Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda, secundum verbum Dei – The church reformed and always being reformed according to God’s Word. Question for Reflection Do you realize God’s Word and Spirit are always reforming His church by renewing, transforming, and changing us? Resource Image
Church discipline is not just “clearing the membership roll” as if the point were primarily accuracy in bookkeeping. Neither is church discipline designed to be a punishment, as if the church were saying, “We don’t want your kind around here.” Yes, the church speaks of this stage of discipline as the delivering of one to…
As guilty but forgiven sinners, what the powers and principalities of this age say to us is true. But we’ve already been accused; we’ve already been indicted; we’ve been arrested; we’ve been dressed in purple and beaten; we’ve been stapled to a Roman cross; we’ve had the wrath of God poured out upon us; we’ve…
The Great Commission actually begins with a great announcement. Before there can be a mission, there has to be a message. Behind the sending of the church lies the Father’s sending of his Son and Spirit. Before we go, we must stop and hear – really hear – what has happened that we are to…
Christians proclaim the unthinkable. We believe that God became a man, the man Jesus Christ.God, who cannot suffer and die, becomes a man so that he can do the incomprehensible: the God-man dies. In his Son Jesus Christ, the God of life and holiness faces the reality of death and sin. What kind of God…
The Word of God invites us into the unfolding cosmic drama of which we have always played a part, even without being aware of it. Our childhood experiences, triumphs, and tragedies are all part of God’s shaping of our lives, which are, more importantly, about the shaping of His story. When we understand that our…
If one wished to contend with him (God), one could not answer him once in a thousand times. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength —who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?— he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger, who shakes the earth…
Over the years I’ve found much of what I’ve read about prayer to be unhelpful. Here’s why: Prayer is usually considered under the heaving of ‘spiritual disciplines’ which makes it the spiritual equivalent of running on a treadmill or flossing your teeth, neither of which are attractive to me. Viewing prayer purely as a discipline…