In this series of articles we are looking at what God’s Word says about community within the church. To facilitate this we have drawn out all of the verses in the New Testament that contain the words “one another” or “each other” and found that they point to four themes: unity, hospitality, devotion and edification.…
Several weeks ago we noticed an industrious pair of robins building a nest in a tree directly outside our bathroom window. Just about a foot below the window and perhaps 8 feet out from the house, in a little crook of a crabapple tree, they built a nest of grass, mud and bits of string.…
It seems that humans are comforted by familiarity and intimidated by the unknown. Perhaps this explains why clichés come into such common use. Or perhaps we are simply lazy and prefer to use a trite statement rather than create something original. The Christian life is filled with cliché. Christians are notorious for speaking “Christianese,” using…
God’s plan for the first relationship involved perfect unity. After awaking from sleep, Adam looked at Eve for the first time and uttered beautiful words that few men have since been able to match in beauty or simplicity, “This is now bone of my bonesand flesh of my flesh;she shall be called ‘woman,’for she was…
I am cast upon a horrible, desolate island, void of all hope of recovery. I am singled out and separated, as it were, from all the world, to be miserable. I am divided from mankind – a solitaire; one banished from human society…I have no soul to speak to or relieve me. We have all…
“I didn’t expect the truth about the Spanish Inquisition.” “NOBODY expects the truth about the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is dishonesty…dishonesty and revisionism…revisionism and dishonesty…. Our two weapons are dishonesty and revisionism…and your reckless apathy…. Our *three* weapons are dishonesty, revisionism, and your reckless apathy…and an almost fanatical devotion to deception…. Our *four*…no… *Amongst*…
Hang on to your hats, because I am about to spiritualize (and very possibly trivialize) one of the great laws of physics. Newton’s Third Law of Motion states, in its simplest form, that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Take a look around and you will see this law in action…
Several years ago the “big thing” in the Christian world was the WWJD movement. If you were attending a church during that time (and even if you weren’t) you probably remember people wearing the little WWJD bracelets. There were also WWJD bibles, albums, videos, books and every other type of marketing material. Though associated with…
J.A. Wylie was a pastor and author who lived in the nineteenth century whose greatest work is the three volume masterpiece “The History of Protestantism.” The first book spends a small amount of time examining early Christian history and how the purity of the original church gave way to the corruption of the Catholic system.…
Last Sunday was Father’s Day. My son spent his morning in our church’s preschool program while my wife and I enjoyed the service. When the service was over, my son came bounding into the auditorium just overflowing with excitement, holding something behind his back. He came to me and told me he had a surprise…
I know so little about love. This thought occurred to me just a few weeks ago and I began to look at love to see what it is and how I can learn to love more and love better. It is no great mystery that the Bible places great emphasis on love. The word “love”…
Matthew 18:19 and 20 are oft-quoted verses that most of us know by heart. Verse nineteen is the favorite of the Word of Faith so-called Christians. It reads “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father…
I was about 18 years old the first time I saw a dead person. My grandmother had unexpectedly suffered a massive heart attack and died just a few days earlier, and now the family was given the opportunity to say “goodbye” to her before the funeral. We were ushered into a room in the funeral…
There has been some controvery in the Forum since I posted my article about How To Hear God’s Voice. Perhaps controvery is overstating it, but people have been asking what I mean by “God’s voice.” This gives me the opportunity to write about something I’ve been meaning to say for a while now. Two Christians…
I sometimes wonder how many people really “get it.” How many people who profess Christ really, truly understand what the Christian life is all about. We love to use little catch-phrases like “I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ” but what does that really mean to us? How many people had personal relationships with…
A few weeks ago I posted a little article about my dad I entitled Working Man Hands. It was dad’s birthday yesterday and in honor of the occasion (the family is celebrating tomorrow) I have touched the story up and am going to post it again. I’m sorry I can’t be there to help celebrate…
There are only a couple of weeks remaining before the US Open takes the spotlight in the world of golf. One of just four major tournaments in the year, it is almost always an exciting one to watch. And as usual, the golf world is already buzzing about Tiger Woods. It seems he has been…
A few days ago I posted a link to the story about the Duggar Family who is celebrating the arrival of their fifteenth child. Though it did not generate much buzz here, in other places across the Net the story became a hot topic as people debated the appropriateness of having fifteen children. The most…
I found the following list on Shane’s Site and thought it was really well done. It is a list of questions the author recommends one asks when searching for a new church home. As I read it a lightbulb went on in my mind. Far too often I think we are a bit embarrassed to…
In our home church (ie. Bible study) we have been studying evangelism over the past four weeks. One thing we seem to keep coming back to is the difference between what our work is and what God’s work is. I guess we often get confused between the parts of the process that God holds us…