Discipleship (Page 6)

Discipleship (Page 6)

Considering the New Birth

Nothing could be more important to us than understanding Jesus’ words to Nicodemus! “Truly, truly, I say to you,” Jesus said, “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “Truly, truly, I say to you,” Jesus said, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again,’”…

Still Cleansing the Temple

Dear Church, this morning I’m re-posting an article by Jack Wellman, pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane, Kansas. Pastor Wellman does a nice job here of succinctly weaving together a number of important details that help explain our Lord’s cleansing of the Temple. His view, which is perhaps the majority view, is that there were two cleansings of the Temple –…

Wine & The Kingdom

It’s the first or the ‘beginning’ of the signs Jesus performed in the Gospel of John. There are seven of them. Frederick Bruner translates the passage this way: “Now on the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Both Jesus and his disciples had been invited to the wedding, too. And when the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus…

The Gate of Heaven

They are among the most fascinating and enigmatic of the Bible’s prophecies: A ladder reaching to Heaven and touching the earth with a multitude of ascending and descending angels; Heaven opened so that God might come down to us and that sinners might arise to Him; One like a Son of Man coming with the clouds of Heaven to stand before the Ancient of Days to receive a…

Be An Andrew!

Andrew is a bit of mysterious figure, unfortunately often lost in the shadow of his larger-than-life brother. We know something about him from the New Testament (all of which is true) and something about him from Church tradition (some of which may be true). However, the picture of Andrew that does emerge from Scripture is altogether lovely and challenging to us as 21st…

The ‘Greatest’ Doubter Who Ever Lived?

John the Baptist is clearly among the most remarkable people who have ever lived.  He was Jesus’ forerunner, preparing the sinners to repent and receive their Messiah. John’s portrait of John the Baptist is quite different from that of the other three gospel writers. We don’t read about how he dressed or what he ate in the Gospel of John. We don’t find him calling folks…

The Word Became Flesh and ‘Tabernacled’ Among Us

John likes symbolism, as even a surface reading of the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ will readily show. But John’s Gospel has its allusions and symbols too. One of these we find in the jaw-dropping declaration of John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen…

A New Creation, A New Garden

“In the beginning was the Word,” is the sublime opening sentence of John’s Gospel. Like the beautiful, yet anxious, faint opening notes of Beethoven’s Ninth symphony, they can barely hold themselves back from the glorious explosion of sound that looms just ahead! “The Word was with God” and “God was the Word” and the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us”: there’s the…

A Bigger Jesus: Introducing the Gospel of John

Last month (April 27, 2019) my wife Mary and I – along with our grandchildren Jacob and Bella – witnessed the most significant event to occur in Somerset Massachusetts in the last hundred years: the great Brayton Point Cooling Towers implosion. At last, the two uber-ugly cooling towers that had so…

Does Less = More?

We all know the feeling. We’re driving down the road and a red ‘dummy’ light illuminates the dashboard. It looks like a child’s drawing of an engine. Fun! So, you call your mechanic; ‘Bring it in,’ he says. Hours later the diagnosis comes: the phenobus has popped out of the whiz-a-ma-gig and, obviously, that means replacing all the fernuthin buttons as well. ‘That’ll be…

Ten Distractions to Watch Out For!

This week we’re thinking about things that can keep us from experiencing the “newness of life” which the Apostle Paul says belongs to us as those who have died, been buried and are now risen with Christ (Romans 6:1-4). Of course, since any sin causes us to break fellowship with God (1 John 1:6), tempting believers to sin is always one of the enemy’s go-to strategies. But…

Considering Jesus, Our Passover Lamb

Our blogs usually focus upon issues of practical discipleship: ‘How can I more effectively follow Jesus?’ But, as we approach Holy Week – Palm Sunday is just days away – I’d like us to turn our eyes solely and deliberately upon Jesus, our suffering Savior. I LOVE the exhortation of Hebrews 3:1! “Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider…

The Shoe Factory

There’s an illustration I heard many years ago. I’m sorry, but I don’t know who wrote it. It tells the story of shoe factory and it goes something like this … Imagine that there’s a large shoe factory in your home town. The management has invested great sums of money and many man-hours into the plant to produce the finest shoes possible. Money has been spent on salaries…

Puzzled Looks from Inside the Warehouse

If you love God’s Word – I mean really love it – you have no doubt encountered other Christians who are decidedly less enthusiastic about it than you are. They may love the fellowship and comradery of gathering together with other believers, or the pageantry and antiquity of the liturgy – if they happen to attend a liturgical church. Or perhaps they love music – hymns or…

Stealing Beauty from True Christian Giving

I love the way Paul speaks to the Corinthians about their participation in the collection he was taking up for the impoverished saints in Jerusalem: “I am not saying this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love …” (2 Corinthians 8:8, NET). “I am not saying this as a command” points up the sanctity of giving as an expression of the believer’s personal…

The Manger, The Cross & Christian Giving

When the apostle Paul was taking up a collection for the suffering believers who lived in Jerusalem, he presented the Corinthians with two examples of generous giving. First, he used the example of the Macedonian churches – Philippi, Berea & Thessaloniki – who gave out of their poverty. They gave generously, even though they had very little to meet their own physical…

When the Day is Done

‘When the day is done,Down to earth, then, sinks the sun,Along with all that’s lost and won –When the day is done’ -Nick Drake- A Witness in Our Biology And so the day is done. Evening is a tender time – a time for offering the day back to my Keeper. What I’ve done this day can never be undone. The moments I’ve spent in it are gone forever. Hopefully, I’ve spent some of…

The Secret of Walking with God

Dear Church, This morning, I’m reposting a wonderful passage excerpted from Secrets of the Secret Place by Bob Sorge that I really wanted us to see. We’ve been talking about the challenges of walking with God at various times of the day: morning, afternoon and evening. This brother deals with the subject of walking with God more generally, but with simple profundity: “God…