It's About Grace

Grace is the source and spring for our experience of God's love and for expressing our faith in God through Jesus Christ. Grace entirely is God's gift to us and work in us! This happens through God's presence with us in Jesus and through Jesus' giving himself for us in his sacrifice for us on the Cross. God entered into all of human experience, both the best and the worst, and in this a bridge is made between us and God. Despite our unworthiness and sinfulness, God provides a way through Jesus that restores our relationship with God, making us (as Pope Gregory the Great emphasized) "friends of God." This is all God's doing and it depends completely on God's power, love, and goodness. It's all about grace!

It's About Faith

Love is the power of faith, and belief is the engine of faith. It is an immersion into an experience of God that happens when we trust Jesus, which means giving our lives to him! Believing in Jesus is to encounter the living God and this encounter affects everything about us! In fact, it actually makes us who we are. As Rich Mullens sings, "I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am. I did not make it, it is making me! It is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man." We are like instruments played by a master musician, or paintings created in the distinctive style of a great artist. After all, life is about faith!

It's About Love

Love is the power of faith in Jesus Christ! It is difficult at times to understand how God is working in our lives, especially when things get tough. We may question why God allows us, others, and the world to suffer pain and problems, but our experience of God's love for us is what sustains us and carries us through. Without love (as the Apostle Paul says) our faith and our actions mean very little, but with love everything in our lives becomes significant and meaningful in God's plan, even those difficult things we all must face. Love -- God's love! -- is the "heart" of our relationship with God.

Starting With Need And Ending With Beauty

 Most people come to God because of a need in their lives. We seek God's help in dealing with a problem or crisis that we cannot handle ourselves. This is natural, and God graciously receives and responds to us with love and compassion. But God uses this as the starting point for calling us to a much fuller and meaningful relationship with him. God also is seeking us, and through our needs God invites us to know him not only as the God who meets us in our difficulties, but also as the God who wants to walk with us as a constant and loving presence in every aspect of our lives. When we know God this way, we live life in a growing awareness of God's love and always are responding to God with gratitude, thanks, and praise.

Purity Of Heart Is To Will One Thing

 Often Christians approach their commitment to Jesus in a casual, even half-hearted, manner. This is not what God wants for us. God wants us to put as much or more energy and dedication in following Jesus as many people devote to things like their careers, possessions, and even their hobbies. Those things are important, but Jesus wants us to make him and following him our first and foremost commitment in our lives. We can't serve God when our hearts and efforts are directed toward the things of this world instead of toward God. There is only one God, and all our interests in life are to be place under God's reign and used for God's purposes!

Sweet Child Of God

 The infinite God loves each one of us without limits! The very reason God became human and lived among us in Jesus is what Jesus himself said, "to seek and save that which was lost"! Jesus came not just to identify with us but to rescue us from our sin and rebellion and bring us back to what we are created from the very beginning to be - a loved and blessed child of the living God. Yes, God accepts and loves where we are, but in Jesus God seeks to bring us from where we are to where God wants us to be. When any of us allow Jesus to rescue us from our indifference, rebellion, and rejection of God in our lives, this is a cause for great celebration. Jesus tells us that all heaven is filled with joy, led by the Father of us all who sent Jesus to find us and bring us back to him safe and sound.

Touched Straight

 All of us carry burdens in our lives that can weigh us down, keep us from reaching our potential, and make us "bent." We try to deal with these the best we can, and for some of us, we become overwhelmed and unable to function in healthy ways. Jesus is the one who lifts us up straight and enables us to live free from whatever guilt, mistakes, or regrets that are too heavy for us to carry. These things do not magically disappear or cease to have never happened, but Jesus reminds us of the person God created us to be and calls us to walk in the mercy and grace given to us by Jesus' touch, which is his sacrifice for us on the Cross. We are not redeemed and made new by our good works, but we are redeemed and made new by Jesus' good work for us!

Hands For Healing

 God, the Creator of all, takes notice of us, comes to us, and lifts us up from those things that paralyze us. God comes to walk with us so that we may be able to walk with God. Now, what God has done for us is meant to be the model for us as well. We do not ignore or walk by those who are immobilized and weighed down in the heavy burdens of shame and guilt. Rather, as we walk with God, we are to take notice of those who are hurting, who are in need, and who need what we have in Jesus Christ. Like the apostles Peter and John, we may not have worldly wealth or political power, but we are able to offer that which only those who walk with God can give, that is, a new and eternal relationship with God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, we say "rise up and walk."

Wrestling With God

 The Greek philosopher Socrates said that the first step in being truly alive is to "know thyself." This sounds nice, and many people today talk about getting to know who they really are as if this is an enjoyable journey of self-discovery. But in reality, this is a daunting and difficult path. In Socrates case it brought him into conflict with the Athen's leaders, who then order his execution. In the ancient Isrealite Jacob's case, he had to be dragged by God kicking and screaming (almost literally) to face himself. To truly know ourselves, we must acknowledge our less attractive actions and admit our far from noble desires. Before we can be free to be the good and splended people God created us to be, we have to first let God break the chains of sin and self-centerness. This is hard. This is not fun. And this means we all, like Jacob, must at some point "wrestle with God"!

Know God/Know Self; No God/No Self

 We live in a world that is both challenging and confusing. There are pressures to conform to cultural and societal expectations, and in all this we can lose sight of who we really are and what we should aspire to be. Only in knowing God can we know our true identity, for God speaks to us through the Word, the Bible, and through the Living Word, Jesus Christ. The Word reveals to us that it is God who made us, and it is God who speaks to us in the Word to guide us in the midst of the swirling illusions of this world.

A Most Reasonable Leap

 Faith is trust, first and foremost! For trust to be reasonable and true, there must be an object that is trustworthy - and God is the most trustworthy of all! Jesus shows us that God is for us and wants to be active in our lives, so through Jesus, God walks with us as we live out our life's journey. In this walk we learn to know the very nature and character of God. This gives us the content of our faith, the essentials of our confession of what we believe. However, faith is living and dynamic only when our beliefs spring from our experience of trusting God in life's ups and downs. Faith truly is a walk - a journey of trusting God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit!

Walking In, With, and Toward Wonder!

 The Church, the fellowship of those who follow Jesus, is so much more than just another human organization. It is formed by God through the living Word, Jesus Christ, and the written Word, the Bible, to bring reconciliation and restoration to people in their individual lives and in their life together! All who name the Name of Jesus are on a journey together. This is a journey of becoming what God has designed us to be from before the creation of the world. We are blessed and gifted through Jesus to display the awesome power of God in a group of humble people who receive God's grace, live by God's grace, share God's grace, and offer God's grace!

Evidence In The Text

 The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the foundation for believing in Jesus as Savior and Lord. Of course, the question is how can we trust that this event really happened? However, a look at the scriptures with an open mind and open eyes reveals that believing Christ is risen from the dead is a very reasonable conclusion. Of course, proof is not in the reasoned consideration of the evidence, but in the openness to encountering the risen Lord here and now where we are. Jesus is not simply a logical end to a curious inquiry, no matter how interesting and fascinating such a quest may be. He is the one who brings us into an experience of God that transforms our lives and through us transforms the world.

Either/Or

 Jesus doesn't speak or act in a way that doesn't call for response on our part. His claims to be the fulfillment of all history and the embodiment of the Presence of God demand that we either accept them as true and then commit ourselves to his rule and ways in our lives, or we reject his claims and dismiss him as a delusional but at best a well-intentioned charlatan. There is no room to admire him as a just a wise religious teacher. So, either we can escort him to the periphery of our lives and consider him an interesting curiosity -- or we must make our lives entirely about him and seek to follow him as our Lord and Savior.

More Than A Myth

 The story of the Israelites in Egypt and their deliverance by God from slavery is the foundational narrative for both Judaism and Christianity. The Exodus account gives us our understanding of who God is and God's work of redemption. Jesus uses it as the framework for his teaching, his identity as God's Son, and it informs us in how we are to understand his sacrifice for us on the Cross. As the apostle Paul declares, "For Christ, our Passover lamb. has been sacrificed." Therefore, it is important for our faith that this story be based in actual historical events. Many scholars (and misinformed followers of these scholars) dispute there being any historical basis at all. It is my contention, along with many others of impeccable credibility, that there is solid archeological evidence for the biblical narrative. It is a terrific truth and not a tall tale!

Honoring The Emperor --- God's Way

Christians always have had to consider how best to relate to the authorities in their society. Regardless of whether the government is democratic or dictatorial, ruled by a king or by popular consensus, there has been the question of how much a follower of Jesus should be supportive or subversive and when to be which. This precisely is the issue being addressed by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans. In the heart of a great but oppressive empire, the new believers in Rome were figuring out what it means to be a follower of Jesus being ruled by pagan (and at times even anti-Christian) governmental officials. Paul urges the believers to trust that even pagan rulers were part of God's "gift" of government, to be the best of all citizens, and to apply the power of God's love to their involvement in the institutions of society.

Designed For Destiny

Creation is one of the greatest affirmations of our value and worth as individuals. God's purpose in creating all things is to give us life that shows his nature of love. In the light of the stars and the wonder of our world we can see the signs of God's providence and care for each and every individual human being who has ever lived and will live. So we are not simply random accidents in the chance happenings of an aimless universe. Rather we are intended by God to exist and to live our lives in the purpose God designed for us in God's mind even before the beginning of the world.

All Existence Is Relative --- To The Triune God!

God is dynamic and relational because God is within himself a community of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yet God is not three beings. modes, partners, or expressions, God is one being and each of the three persons is fully God. This understanding of God tends to bend our minds a bit. That is because it is not an idea thought up by some religious philosophers, but rather it is a reality we discover because of Jesus. God the Son comes to us in the man Jesus, and through our relationship with him we come to know the Father and the Spirit. This is why Christianity is relational before it is religious, because our understanding of God is all "relative" to our experience of Jesus as completely divine as the Son of God and as completely human as Jesus of Nazareth.