How Would You React To Greatness?

HERE is the link to the Washington Post article that I mentioned in the sermon today regarding Joshua Bell and his "concert" at the DC Metro station. Fascinating stuff.

Here's the first paragraph:

HE EMERGED FROM THE METRO AT THE L'ENFANT PLAZA STATION AND POSITIONED HIMSELF AGAINST A WALL BESIDE A TRASH BASKET. By most measures, he was nondescript: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play.

Abigail is Here

Abigail Rayne McGinnis arrived Friday, July 6th.

Here are a few pics. Go to Jawan's blog for more!

Al Groves Passed Away on Monday

Al Groves, a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, passed away on Monday from a long bout with cancer.Over the past year the family kept an online journal of his condition, treatment, etc. The entire journal is inspiring, but the last few posts are especially encouraging. There was rejoicing around his bed when the Lord finally took him home.
It is worth your time to look it up and read a few of his wife’s thoughts as they realized that heaven was near for Al.

You can read it by clicking HERE.

Galatians SS Reading

We are studing Galatians in Sunday School. I mentioned this morning that reading Martin's Luther's Preface to Galatians would be good reading as we move into studying the text over the next few weeks. You can read the preface, as abridged by Tim Keller, HERE.

Here are some other interesting and helpful articles by Tim Keller:

• All of Life is Repentance
• How Can I Know God?
• The Centrality of the Gospel

Happy Reading!

What If Jesus Had Not Been Born

On Christmas Eve I mentioned the letter that Sam Crabtree had written to the congregation at Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis regarding how the world would be different if Jesus had never been born. You can read that letter here.

A.W. Tozer on Evaluating Your Spiritual Life

I hope you are all having a Happy 2007!
In my sermon on New Year's Eve I mentioned that A.W. Tozer had suggested some great area in which we should evaluate to reveal the state of our hearts. Being honest in this exercise should open our eyes to area where we need to repent of our lack of love for and dependence upon Christ. This is a great exercise for the start of a new year (and everyday):

A.W. Tozer suggests that we evaluate ourselves in the following areas:

• what we want most
• what we think about most
• how we use our money
• what we do with our leisure time
• the company we enjoy (fellowship/evangelism)
• whom and what we admire
• what we laugh at (do we laugh at all?)

Happy New Year!

New WPC Website

Our church website has been completely overhauled!
You can check it out at www.wpcpca.com
We are still working on getting some of the stuff to work correctly (like getting the audio from the sermons to upload) - but I hope that the site is going to be useful for church members and for those who are just checking us out!
The bulletin for this coming Sunday has been posted and will be each week as it goes to be printed. The sermons will be going up soon.
There is a list of recommended books on the new site if you are looking for something good to read. The books are linked to Amazon.com and if you buy the book from them after clicking through from our site, WPC will get a portion of that sale!
Hopefully, this will be a place where you can visit regularly and see upcoming events, read announcements, and download the bulletin in order to help prepare your heart for worship or to see what you missed.
If you've got ideas regarding how we can use the site to help you in your pursuit of treasuring Christ above all things, let me know!

Not What My Hands Have Done

My blog has now become VERY sporadic. In my desire to become more excellent at other things in my life, this has not been a priority (and may not be anytime soon). Anyway, I was reading today while seeking an explanation of the difference between grace and works for our Inquirer's Class this weekend. There can't be many better than this one! This is one of my favorite hymns and Horatius Bonar is becoming more and more a favorite of mine!

Not what my hands have done
Can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne
Can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do
Can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers,
And sighs and tears
Can bear my awful load.

Thy work alone, O Christ,
Can ease this weight of sin
Thy blood alone O Lamb of God,
Can give me peace within.
Thy love to me O God,
Not mine, O Lord, to Thee
Can rid me of
This dark unrest,
And set my spirit free!

Thy grace alone, O God,
To me can pardon speak;
Thy power alone O Son of God,
Can this sore bondage break.
No other work, save Thine,
No other blood will do,
No strength save that,
Which is divine,
Can bear me safely through.

I praise the God of grace,
I trust His truth and might
He calls me His, I call Him mine,
My God, my joy, my light
’Tis He Who saveth me,
And freely pardon gives
I love because
He loveth me,
I live because He lives!

Great Stuff!