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Visiting Churches

A Return to Meeting in Homes

A Surprising End to a Promising Start Church #7 did indeed relocate, as planned. They’re now a scant 1.3 miles from our home. The move didn’t happen as quickly as they hoped, but it didn’t take that much longer, either. Their new location is an improvement over their old one. Before they met in an […]

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Visiting Churches

Another Cancelled Service

A Failure to Communicate I enjoyed the worship at Church #27 and appreciated their charismatic demeanor. Yet I was also critical of most other aspects of their service. My wife said I had a bad attitude, with my perceptions tainted by a former member who had a painful experience there. He left scarred and disillusioned, […]

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Christian Living

Confusing Words That Mean Different Things to Different People

We Must Be Careful with the Words We Use We must exercise caution with using these confusing words. These terms are more likely to cause confusion than clarity. Consider the word cleave. It can mean to split apart or to come together. If a couple decides to cleave, what does that mean? Are they breaking […]

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Christian Living

Let Us Pray: Fold Your Hands, Close Your Eyes, and Bow Your Head

Discover a Biblical Perspective for Prayer My parents taught me the proper posture for prayer: to fold your hands, close your eyes, and bow your head. These emerged as three steps I must take before I talked to God. I inferred that if I didn’t do all three, the Almighty would not hear me or […]

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Bible Insights

Is Our Relationship With God More Important Than Obedience?

The Old Testament Law Talks about Offering Sacrifices to God, but What If He Wants More? King Solomon writes in the book of Ecclesiastes that we need to be careful when approaching God. “Guard your steps,” he says. This is wise advice. Then he adds something more: “Go near to listen.” He even places listening […]

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Christian Living

We Need to Stop Interpreting Scripture Through the Lens of Our Practices

The Bible Should Inform Our Actions, Not Justify Our Habits Christianity has its traditions and religious practices. We often persist in them with unexamined acceptance. And if we do question our behaviors, we can often find a verse in the Bible to justify them. But that doesn’t make them right. The Lens of Scripture We […]

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Visiting Churches

Confusing Signals but with a Good Result (Visiting Church #35)

Two weeks ago we stumbled upon this church. They are new to us, not coming up in any of our research. Once we know their name, my wife finds them on Facebook, confirming their location, but nothing else. Their denomination’s website lists service times, but no contact information. Candy sends them two Facebook messages (our […]

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Christian Living

Not Another Communion Sunday

We Should Celebrate the Lord’s Supper to Remember What Jesus Did for Us Holy Communion (also known as the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist) is a time of celebration. In this we remember what Jesus did for us when he died in our place for the things we did wrong. In doing so, he reconciled […]