We live in a week to week world, especially when it comes to the spiritual life. My guess is that the spiritual EKG of the average church member spikes once every 7 days. We receive a boost of spiritual life through meeting with the body of Christ only to descend from Monday onward. How can you as a church member become a better worshiper in between worship services, and how can pastors help you?
I love following the ministry of Ray Ortlund. I listen to just about every sermon he preaches from his pulpit at Immanuel Nashville. He recently posted a few thoughts I’d love every church member to hear on God, music, and the gospel. Ray, like me, believes that God gifts all humans with abilities that we, as Christians, can glorify God for and enjoy. Here’s a sample of what he shares:
…“The glory and honor
In this blog series “The Bible” my hope is to introduce Christians to some basic claims the Bible makes, resources to aid study, and offer instruction on reading and applying God’s word. This first post asks a fundamental question: who wrote the Bible? I’m not trying to prove divine authorship. I’m just asking the Bible to speak for itself so that new and growing believers may be instructed and encouraged. So, who wrote the Bible?…
A chasm stretches between the words “is” and “does”. Unfortunately, we live in a culture far more interested in “does” than “is”, and this interest negatively affects the way we think about the church. If I were to ask the average church member to tell me about the church I would get hundreds of “does” answers.
This morning I responded to an email from a church member who is in a unique position to do gospel ministry. In our area this past month a young boy took his own life. Now people close to the situation are approaching this church member asking searching questions about life and death. She emailed me asking how she should respond. Below is a slightly altered version of my email response. It isn’t perfect. It isn’t …
This is the second post in a series of posts from a sermon preached on December 14th, 2014 entitled The Wise Men and the Christ Child. Be sure to also read part 1 and part 2.
The Response to the Story
First, come and see just as the Wise Men did. Come and see the one born King. Come and see the one who was cut off for your sakes. Come and look …
This is the second post in a series of posts from a sermon preached on December 14th, 2014 entitled The Wise Men and the Christ Child. Be sure to also read part 1 and part 3.
The Significance of the Story
If you want to understand the Bible you can’t treat it as a dogmatic handbook. It isn’t a bullet point list of “do’s” and “don’ts”. There are certainly times when the Bible is …
This is the first in a series of posts adapted from a sermon preached on December 14th, 2014 entitled The Wise Men and the Christ Child. Be sure to also read part 2 and part 3.
The History of the Story
Bethlehem
The story begins in the little town of Bethlehem. That’s where Jesus, the one born King of the Jews, launched his campaign. Bethlehem really was a little town. It’s located 5 miles …
NERD ALERT: As posts on this site go, this one is in the uber-nerd category. My apologies.
Earlier this week I had to answer the following question in a discussion board for school: Why does the church in NA often struggle with finding a good tension between being in the world but not of it? Other ways to state the question are, “What is the relationship between God and this world” or, “What is the …