Sterling Griggs

My youngest daughter Emmerson (we call her Emme), 17 months, is starting to "wake up" to life. She is now eagerly experiencing every single thing that her little hands can get a hold of and that is in her line of sight. Lately it's been a full-time job trying to track her whereabouts. At our house, we have everything fairly kid friendly but when we go out anywhere we really have to be on guard. Even though it can be tiring to chase a young child all over creation every day, I wouldn't ever think of missing this opportunity. Just to see the sheer joy in her eyes as she discovers something new or decides to be daring is enough to make me want to sop her up with a biscuit. The more she explores, the more excited she is to learn and experience more. There will be some toys and activities that will bore Emme, but her zest for life is simply contagious. How I wish that we the way that we approached God! The moments of the passionate pursuit of His glory linger with u...

This week Kellie and I are meeting with our Realtor and we're going to talk about making an offer on a house. It's the first house that we will have ever made an offer on and it's pretty exciting and anxiety-inducing at the same time. The house we are considering is one of those "dream" homes for us and, I'm not going to lie, if it doesn't work out we will be a little disappointed. But more than anything we are ready to have a place of our own with a little more space so that the kids can turn around without always bumping into each other. Whether or not this house works or there is another one out there better suited for us down the road, wherever we have lived we have done our best to make it home. We started with just the two of us in a town home and now for the past 8+ years we've lived in a parsonage that at first was extra roomy but now is extra cozy. Yet no matter how much or how little space we have, wherever we are with our family is home ...

134 can be a big or little number, depending on which way you use it. If I try to eat 134 hot dogs in one sitting, then it's a huge number. If I make 134 dollars a week at my job, then it's not so big. 134 kids running around the house would be crazy, but not so crazy if that was the number of fish in the sea. Speaking of fishing, did you hear about the students who went door-to-door this past week in Rowan County and the free basketball camps in Salisbury and China Grove and the nighttime events in downtown Salisbury? Did you hear that, as a result of the gospel of Jesus Christ being clearly presented at each of these venues, 134 people came to faith in Jesus Christ? Perhaps there is nothing more stirring than seeing young people share their faith, knees knocking and all, and having the one with whom they are sharing place their trust in Christ. I saw is dozens of times this past week in Rowan County and I witnessed students - some complacent in their faith, some on fire ...

Drive. It's what pushes you to do what others say you can't do. Drive. It's what builds your faith in the face of what seems insurmountable. Drive. It's what causes you to push ahead even though your resources say don't. Drive. It's what makes you believe in the face of mounting disbelief. Drive. It's coming to the realization that God is in control and that He in fact will do the driving. He doesn't need a co-pilot.

Tonight I am speaking to my students from Philippians 2:21-27 . In this passage, Paul engages himself in debate as to whether it would be better for him to go on and be with Jesus now or stay in the world so that he can continue the work for Christ that he was called to do. He believes being with Jesus would be awesome but at the same time he knows that he's still needed on earth to help grow the church and proclaim the gospel. One thing that I could never debate was that the apostle Paul finished well the work that God called him to do. His legacy is incredible (2/3 of the New Testament was penned by him) and he was the original and still greatest church planter missionary. Although I never personally knew the apostle Paul I am greatly impacted by his life and work for the gospel of Christ. There is another Paul that kindles within me fond memories. His name is Paul Barclay and just this past weekend he died of a heart attack at the young age of 53. Paul was a lifelong Youn...

Pandora Internet Radio and VH1 Classic are two of God's latest gifts to me. If you don't believe me then type in "David Crowder Band" on Pandora or turn to channel 76 in the Winston-Salem area and catch The Who tribute concert. Unbelievable stuff! As a kid growing up in the 1970's and as a teenager in the 1980's, music forged a big part of my identity. I wasn't necessarily musically gifted but I loved to listen to music and sing it when no one else was around. My very first concert experience was when I saw The Police on their Synchronicity tour in 1984 and my view of live music has never been the same. Since then I have been able to witness acts ranging the spectrum from Bruce Springsteen to George Strait to Hootie and the Blowfish to Steven Curtis Chapman to 311. Being part of a mass of humanity taking in live music was almost intoxicating to the music lover in me. The other day when I was working out in my basement I had Pandora on my iPhone go...

I had the privilege of preaching yesterday at the church where I serve since the senior pastor was out of town. Preaching and teaching is what I enjoy and feel called to the most, so I never turn down the opportunity to do so. The passage I preached from was Ephesians 5:22-33 , which is the apostle Paul's instructions from God to husbands and wives. In these verses, the wives are instructed to submit to their husbands as to the Lord and the husbands are exhorted to love their wives as Christ loved the church and as they would their own bodies. Admittedly, a lot of people get hung up on the "wives submit" part and miss the rest of the message, but it's so important to read and understand "the rest of the story." Nowhere in the Bible is this idea of spousal submission akin to a slave-master relationship. Ephesians 5 clearly states that the idea of submitting is done out of love, just as we submit to Jesus as our authority. And the husband isn't off th...

I'm not one who typically makes confessionals sitting behind the keyboard of a computer. But I must admit that this morning I was moved by a passage of Scripture that I have read countless times. Philippians 2:1-11 has long been a favorite biblical text of mine. In it, an incredible description of humility is framed in the example of Christ. As I was studying it this morning, I did what I usually do - I thought of ways that I could preach it or takes notes in such a way that it could be taught to others. Then, out of nowhere, it was if God hit me right in the heart. How was I being taught by this? Jesus chose not to claim His right as God and willfully came to earth to become a servant for all mankind and as a result died that I might live. As I contemplated this reality I had to ask myself if I was a servant. Sadly, I couldn't think of many ways that my life pointed to servanthood. I'm not saying that I see myself as an overbearing, boorish type of guy who only w...

I just finished (finally) Kevin Roose's book The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University (Kindle Edition) . I've been working through it for over a month now, not because it's a boring read (it is rather fascinating) but probably because I try to read too many books at once and I also have it on the Kindle for iPhone, which means I'm too busy playing with other applications to read. There are lots of guys in the evangelical world who have reviewed this book and I don't intend to tread on their thoughts. For me, this book was noteworthy for both good and bad reasons. First, the good. Kevin Roose, who in the book is a 19-year-old college sophomore at Brown University, decides to transfer to Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA, in order to "infiltrate" their world. He had an earlier experience with some Liberty students that piqued his interest and, against the advice of his family and secular friends, he dives head...

One of the privileges I've had as a father has been baptizing my oldest daughter Chandler last year. My second daughter Reynolds, who is 18 months younger than Chandler, has been asking questions about Jesus since that time but hasn't really expressed an understanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ. Today, Reynolds was riding her Razr scooter in haphazard manner that she usually does when the inevitable finally happened - she wiped out. To make it worse she was wearing a dress and the road rash is all up and down her left leg. Thank the Lord she didn't split her head open. Once things settled down and she was good and cleaned up, she looked at me and said that she wanted me to baptize her but not until her leg got better. I asked her what she thought baptism meant and she asked me to explain because she wasn't exactly sure. When I told her it was a public profession of salvation, she wanted to know what it meant to be saved. I then walked her through ...

Kellie and I are in the process of intentionally finding a new home. I say "intentionally" because we've been window shopping for years but now we are getting serious about it. The parsonage where we live has been great (especially the low rent) but we've outgrown it by a couple of kids and it's time for more space. We are wanting to stay in the area where I minister and it's been challenging finding those properties that aren't buried too deep in the woods (we would like to have neighbors) or aren't outrageously priced. One thing that we have learned over the years is that we have to be ready financially to be where we want to be. If there are too many credit card bills, medical bills, school bills, etc., then that will hurt how much we can borrow and how much we can afford each month for our mortgage. Over the past year or so we've worked diligently to get those areas in order and we have taken a pretty big chunk off of what we owe (who knew...

I love my family. A lot. So much that I think about them all the time. My wife is simply incredible and I don't like being away from her for extended periods of time, although sometimes I have to because of the ministry God has given to me. My 4 kids are unbelievable and I can't wait to see them in the morning and when I get in from work. There are many times when I'm working and I get the uncontrollable urge to go home so that I can be with my family. And that's not too difficult since I live about 50 feet from my office. I'm pretty sure that God loves me in a way that makes my love for my family pale in comparison. After all, He gave up what He loved the most just so that I could be with Him. And then there are the times when I run away from Him and treat Him like dirt, yet He still welcomes me back into His presence with open arms and unconditional love. In fact, He runs to me before I can even make a move. My heavenly Father is absolutely incredible! ...

I've been reading through the book of Ezekiel and there is a lot of stuff in it that reminds me of what's in the book of Jeremiah, Isaiah, etc. That's not a bad thing, it just keeps me on my toes to make sure I don't miss anything "new." Yesterday, I read Ezekiel chapter 16 and discovered something that really grabbed my attention. The whole of Ezekiel 16 is a parable of God and His adulterous wife. Of course, God isn't married in the sense that we know marriage but in a spiritual sense Israel was His bride. He cared for Israel, nurtured and provided for Israel, and was incredibly patient with her. But Israel spent many centuries spurning God's love and basically committing adultery against God. The picture God paints of Israel's unfaithfulness is that of her being not only an adulteress but a prostitute, giving herself away to strange men for pleasure. It strikes me that when God wanted to describe the devastating sin of Israel He used a re...