We walk inside to an empty lobby and head toward an amplified sound. We slink into a back row. Sunday school must be running late, but we find out that they cancelled church. Consider these four discussion questions about Church #36: 1. The speaker acknowledges the presence of visitors. He apologizes that there will be […]
Heed the Call to Rebel Against Status Quo Religion All my life I’ve attended church, and throughout that time I always felt like I was on the outside looking in. Although participating in a faith community, I never truly felt part of it. For the first years of my life this was because those on […]
The Bible Tells Us to Not Give Up Meeting Together, but We Often Miss the Point As we persevere in our faith, one aspect of this is to not give up meeting together (Hebrews 10:25). Many people interpret this verse as a command to attend church. It isn’t. Not really. While meeting together could include […]
Understanding the Weaker Vessel When Paul talks in the Bible about marriage, I struggle with his words because he was a bachelor. What does he know about the subject? Peter, on the other hand, was married so I give more credence to what he says on the subject. Even so I struggle a bit when […]
Stop Asking If You Can Do Something and Start Asking If You Should We have freedom through Jesus. Do we believe this is true? How does this idea inform our day-to-day actions? We’ll do well to consider this thought to determine the best way to apply it to our lives. As children, our parents taught […]
The 10 Lepers There is a story of Jesus dealing with ten lepers (leprosy is an infectious skin decease that eats away the flesh). Keeping their distance, as was the practice of the day, they call out to Jesus for help. Jesus tells them to go present themselves to the priest. (It was also the […]
Dr. Luke Describes 3 Characteristics of the Acts 4 Church The book of Acts unfolds as an historical narrative of the early church, the activities of the first followers of Jesus and those who join them. For the most part, Acts simply describes what happens, with little commentary and few instructions for proper conduct. While […]
An Act of Commission is an Act We’ve Done When I think of being punished, be it by God or people, I think in terms of things I do wrong. That is, doing things that I shouldn’t have done. Some people call this an “act of commission.” They are things I have committed. However, there […]
The Great Three in One: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Most Christians comprehend God as Trinity, a singular entity existing as three persons: Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit. This is confusing, but recall that Jesus says, “the Father and me are one” (John 10:30). Another time Jesus tells his disciples to baptize people “in […]
What if Jesus Never Intended His Followers to Form a Church as we Know it Today? I looked at where the Bible talks about the kingdom of God and where it talks about church. What I learned is shocking. Jesus teaches about the kingdom of God, not church. These are New Testament Considerations Both the […]