Have you ever had a teacher who was convinced he or she knew everything? I know I have. I recall a professor who taught us out of a book and then proceeded to tell us that most of the book was wrong. She based this only on her own experience, not on research she had…
A Jesus Centered Community of Scripture, Faith, and Grace
Church Blog (Page 65)
This is an important question that all too often we neglect to answer for our neighbors around us. How is your experience of Jesus and His Church somehow valuable to you? Our culture (both in its secular and parochial manifestations) has done a phenomenal job of denigrating the word “religion” to mean something that has…
Because of Christ, you are alive. If you were left to your own devices, you would be dead in your trespasses; but because of Christ, you are alive. End of story, some might say. But is it really? Not in the slightest. Yes, as Paul says to the Ephesians, “by grace you have been saved…
God brought the Israelites out of Egypt. He provided them with food and water in the desert. They owed their very lives to him, and yet “the people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no…
We have been made holy. This has occurred because God chose us and because he demonstrated it for us through the holiness of others. Jesus, holy above all others, was our ultimate example. He had great zeal for the house of the Lord (John 2:17), but much greater zeal did he have for us. Although…
It is my birthday this week. And in that vein, I look to the immortal words of the rapper 50-cent (at least the ones that I can quote here): “Go shawty, it’s your birthday. We gon’ party like it’s your birthday. We gon’ sip Bacardi like it’s your birthday . . . “. 50-cent’s song…
1st Corinthians 1:30-31 says this: “Because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” This tells us that we are in Christ Jesus. Through him, we have been redeemed…
Exodus 20:1-17 is a list. This list is uncomfortably long and descriptive. If there ever was a demonstration of the word “Law,” this is it. The list, of course, is the 10 Commandments. “You shall have no other gods before me. … You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.…
The Bible has a lot of great news for us. Consider John 3:16, for example. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Wonderful! Or consider Matthew 11:28-30. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and…
We are included in the family of God as spiritual descendants of Abraham. We are included in the plan of God as his chosen ones to share his good news. This is wonderful! God has gone out of his way to include us when it would have been much easier to do it all on…