by Richard L. Burguet •

My family has a tradition that I began many years ago, and it has become legendary.  It is the tradition of the annual post Thanksgiving, Christmas tree acquisition.  Now there is a reason I call this acquisition, not necessarily buying, nor even cutting.  Here are a few highlights from the years.

Being a pastor, my family and I have moved to new places several times.  Our homes have always had one constant at the holidays: a fresh cut Christmas tree.  How that tree was selected though, has varied dramatically over the years.  Like the year it was decided that my son and I would go out to a piece of property we leased, and find and cut our own “wild” Christmas tree.  [Read more…]

by Richard L. Burguet •

The Westminster Confession of Faith: Of Baptism XXVIII

Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church; but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in the newness of life. Which sacrament is, by Christ’s own appointment, to be continued in His Church until the end of the world.

The outward element to be used in this sacrament is water, wherewith the party is to be baptized, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by a minister of the Gospel, lawfully called thereunto.

 Dipping of the person into the water is not necessary; but Baptism is rightly administered by pouring, or sprinkling water upon the person. [Read more…]

by Richard L. Burguet •

Father’s Day brings about lots of emotions in a man’s heart. Those who have had great fathers remember with smiles on their faces some of the special times they had with their dads. Those who had fathers that were hard and difficult have a whole other range of emotions about their dads. Johnny Cash expressed one sentiment about fathers and sons in his famous (infamous?) song, A Boy Named Sue. Then, there was the Harry Chapin number one song in 1974 The Cat’s In the Cradle. Neither of those two songs represent the ideal father, but may reflect the reality that lots of men grow up with.

Honoring our fathers on Father’s Day, is more than just an excuse to sell greeting cards on a “Hallmark Holiday”.  Actually the whole concept of honoring our fathers has been around since the beginning of time.  [Read more…]

by Richard L. Burguet •

Every one of us, at least once, has come to the place in our lives where we wished that God would do a miracle. We all have had those difficult, agonizing moments, when all of life is outside of our ability to bring changes, and to resolve our problems. The only solution is a miracle. The only way things can get better, the only way that there is any hope of survival is that God would enter space and time and perform some unusual event that changes the circumstances. You wish a miracle would happen, pray it will, and so do I.

Possibly you have been at the place of “needing a miracle”  more often than you want to remember. As a student, just a semester away from finishing college, and you find out that you have another three-hour class that you have to take, on top of the full load and part-time job. As the expectant couple, and you get the news that the pregnancy is about to mis-carriage. As a young parent, and you receive the news that your infant daughter “is not doing well, and we are going to have to rush her into the ICU to save her life”.  In the middle of the night when the telephone rings and the voice on the other end says, “I have something really difficult to tell you….”  In times like those, we have all asked God for some kind of supernatural intervention to take place. [Read more…]