In Spirit and Truth

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Romans 3:23-24 There is something quite offensive about this verse, and many others like it. The Bible pulls no punches when it comes to our ability to fulfill God's requirements for righteousness. According to scriptures, the tattle-tale and the terrorist are united by a common bent to sin. The manipulator and the molester share the same condition. The prideful and the predator, the arrogant and the adulterer, the hypocrite and the heathen – they all suffer the same sin-induced separation from God, and they all have just as much chance to be justified by the Grace of God through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. I don't know where I got it, but somewhere in all my years of attending church, I acquired a sense that God loved me more simply because I went to church. Oh, I knew we said that Jesus loved everyone, but su...

Mark 4:35-5:43 Peter grew up on the sea, an accomplished fisherman, a skill he learned from his father, and father's father. But this day Peter was about to face waves he had never before seen, created by a storm he could not navigate. It all started with a simple enough request. Jesus said to his disciples, "Let us go to the other side." Peter had made this journey hundreds of times, but today was different. As they made their way across the sea, a violent storm rose up, a storm so violent that these seasoned fishermen feared for their lives (4:38). But this storm was only the beginning of their wild ride. With a word, Jesus stilled the storm. Safe on land, amazed, bewildered, and thankful to be alive – the disciples stumbled out of the boat. They came out of one storm, only to walk straight into another, a man who could no longer control himself, nor be controlled. His compulsions had taken over, and he had given into his demons. This was the last place they wanted to b...

There are some who believe that when you become a Christian everything will turn out all right. I have known many who accepted Christ joyfully, but became disillusioned because life continued to be hard. But Jesus never promised us that life would be easy. God never assured us that we would avoid pain. In fact, Jesus said exactly the opposite. John 15:20, "No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also." And in John 16:33, "I have told you these [difficult] things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." In this is our hope: Not that all our problems will disappear, but that the one who faced these problems, and overcame them, walks with us. Now, I know that no one here believed that life would right itself as soon as you accepted Christ. So why write this article? Many times in my own life I faced a difficult situation, and prayed for God to remov...

2 Timothy 4:1-5 I will admit to you, I am not an avid sports fan, but I do enjoy a good game. Last night was the best Super Bowl I have ever seen. One play stood out to me, as I’m sure it did to you, above all the rest. At the end of the first half, with the Cardinals set to score, James Harrison, a Pittsburgh Linebacker, intercepted the football and ran from the Cardinal’s end zone to his own. 100 yards of improbability played out for the whole country to see. James is a professional athlete, in constant training! But, his training focuses on being a linebacker. He doesn’t train for speed or distance; he trains for defense and hard blocking! No one would have a second thought if he intercepted it and only made it twenty yards. He still would have accolades and the appreciation of many fans. The terrible towels would still wave. But James made a decision to go as far as his legs would take him. He pushed the limits of his lung capacity (as seen after the fact as he lay gasping in the e...

We speak often about making disciples by sharing God’s love, one person at a time. This is our mission, and one of the two main purposes of our existence. But why is this sentence so much easier to say than to implement? It all has to do with your eyes. Pastor Cindy recently ditched the glasses in favor of a new way of seeing. She now has contacts that are training her eyes to see one eye at a time. One for distance, and one for close up. She told me it was going to take from two to four weeks for her eyes to adjust. Right now everything is blurry, but in time she should be able to see more clearly without the hassle of glasses. In order to accomplish our mission, we too have to ditch our current way of seeing in favor of a new worldview. We need to train our eyes to see that we are ministers of reconciliation for God, and that we, and no one else, are responsible for sharing God's love. We need to train our eyes to see the hurt, confusion, and disillusionment of those around us, a...

Psalm 147:11 “the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.” Psalm 149:4 “For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.” You have probably heard the words, “God loves you,” a few hundred times. But did you know that God likes you?! Not only does He like you, but He delights in you! I know, I know…It took me a while to believe too! But God really enjoys being around you! If we could wrap our minds around this amazing truth, being a disciple of Jesus would be so much easier! It is hard to find the time to pray, or spend time in the scriptures, or fast, or…well you get the picture. It becomes even harder when we think that we are approaching a God with His arms crossed, foot tapping, and eyes glaring, because He knows how long it’s been since we were last with Him. But this is not the picture that Scripture gives us of God! Romans 8:15 tells us that we were freed from fear, and released into being chosen by God. “For yo...

It is one of the oldest and longest running issues in the church. How shall we worship? For those earliest Jewish followers of Jesus, it must have come as some surprise that Gentile believers didn’t worship the way they did. The Apostles decided at the council at Jerusalem (Acts 15) what things were and were not essential. Much later, we see the battle shift focus from cultural laws to spoken language. In what language shall we worship? Again history repeats itself and it was decided that each people group could worship in their own language. Even the churches that historically resisted have now come to the same conclusion. Today the battle has shifted from language vernacular back to cultural vernacular and we are faced with the question, "How shall we worship?" We could easily fall into the mindset that pervades history, and declare that worship should look for everyone like it looks for us. But that mindset is not a biblical one. Scripture dictates the content of our worsh...