Pastor's Blog (Page 24)

The Global Impact Celebration (GIC) is almost here! So this Sunday we’ve asked guest speaker Dr. Bill Jones to whet our appetites for all things missions. We’ll be pausing our journey through the book of Galatians for these next 4 Sundays. Actually, however, you might say it’s not so much a pause as it is an opportunity to flesh out (catch the…

Hypocrite. What a stinging indictment! In the letter to the Galatians, Paul charged some people with hypocrisy. Ouch! No doubt you’ve seen the masks ancient Greek actors wore on the stage: a smiling mask for when they recited lines of comedy, and a frowning mask for when they spoke of tragedy. The actors who wore these masks had their true identity hidden so that they…

Ever heard of Diocletian? He was the emperor of Rome from 284 to 305. What was his claim to fame? He sent an edict around the Roman empire in 303 that all Christian scriptures were to be gathered up and burned.1 Then, over a burned and extinguished Bible, Diocletian built a monument on which he wrote these triumphant words: Extincto nomene Christianorum (“The…

And they were glorifying God because of me.Galatians 1:24 What a wonderful life outcome! People were glorifying God because of Paul.1Not so with these: They took little thought for God’s glory. Only their own. You can tell a lot about something by who gets the credit. If people are glorifying God, it’s probably the real thing (e.g., Luke 17:15; Acts 4:21). Conversely, if…

Twenty years have now passed since those 2,977 lives were mercilessly snuffed out by heinous perpetrators of terrorism. Do you remember the spiritual shock waves that reverberated across our nation in the weeks and months after 9/11? People were suddenly conscious of God. And their mortality. And how they were living. At least for a season, people prayed, supported…

I guess some folks think the Ten Commandments are too narrow, irrelevant, or just plain passé. Because quite a few have made attempts to improve on them. After all, in our age of enlightenment, and considering how far we’ve come since Moses, surely we could crowd-source a better decalogue, don’t you think? Here are some proposed alternatives: This Sunday we begin a new…