Discover 3 Tips of What to Do If Question Your Faith I hear people who have a crisis of faith, who question what they believe. It pains me to see the struggle they’re going through. Yet I’ve never been sure how to help them, except to encourage them to press forward and not give up. […]
Jesus Must Return to Heaven before the Holy Spirit Can Come Ascension Day occurs forty days after Resurrection Sunday (more commonly called Easter). Here is some background. Jesus comes to earth as a man to save us. He dies on the cross as a sacrificial sin offering, dying in our place. On Easter Jesus rises […]
Before 52 Churches, we visited a Messianic Jewish congregation: Jews who believe in Jesus as their Jewish savior, mixing Hebrew tradition with Christian faith. Recalling our time with this first Messianic Jewish congregation, I add another one to my list. Consider these three discussion questions about Church 71. 1. Meeting Saturday evenings, the service at […]
Stop Paying Clergy and Ministry Staff to Do What We’re Supposed to Do Ourselves In part one of Embrace a Fresh Perspective about Church we looked at adopting a new, biblically enlightened view on the role that a church building should play for our spiritual community. Now we’ll continue that theme by looking at church […]
We Should Praise God for the Many Ways He Loves Us Love is a recurring theme in Scripture (686 verses). It shows up in most every book of the Bible (60 out of 66). The word is most common in Psalms (157 verses). Psalm 136 leads the way with 26 mentions of love, all in […]
Today’s passage: John 11:1–44 Focus verse: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.” (John 11:25) Here we have a story of Jesus and three siblings. They are Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Jesus has great affection for them and sometimes hangs out at their […]
Be Sure to Celebrate Your Mom Today and Every Day May we wish our moms, a happy Mother’s Day! In my book Women of the Bible, I explore the lives of biblical women, celebrating their lives and their contribution to the world. Their example can inform our faith journey. I conclude the book with the […]
Before 52 Churches, we visited a Messianic Jewish church: Jews who believe in Jesus as their Jewish savior, mixing Jewish tradition with Christian faith. They met on Saturday nights. The service involved a time of worship and a time of teaching. They concluded with a shared meal. Most of the service was in English, but […]
We Don’t Need a Church Building to Encounter God or Enjoy Spiritual Community So far, we’ve looked at the Old Testament model for church—of building, paid clergy, and tithes—which we still follow today. Then we considered how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament and looked at how the early church functions in the New Testament, considering […]
Some Psalms Ask God to Punish Our Enemies and Those Who Do Evil Many people enjoy reading the Psalms. They appreciate the poetic nature of its words. They find encouragement to persevere and inspiration to strengthen their faith. Many Psalms also lead us into our worship of God. These are some of the best. However, […]