Peter Perry

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9) “Who me?” you might say. “Yes, you! I choose you!” Read the verse above again: yes, that’s you, that’s St John’s, that’s everyone who trusts God saves through Jesus! As people with high status (“a royal priesthood!”) before the God of the universe, we are free! How will we express our...

Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! How can I persuade you to put your ultimate hope in Christ and his resurrection? By “hope,” I mean the reason you have to think something better is in the future. Hope is whatever gets us up in the morning thinking today might be better than yesterday. Hope sends us to work thinking we’ll do some good in the world. Hope fills the hearts of students that they’ll learn something new. (OK, I’m idealizing a little here.) Hope brings us to the ballot box to...

I find myself saying to people, “You can’t control other people, you can only control yourself.” Maybe a little obvious. It’s an attempt to redirect frustration with the decisions other people make to focus on what decisions we can make. Rather than become angry and powerless about things we can’t change, we focus on changing ourselves and our habits of thought and action. Self-control is within our reach. If a friend or family member asks us to participate in something we are uncomfortable...