Posts by Pastor Ben Muresan

As we begin this new year, we begin it in the midst of the ongoing spread of COVID-19 in its variant forms. Many of us have gotten sick or have family members or friends who have gotten sick. We might feel discouraged by it all. To provide us some encouragement, I want to share some key ideas from J.C. Ryle's short essay titled "Sickness" which he wrote in 1878. You can f...

This month I interviewed Rudy and Emily Manrique to help us all get to know them. Rudy has begun his pastoral internship with us, so they will become members. Through this internship, Rudy will be completing our denomination's requirements for men seeking to be ordained to pastoral ministry. Our presbytery has a checklist of requirements that Rudy will need to fulfill duri...

"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?"Genesis 18:25 The justice of God consists in the fact that God will give to each person what they merit, either punishment or reward. He treats every person fairly by giving them what they deserve.When God entered into a covenant with Adam, he gave Adam the ability to obey the requirement of perfect obedience in order...

God Is Good.We learn this truth from Scripture passages such as: Psalm 34:8, "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!" and Psalm 136:1, "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever." The problem is that we use the word "good" to describe a number of things, and so when we think about it as on...

To say that God is simple might sound incorrect at first. How could a sovereign, holy, and glorious being be simple? Wouldn't it be more accurate and flattering to say that God is infinitely complex? The answer we find in Scripture is that God is simple. James Dolezal explains that "the principal claim of divine simplicity is that God is not composed of parts. A part is a...

Our Triune God is independent. He does not depend on anyone or anything for his existence and continuance. You and I, as his creatures, depend on him for our existence and continuance, but he, as the uncreated Creator, is self-existent and self-sustaining. God declares in Job 41:11, "Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is...

God's omnipotence is the first attribute in this devotional series that we have not learned about in Sunday school because we had to suspend our corporate gatherings due to the pandemic. "Omnipotence" is derived from Latin and means all-powerful. When used of God, it reveals the fact that God can do anything he pleases and that is consistent with his nature. This is clear...

"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampledunder people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannotbe hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In ...

"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. I...

At the beginning of 2020, we began a new series in adult Sunday school on the attributes of God. I am looking forward to this series as each week we consider an aspect of God's being and how it should affect our faith and our lives. The word "attributes," however, got me thinking about the attributes of Scripture, and since many of us have begun Bible reading plans at the ...