abandon your pride and selfishness? Will you abandon your death and chains? Christ is Lord. Will you bow before him and find life?

This is the striking news from the one we follow. Jesus is the bread of life. We have to eat him in order to be filled. We have to take him in in order to live. Jesus called this eating believing into him. We move out of ourselves as a source. We move towards Jesus and offer him our lives. We surrender the quest for our satisfaction to him. This surrender happens once for all when we get united to...

Jesus, this woman, this man, was caught. The law demands condemnation. What do you say? The God who wrote the law with his divine finger, now writes with a human finger. And Jesus writes through his servant Paul “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” (Rom. 8: 1). I have made your condemnation my own. For you there is no condemnation! From you there is to be no...

Do you want to be healed? You need to see and believe in the crucified and risen savior before you. Do you want to be healed? You need to give Christ the right to identify and judge sin in your life. Do you want to be healed? Recognize that his love for you is passionate and powerful enough to be worth any name calling or ostracization that might come your way from others. Do you want to be healed...

How about you? Will you risk his gaze? His closeness? His desire to be with you always? Come see a man who told me everything I ever did! Surely, he is the Savior!

If you have believed into Jesus, giving him your life and asking for his, you have the Holy Spirit. You have water aplenty to sustain life. You have that well inside you. You as believers can draw from the very life of God. But, of course, it’s not automatic. The refreshment of the living water arises when we pray, “Your will be done.” The Spirit flows in a way we can taste as we offer ourselves t...