Walking Through the Gospel

By Bill and Karen Itzel
Two years ago, I wrote an article in my series of Exegeting the Hymns where I looked at the lyrics of “Reckless Love” and concluded that we’d never sing it at the church where I led worship.  That article took a lot of heat because there were so many strong feelings about the song and many in our church wanted to sing it.  However, now that time has passed and I have heard many stories of how that song was such an encouragement, I have decided to look back over the lyrics, and see if I was being overly-critical. In doing so, I feel as though I made a mistake.
I believe I was not as thoroughly bold as I should have been in my criticism.  
At that time, there were several reasons why I had to tone down my warning to the church, but I plan to remedy that here.  I want to make it clear why I feel I need to write this.  Many wonderful, caring pastors and worship leaders spend hours pouring over their song choices every Sunday to make sure God is worshipped in spirit an…

By Ryan Itzel
            On July 24, 2020 John MacArthur and the rest of the elders at Grace Community Church released a statement that they would gather as a church, defying the state’s restrictions on assembling in their building.[1] At the release of the statement, many took to social media to weigh in on the decision to reopen. Some applauded at the firm stance that Christ is the head of the Church, not Caesar, while many disagreed with the decision, believing it was unwise and irresponsible. I wanted to share some thoughts on the matter but thought it right to take a week and contemplate before writing a post here on the situation. I pray that these few thoughts I share will encourage you and cause you to think about the situation from a Biblical and gracious perspective. My desire is for believers everywhere, whether you agree with Grace Community Church’s decision or not, to show grace to Grace.
A Changing Context
            First, one of the most common complaints with Grace Co…