God’s grace is his undeserved, kind, favor/action toward us (159 times in the N.T.). Pictures of God’s grace seem never-ending.

Exodus 34:6 (NIV)
And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…”

Psalm 145:8 (NIV)
The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. Read the rest of this entry »

I’d like to ask you to connect with me around a VERY serious issue this morning. Before we get there, however, I want you to complete this sentence. “If I was the Christian I should be, my life would look like ________”. This is, and has always been, an important question. Read the rest of this entry »

Paul, in the first seven chapters of 2 Corinthians, is attempting to do many things. He is attempting to help the readers understand his position as an apostle, his authority in bringing God‘s truth to them, and his heart in his ministry to them. He does not want them listening to false teachers. He is ALSO teaching them by his example. Read the rest of this entry »

• Every marriage is God-ordained (Matt 19:6)
• Every marriage is designed to be an example of God’s love for his children – marriage is designed to image the gospel (Eph 5:28-32)
• Every marriage is designed to be permanent (Matt 19:6)
• God hates divorce (Malachi 2:16) (God hates bad marriages)

Malachi 2:13-16 (NIV) – to Judah
Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. “I hate divorce,” says the Lord God of Israel… Read the rest of this entry »

Last week we started our brief study of marriage as we looked at Matt 19 and Ephesians 5. In Matt 19 we find that God designed marriage to be a permanent covenant – “…as long as we both shall life” Read the rest of this entry »

The Bible devotes a fair amount of space to marriage, how we should function within the marriage, the imagery around marriage, etc. The Bible also attempts to correct many of the errors and bad thinking we can easily have. Read the rest of this entry »

When large numbers of people get together they often unify and develop around their commonality. What emerges is a powerful force – culture. Culture is a dominating force that can bend us and twist us and mold us into the image of what it understands to be acceptable, and noble, and admirable, and helpful, and right and wrong. Culture is VERY powerful – it can actually create the way we think. If sin and self drive the people, sin and self will flow through the culture and the culture they create will magnify sin and self. That being said, let’s look at… Read the rest of this entry »

Two weeks ago we opened this topic with a few simple points:

• Men and women are equal.

Genesis 1:27 (NIV)
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Men are NOT more in the image of God than women. Women are as valuable as men. Women are as capable as men. Read the rest of this entry »

Review from last week:

Men and women both have the same status before God

Genesis 1:27 (NIV)
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Nowhere does the Bible “speak” as if men are more in the image of God than women are, or that men are superior to women. Whenever and wherever we see this in our thinking, it is sin. Women are not inferior, women are not less capable, women are not less valuable – that concept doesn’t exist biblically. Read the rest of this entry »

Q – What is a woman’s role in the church?

We are going to spend two Sunday’s on this question. Today we are going to look at the background of this question so we understand it better. Next Sunday we will move into it “head on”.

Culture has always been a dominating force that bends us and twists us and molds us into the image of what it understands to be acceptable, and noble, and admirable, and helpful, and right and wrong. Culture is VERY powerful – it can actually creates the way we think. Cultural norms develop as its people change – the people, in turn, create the culture. Whatever “drives” the people creates the culture. If sin and self drive the people, sin and self will flow through the culture and the culture they create will magnify sin and self. Read the rest of this entry »

Q. – What is the place of the church in politics? Where do we draw the line between submitting to government and following God?

My first point - Those who follow Jesus DO NOT, or at least SHOULD NOT, function as if this country and this culture has an authoritative claim on their identity and their ultimate loyalty. Our identity is tied to the One who gives us life. Our identity is tied to the One who trumps any earthly bloodline… and this is not our home. Read the rest of this entry »

From eternity past that bloody day two thousand years ago was fixed. That singular day when humanity would show up focused and ready to go. That singular day when the people God created to live under his kind and generous hand would display who we had become. That singular day when, what we had been formulating for millennia, would finally move on the One who stood in our way. “If we can just pull it together and get this done we can finally be free.” That’s how dead people talk.

Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps God’s dominant attribute, if there is such a thing, is his holiness.

Isaiah 6:3 (NIV) – Isaiah’s vision of the heavenly court
And [angles] were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

God being holy means that God is completely separate from anything that is not perfect. God cannot look on sin, God will not accommodate sin, sin unleashes the consuming wrath of God. I am a horribly, willfully sinful person. Conclusion – I am destine to face the consuming wrath of God – end of story. No matter how desperate I am, I have no solution to this. Read the rest of this entry »

Q – God basically commits genocide in the Old Testament. For a God that doesn’t change, why does there seem to be such a discrepancy in his behavior between the Old Testament and the New Testament?

If we do not understand the wrath of God, if we don’t get this, and we at best will be nominal Christians. Read the rest of this entry »

Psalm 143:10 (NIV)
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

Q – Does God have a specific significant other for each person? And if so, how do you know he or she is the one God intended when you meet: Where does dating fall into this? How should Christians approach dating? What happens if that specific person dies or you divorce, is there a second person God intends? Read the rest of this entry »