The Holy Spirit’s Role in the Coming of Jesus
We often associate the Holy Spirit with the beginning of the church in Luke’s second volume, the book of Acts. What is interesting is that the Holy Spirit also played a key role in kicking off Luke’s first volume, the Gospel of Luke: Luke 1:15 – John the Baptist will be filled with the Holy […]
Review of Logos “How to Read the Bible” Collection – Part 3
The third book in the Logos “How to Read the Bible” Collection is Stan Guthrie’s “All That Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us“. Guthrie takes the majority of questions Jesus asked during his ministry and weaves them into an investigation of the identity and mission of Jesus Christ. In later chapters […]
What Does It Mean To Lay Down Your Life for Your Brother? 1 John 3:16-18
“16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be […]
Loving Those On the Margins
Be very careful to never marginalize others. Jesus frequently took people from the margins, excluded from their community, into fellowship with himself: the 12 disciples, the woman at the well (and all her neighbors), the woman with the perfume, Zacchaeus, you and me. Remember that prior to our salvation, we were dead in sin. When Christ […]
Living Inside Out: Guest Post by Adelle Gabrielson
“If thou indeed derive thy light from heaven, then to the measure of that heaven-born light, shine…in thy place and be content.” ~William Wordsworth Every Sunday morning, my family would go out to breakfast before church. I remember one of those Sundays in particular when my father suddenly looked up at me across the table […]
Do Not Just Be Yourself!
You hear it all the time, “Just be yourself” or “don’t try to be someone you are not.” Self expression is popular. Give a kid a school uniform and she will find a way to make it her own. Uniformity is not seen as a plus. That’s why people talk about solutions being outside the […]
Options for Declining Churches
On this good Friday, I want to talk about how God can take death and turn it into life when it comes to churches in decline. There are a lot of churches that have been in decline for some years. Churches shut their doors every single week. There are churches that used to be 400 […]
Easter, Bodily Resurrection and the Immortality of the Soul
One really common belief across religions is that existing comes with an inalienable right to continue to exist in perpetuity (forever). That is called the immortality of the soul. That view didn’t come from Judaism or Christianity but from the Greeks. Socrates and Plato both influenced this idea and it has had a heavy influence in […]
Kids, Play and the Power of Narrative
I have been reading Donald Miller’s book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, highly recommend it. This book is Miller’s reflection on working with producers on the movie version of Blue Like Jazz. Turns out, life isn’t like the movies…most of us wouldn’t make good movie characters. As Miller reflects on their take on […]
Seeking God’s Will is Tough
When it comes time to make a big decision it can sure be confusing. Is it difficult because God wants me to persevere through trials or is it difficult because God is trying to tell me there is a different path? Is success a sign to keep doing what you are doing or does it […]