The point of the Church is important to understand. We often get it wrong. This blog is a good reminder that the Church does not exist for what the individual members can get out of it, though we often see it that way, especially in a consumer society. The Church is vital to the individual members to be sure! If we allow ourselves to be cut off from the Church, we are cut off from the branches of the vine, which is Christ! As vital as the Church is for each of us, we are vital to the Church and should be bearing the kind of fruit that grows from a Church connected to the vine which is Christ.
Category: Faith
My Redeemer Lives
Do you know who said this? You might be surprised if you don’t know. It wasn’t the person who wrote the song.
This statement is a triumphal statement of faith. We sing it as a joyful pronouncement of gratitude and proclamation of our confidence in God. These words convey hope. They are a reflection of overcoming faith, but there is much more to the story. Continue reading “My Redeemer Lives”
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Were They Greater Sinners?
“[D]o you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were greater sinners[i] than all the men who live in Jerusalem?” (Luke 13:4)
Before you read ahead and I give the answer, consider that this statement was made in the middle of very seemingly harsh statements by Jesus. Continue reading “Were They Greater Sinners?”
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Chosen in Him
“[H]e chose us in him before the foundation[i] of the world….” (Eph. 1:4) God foresaw and foreknew us and had plans for us from the beginning.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them. (Ps. 139:16)
God has brought you to this place; or more accurately, God foreknew you in this place. Whether you feel like you have been following God, God has been leading you, or you are just wandering in the wilderness, you are where God knew you would be from before the creation of the world when God chose you.
We think in terms of home and destination, but the fact is that we are on a journey. We are not home, and our destination is not a place that we can get to on our own.
Continue reading “Chosen in Him”
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Our Father
“Our Father…” (Matt. 6:9) begins the only prayer that Jesus taught. God the Father, the maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen, the God who exists before and beyond time and space Continue reading “Our Father”
