“Labor to understand how near your rest is. When judgments, or mercies are far off, we talk of them with little concern; but when they draw close to us, we tremble at, or rejoice in, them” Richard Baxter said. When something is close by, we tend to...
27 And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. 28 And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown...
I’ve always spoken of finding middle ground. Jesus has taught time and time again, that there is always another way. That’s what Jesus' parable of turning the other cheek or carrying a soldier's cloak is implying. I'll get back to these two parables in a second....
Effective Churches Find Balance If the Bible is true, it will critique every culture and every person through the lens of the gospel. That means that everyone will be annoyed by something it says. If the church is straddling the same line in this orthodoxical balancing...
A tale of one people and two cities (Gilead/Jerusalem) and the story that takes them to be one church in Christ. There may be some burdens you've carried that you need to let go of, some battles you still need to fight, in order to claim the...
Where did my church go? When we ask, "where did my So. Baptist church go?" We also have to ask historically, which one are we talking about? When we ask this question we typically have a specific time in mind and it’s usually skewed to a...
All of us have needs and wants. Needs are things that we cannot live without. Wants are things we would like to have. What are some of your needs? What are some of your wants? There are many things we need and want. But sometimes,...
We closed our series out in Hebrews with chapter 13. This book and chapter have given us an excellent lead in to our next book Ephesians as we will see reinforcing statements like love others, serve in oneness, affirming plural eldership, not giving up your faith, remaining...
Let's look at a biblical context for it: Barnabas and Saul Sent Off 13 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger,[a] Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.2 While they were worshiping the...
THABITI ANYABWILE lays out a great process on how to leave your church well. As a pastor I have left numerous churches to continue to pursue God's calling and I have seen hundreds come into and leave churches over the years. I hope this article...
This is a picture of Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance. I find it fascinating that God can equip the human being to not only endure the challenges that Shackleton faced, but contend against them and not run from them. The famous explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew...
Are you struggling with thinking You need to be better, that you're not good enough and each day you set out to try to be better than the next, only to fail? It's probably because you need to learn the difference between being mostly poor...
There isn't a more encouraging passage of Scripture that influences and instructs and challenges the church to embrace who she is than Matthew 5. Before you break down Matthew 5 you have to have the backstory first. You have to see the gospel within it...
Is your idea of love a gospel love? Are we living it? Colossians 1: 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have...
Gospel Prayer Putting it in context: Paul’s purpose in writing the letter to Colosse was to refute heretical teachings that were influencing the Colossian Church. These people were called Judaizers. They were Christians who believed you should follow the law, be circumcised, obey the food regulations and...