Pastor's Pen

Dear HLPC family, It’s June 28th.  On this day in Charles Spurgeon’s devotional, Morning by Morning, is provided one of my favorites in the book.  I’ve used it before as a Pastor’s Pen.  Let’s read it again and let the…

Dear HLPC family, It has been a whirlwind-few-weeks it seems.  Right after we finished Vacation Bible School, it was off to the PCA General Assembly in Memphis, TN where Ruling Elder Keith Duvall and I served as commissioners.  We gave…

Dear HLPC family, Vacation Bible School 2023 is well underway, and God has answered prayers.  We have a wonderful team of volunteers who are joyfully serving children, and the curriculum we are using does a great job of pointing kids…

Dear HLPC family, Last week, Connie and I took some time to be with our family on a week of vacation. My parents were able to join us making it an extra special trip.  I was glad that Tim Grider,…

Dear HLPC family, The Lord has blessed our church with a great group of children!  As a church, we are committed to covenant theology which sees the children of believing parents as a part of the church family or covenant…

Dear HLPC family, There is a wonderful abundance of daily devotional books.  They are a great supplement to your own daily Bible reading.  Connie enjoys reading Alistair Begg’s Truth for Life daily devotionals while I have benefited daily from Richard Sibbes’…

Dear HLPC family, I’m sure you’ve noticed that God is blessing HLPC with an ever-increasing number of children!  We are thankful for this opportunity to minister to them and to their families!   Right now, we have several needs for help…

Dear HLPC family, I hope you will be able to join us this Sunday as we bookend the Lord’s Day with worship.  We will have our regular worship service at 10:30AM and we will have Sunday evening worship at 6PM,…

Dear HLPC family, This passage has been heavy on my mind and heart the past couple of days:  On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased (Psalm 138:3, ESV).  It’s the words of David…

Dear HLPC family, Connie and I attended our first Ligonier National Conference in Orlando back in the early 90’s.  We have been to many of them over the years.  I have always left them greatly encouraged in my faith and…

Dear HLPC family, Lord willing, we only have three more weeks in our sermon series on the book of  Revelation.  This Sunday, we expect to be in chapter 20.  This is, without doubt, the most debated and controversial chapter of…

Dear HLPC family, Last night the Elders and Deacons met for their monthly meeting.  A major business item was the approval of the 2023 budget.  In November of last year, the decision was made to move from a calendar year…

Dear HLPC family, Our Missions Week is off to a great start!  If you were in our School of Discipleship this past Sunday, you heard two very encouraging missions reports.  Shaun Hurrie shared from Capetown, South Africa, via Zoom, of…

Dear HLPC family, I’m excited that HLPC Missions Week is upon us!  COVID threw us all off of our routine as a church and we need this to return as an annual event for us.  Missions Week will take place…

Dear HLPC family, This morning I was reading and praying through Psalm 1 in my daily time of Bible reading and prayer.  There I read: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands…

Dear HLPC family, This year is the 60th anniversary of the publication of the book Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen.  Dr. Machen was the founder of Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia and one of the early leaders in the…

Dear HLPC family, One night I cut the tip of my thumb trying to “help” Connie in the kitchen.  It took a while to stop the bleeding, and being right-handed, it proved to be quite a nuisance for a couple…

Dear HLPC family, Kevin DeYoung, pastor of Christ Covenant Church (PCA) in Matthews, North Carolina—which is actually the Charlotte area and where my youngest son, Matthew, and his wife, Mary Ross, have recently joined—made this brief but profound statement via…

Dear HLPC family, This will be my last Pastor’s Pen of 2022.  Next week, like many of you, I’ll take some time off to be with family during the Christmas break.  We look forward to having all of them with…

Dear HLPC family, Once again, the musicians and vocalists of our church did an outstanding job this past Sunday evening presenting a night of music.  We, as a church, need to be thankful for the abundance of talent we have…

Dear HLPC family, January 20-21, 2023 we will be hosting a conference on C.S. Lewis.  Our speaker will be Dr. Jonathan Rogers who is a published author and has written and spoken on C.S. Lewis.  He also happens to have…

Dear HLPC family, December is a busy month as we are all aware.  HLPC is certainly a busy place.  Here are some things I want to emphasize strongly this week: Looking forward to the Second Sunday of Advent and our…

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up,…

Dear HLPC family, A couple of weeks ago, Connie and I ran into two of our former students from our days with RUF at Mercer University, Griff and Justine Hogan.  Griff and Justine started their dating relationship as students in…

Dear HLPC family, What a great day it was this past Monday for HLPC to pay off the mortgage debt we owe!  I’m looking forward to our Celebration Lunch after worship on December 4th.   This should be a special day…

Dear HLPC family, This morning I read one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament.  It’s found in 2 Kings 6:8-19.  Elisha the prophet, the successor to Elijah, is in the city of Dothan, and the king of Syria…

Dear HLPC family, One of the books I took with me to Colombia was about 19th century Scottish pastor, Robert Murray M’Cheyne.  He pastored St. Andrew’s Church in Dundee, Scotland—a place I’d love to visit one day, along with C.S.…

Dear HLPC family, I write this as I sit in my hotel room in Medellin, Colombia on Μonday, October 3nd, with two and a half hours until I’m picked up to be taken to the airport for my departing flight. …

Dear HLPC family, I’m writing you Wednesday morning, September 28 from my hotel here in Medellin, Colombia.  Yesterday I completed a full day of teaching on Christology.  As has been the case every time I teach, the students have been…

Dear HLPC family, This past Sunday we looked into Revelation 4 and got a glimpse of the worship that surrounds God’s throne in heaven.  We drew some applications to our own worship from that passage.  I want to expand some…

Dear HLPC family, It has been encouraging to have visitors worshipping with us these past few weeks and months.  I hope you who are a part of our church family already are going out of your way to make them…

Dear HLPC family, As I write this Pastor’s Pen I’m sitting in a dentist office waiting room while Connie has some dental work done to prepare her for an implant (I hope I’m not committing a HIPAA violation in sharing…

Dear HLPC family, One of the books I enjoy for devotional reading is Jewels from John Newton.  John Newton, as you know, was the author of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” as well as many other hymns.  I’ve enjoyed reading this…

Dear HLPC family, We believe that the children of believing parents who are members are to be considered part of our church family—they are covenant children.  This is a major reason why we baptize our infant children as we claim…

Dear HLPC family, Connie and I enjoyed our time away for our summer vacation.  We spent last week in the north Georgia mountains in a cabin in Clayton.  This gave us a chance to take a day trip to Highlands,…

Dear HLPC family, Every year I like to share the following quote from Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening devotional.  It fits well with a point that was made this past Sunday in the sermon.  I hope you’re as encouraged by…

Dear HLPC family, This has been an unusual week, a rather difficult week. In the span of three days, I received word that three friends of mine had died.  In three successive days I was made aware of sad news. …

Dear HLPC family, This Sunday night, Lord willing, I plan to give a talk entitled “Contending for the Faith Once Delivered: Dealing with False Teaching & Teachers.”   This message will be a part of the online conference being put on…

Dear HLPC family The other day I read an encouraging article with the title, “My Reconstructed Faith” by Phillip Ryan.  You can find it HERE.    The author talks about the current attention some individuals have received for their stories of…

Dear HLPC family, It’s good to be “back in the saddle” as the saying goes.  After a busy week leading up to the wedding of our youngest son, Matthew, to Mary Ross, Connie and I left last Monday to go…

Dear HLPC family, Next week, June 21-24, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) General Assembly will meet in Birmingham, Alabama.  The General Assembly is our annual denominational gathering.  As a refresher, as Presbyterians we understand our church government to function…

Dear HLPC family, As I write this, Vacation Bible School 2022 is well underway.  Yet again, I am encouraged by the total team effort by many in our church family who have risen to the occasion for a week of…

HLPC family, We remain thankful for Kenny and Katy Rahn, and I was glad for us to take a moment to recognize Kenny and his ministry to HLPC this past Sunday, as he takes Elder Emeritus status.  While this will…

Dear HLPC family, I’ll admit I’m not a huge fan of change.  I like consistency.  I like routine.  But the one thing in life that never changes is change.  Children and grandchildren grow up, our bodies grow old, friends come…

Dear HLPC family, Thank you to all who came out last Wednesday night to support our youth ministry at the spaghetti supper fundraiser that included a dessert auction.  A special word of thanks to all those who shared the desserts…

Dear HLPC family, This past Sunday I mentioned the blessing of the “Puritan Paperbacks” –a series of small paperback books published by Banner of Truth.  These are published works of some great English pastors of the 16th and 17th centuries. …

Dear HLPC family, Once again, the Lord blessed us with a wonderful Easter!  I was a bit anxious about the weather and what it would do to the egg hunt, but God was gracious!  Once again, the decorations and flowers…

HLPC family, Much thanks to our Deacons who have worked so hard to formulate a budget and to present it to the church as they did this past Sunday.  I’m grateful for their conscientious labors on behalf of HLPC.  They…

Dear HLPC family, I continue to be encouraged by the writing and ministry of John Newton.  His hymns have ministered to us all such as “Amazing Grace” and the song we sang just his past Sunday, “Let Us Love and…