Pastor Jeremy Stephens

Tag: Gospel

  • The Race that Matters

    A pastor friend here on the island often jokes that I’m missing the part of my brain that says, “This hurts, I should stop.” That’s because, despite being a relatively big guy, I’ve completed several major endurance events over the years. After multiple marathons, long-distance bike rides, and several half and full-distance Ironman races, I’m…

  • Cool Gear, Empty Identity

    On my twelfth birthday, my parents gave me an unexpected gift. I don’t remember asking for a guitar, but that first acoustic delivered to me on that cold February evening turned into a lifelong obsession. I shudder to think of the time (and even more frighteningly, the money) I’ve spent on guitars over the last…

  • Order Matters

    Do you remember learning about “order of operations” in middle school? Maybe the mention of PEMDAS just gave you PTSD! We suffered through countless homework assignments designed to remind us that it wasn’t enough to know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. The order in which we performed those operations could create drastically different…

  • The King Among Us

    One of the great films of the last fifty years tells the story of a young woman, the only child of a powerful ruler, who is completely detached from the people in her kingdom. She has grown up in privilege while others outside the palace walls struggle to survive. She refuses to eat when frustrated…

  • Not Earned, but Worthy

    In Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, an Army platoon risks everything to rescue a single soldier after his brothers are killed in combat. The film’s tension increases as members of the search party lose their lives during the rescue mission, forcing the rest of the team to wonder if saving Private Ryan’s life was worth…

  • When Paul Corrected My Critique

    I loved my time in college at Cedarville University. One of the things that distinguished it from other Christian colleges was its commitment to chapel every weekday at 10 a.m. Through my four years of college, I heard some of the greatest speakers in the country open the Word and preach. However, with roughly 1,000…

  • Born For Adversity

    Born For Adversity

    There’s something special about a friend who appears when life is falling apart. When we are crushed by devastating news or agonizing loss. Proverbs tells us that “a friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Prov. 17:17). We know there’s a difference between acquaintances, fair-weather friends, and the deep, supportive…