The Church of Jesus Needs to Focus on Three Things and Master Them All In our normal usage, church is a building, a place we go to—often on Sunday mornings. I’ll be there later today. Other definitions for church include a religious service, organized religion, and professional clergy. Yet a more correct understanding is that […]
We Must Consider What Our Life Produces The word fruit appears nearly two hundred times throughout Scripture. Coupling the word fruit with the word bear, as in bear fruit, bears fruit, and bearing fruit occurs twenty-nine times, split between the Old and New Testaments. Jesus often talks about the fruit that people bear, with the […]
Discussing Church 22 This church meets in a newer, contemporary building. It’s most inviting. Consider these four discussion questions about Church #22: 1. Many people introduce themselves. Their genuine interest, without being pushy, refreshes me. They ask our names, which they repeat with care. When they share theirs, they pause, giving us time to hear […]
We arrive at the church to a bustle of activity. Only a few people are sitting; most mill about, socializing. Many make a point of introducing themselves, genuinely interested in meeting us. Names are important to them. They repeat ours, deliberate and intentional. When they share theirs, they pause, allowing time for us to truly […]
Disunity Today Hurts the Cause of Jesus In our consideration of words that appear only in the New Testament, we come across Pharisees and Sadducees. Two related words are Zealot and Nazarene, along with Essene. Pharisees Appearing ninety-nine times in the New Testament, the Pharisees receive the most attention. They were a righteous group of […]
Our Actions and Our Words Determine Our Reputation In the post “They’ll know we are Christians by our love” we talked about the importance of our Christian witness. This is best accomplished by our love and our unity. Unfortunately, the world rarely sees our love and unity. Instead we model hate and disagreement. That’s what […]
God Calls Us to a Faith That Produces Fruit Two reoccurring themes in the Bible are the ideas of being faithful and being fruitful. We are to be faithful and fruitful. The word faithful occurs over two hundred times in the Bible and shows up in most of its books (41). The word fruitful occurs […]
Dividing the Church by Forming Denominations Isn’t Biblical, and It’s Time to Move Past It Jesus prayed for our unity, that we would be one—just as he and his father are one. He yearned that his followers would get along and live in harmony. Dividing into religious sects wasn’t his plan. Yet that’s exactly what […]
We are to go out and preach repentance under the power of the Holy Spirit After Jesus calls his disciples, he trains them and then sends them into the world. He gives them five simple instructions: Go Out To be effective Jesus’s disciples can’t hang out with each other. They need to go out into […]
The List of Faith Essentials Is Short, a List of Only One Item Two thousand years ago the religious leaders, called Pharisees, heap a bunch of manmade requirements on the backs of the people so they can be right with God. Some scholars place the number at over 22,000 regulations, far more than the 613 […]