Taught by Grace

Luke 2:1-7 details the birth of Jesus, but without verses 8-14 we don't know the significance of His birth. The angel appears to the shepherds that night to declare to them the good news of Jesus birth - A savior is born. The good news of Christmas is the greatest news ever told.

The Christmas season is and should be filled with hope. However, it’s not because of a chubby dude squeezing into your chimney. It’s not because that special someone will meet you under the mistletoe. Frosty may be a jolly, happy soul, but he can neither thrill nor heal your soul. Rudolph, with his nose so bright may guide Santa’s sleigh, but he can’t light your way to hope.  Where is hope found?...

You submitted questions and we offered some answers. Adam Rorrer joined me for a Q+A episode. We seek to offer Biblical and edifying responses. We've got everything from serious questions to a Frozen reference to determining if dancing is a sin and everything in between. Timestamps for Questions: 3:00 - Contemporary Music versus Hymns 7:26 - What is worldliness? We define what the world is and...

This Psalm has reminded us that the Lord is our sufficient, restoring, and faithful Shepherd for every step of the journey. He is with us when we’re deciding where to go to school, what job to have, and who to marry. He is with us when the company accepts you and the girl rejects you. This life is a journey and we need a Shepherd who is with us through every hill, valley, canyon, and tragedy. He i...

Every day is not a clear sky, the sun is shining 65 degrees. There are times when we walk into the valley of the shadow of death. A bad doctor’s report enters your inbox. That car T-bones your daughter out of nowhere. He decides that he doesn’t want to go through with the wedding. Anything can take you from green pastures and tumble you into the valley of the shadow of death. Your Shepherd is good...

How are you? This is a question we get asked on a regular basis and it is a question we ask on a regular basis. What is the typical response? “I’m doing good, how are you?” we may say we’re doing well or alright. The truth, however, is that we’re not always doing great.  There are days, weeks, and even months at a time when we are mentally exhausted, physically tired, and spiritually downcast. It’...

The life of every believer is a journey. It’s not like driving on an interstate where you hop on one exit and just drive until you reach your next exit. It’s more like starting in a distant forest and climbing to the top of a mountain. That journey is not straightforward. It has twists and turns, uphills and downhills, peaks and valleys. It would be nice if our lives were an immediate ascent from...

Taught by Grace is back after a brief hiatus! We will beginning a new series over the next few weeks, but before that, we are exploring this wonderful doxology in Romans 11:33-36. This text calls us to worship the God we cannot comprehend. He is far greater than we can imagine, therefore, He deserves the greatest praise that we can offer. Join me as we walk through this text.

The Tenth Commandment is all about desire. Our hearts are prone to wander. They seek to be satisfied by the stuff of this world, rather than by being content in our gracious, good Heavenly Father. In this episode, we explore the Tenth Commandment by: Giving a Biblical overview of desire Defining how, what, and why we covet Presenting a solution to our covetous hearts - contentment This commandment...

A little white lie is not a little white sin to God. He despises lying. He hates both the lying tongue and the false witness that speaks lies. So then, to break the ninth commandment is to do something that God hates. Satan deceived Eve in the garden by lying to her about the heart and Word of God. In John, Jesus called Satan the father of lies. To be a liar is to be as Satan-like as you can be an...

When you think about thieves, robbers, and burglars, you probably think about ski masks, crowbars, and getaway cars. It may bring up scenes of bank or house robberies. You may think of Marv and Al attempting to rob the McCallisters or Robin Hood stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Theft and stealing bring up these fancy escapades or intense moments in our minds. We think of thieves and...

(A brief interlude from the 10 Commandments. I'll be back next week with the eighth commandment.) Hakuna Matata! It means no worries for the rest of your days. At least, that’s what Timone and Pumba said in The Lion King. They boldly declared that it was possible to forget all of your worries and live a carefree life. Just ignore the trouble. Don’t pay attention to what worries you have. Sure,...

We love beauty. Beauty is displayed in nature, art, and people. It’s beautiful to watch as the sun sets behind the mountains in Western America. It’s beautiful to see a painting or sculpture that someone spent years perfecting. It’s beautiful to hear the laugh of a young child as her father lifts her into His arms. Beauty is a wonderful reality, but beauty can be tarnished. The Seventh Commandment...

There are three truths we must hold to in our suffering: God is sovereign, wise, and good. If we know these, we can trust God amid cancer, loss, and death. This week, we take a brief break from the Ten Commandments to dive into the end of the story for Joseph and his brothers. Joseph had experienced great suffering and pain, but by the end of it, He knew that God meant it for good. God was the one...

Thou Shalt Not Kill - This command requires no caveat or disclaimer. It prohibits all murder. However, this commandment has far more to teach us than just that. This commandment is broken by pulling the trigger, but it is broken before that by having anger in your heart. The truth is, we have all been murderers at heart. In this episode on the sixth commandment, we start at the top of the ladder,...

God does not allow us to live in the realm of spiritual elitism while ignoring the flesh and blood around us. Christianity is not an ethereal religion. It is tangible. It is real. It is about how we speak to, live with, and treat each other. The final six commandments teach us that loving God requires that we love others.  The first four commandments declare “Love the Lord thy God with all thy hea...

The Fourth Commandment is the most debated and misunderstood in our day. What are we to do with it and what is it all about? We will examine the Sabbath day from Exodus to Genesis to the New Testament to our lives today. Though the stringent details are no longer applied to us, the overarching principles should affect the way we live.

In this episode, we explore the third commandment by: Seeing the importance of names in general Examining that by taking His name, we identify as His people Defining what it means to misuse God's name intentionally or carelessly Challenging us to hallow God's name with our lips and lives God's name matters more than any other name, therefore, we must care about how we use His name abov...

The nation of Israel was notorious for making, worshiping, and serving graven images. In fact, later in Exodus, Israel was making a golden calf to worship as their gods while Moses was receiving the law from God. From groves to high places to Baal to various idols, Israel was a repeat offender of the Second Commandment.  Yet, God prohibited all of that in the Second Commandment. At first, we may t...

The first command asserts that God is God. Since He is God, then we must reverence and honor Him as God. His supremacy in our lives reflects His supremacy over all things. Culture can be radically ignored when the greatness and goodness of God is totally embraced. God gave this command first to orient us with Him as the first priority.  The first commandment is the commandment. There is much to be...

You hear the word commandment and begin to cringe a bit. Oh yeah, I like hearing about the cross and resurrection, but do we really have to talk about the Ten Commandments? They’ve been fulfilled in Jesus anyways, haven’t they? Yes, Christ has fulfilled it, but He didn’t destroy it. There is still much to learn and much to be applied to us from these.  At the outset, however, I hope to remove any...

Jonathan Snow and I started at Calvary Baptist Bible College four years ago. On the day of our graduation, we sat around a mic and reflected on some lessons we've learned during our time at Calvary. There are a wide array of lessons mentioned in this episode: Suffering - Jon speaks about God's sufficient grace through his wife's sickness and recovery in 2021. The greatness of God - We've both lear...

The cross is fundamentally not beautiful. The cross was the Roman version of a gas chamber, electric chair, or any other executionary tool. How could that be beautiful? Yet, Christians sing hymns with words like “I will cherish the old rugged cross.” Cherishing an ugly cross seems like a foolish notion, doesn’t it?  No one is going to say “I will cherish the sword that cuts off a criminal’s head!”...

What did the thief do to make him worthy of Jesus saying “Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise.” He didn’t have anything to give Jesus.  He couldn’t get baptized.  He didn’t have theological jargon.  The only thing this man had was faith in the man on the middle cross. He knew that the one there was totally different from everyone else. He turned to Jesus alone for salvation and Jesus alone wa...

We are just a few weeks out from Easter Sunday. I hadn’t originally planned on doing an Easter series, but my attention has recently been drawn to the seven sayings of Jesus on the cross. I hope to help you prepare your heart for Easter by studying these sayings over the next several weeks. On the cross, you see the love of God and the love of Christ in what Jesus did. We learn the depth of His lo...