Many Christians have never learned to push through the initial sluggishness they feel and lay hold of Christ on a daily basis. ...
Community Groups are the place where we try to cultivate authentic Christian community with one another. That involves pursuing close relationships, meaningful conversations, and deep-rooted commitment....
If we want to be free, we have to embrace the right limitations. ...
The more you become captivated by God’s beauty, supremacy, and love, the more joy you’ll experience as you live for his glory....
When the Bible about the new creation in Revelation 21:1-8, it’s a lot different than the way we typically think about heaven....
So often, the "Jesus" we worship isn't the Jesus of the Bible but rather "Jesus" as we've re-created him to be....
I’ve understood that fasting is an important part of the Christian life. However, I’ve always wondered why. ...
We don't acquire the characteristics of a mature disciple simply by gaining Bible knowledge. In order to grow to Christian maturity, we also have to spend time with people who are spiritually mature themselves, observing their life and having formative conversations with them on a regular basis....
Christian maturity is a lot more than Bible knowledge. It's about growing to resemble Jesus in five areas....
If you want to know why you do the things you do, ask yourself the question, "What do I love?" Human beings are fundamentally creatures who are driven by various loves and desires. These loves and desires provide striking insight into why we do the things we do.In Community Bible Study this week, we looked at Acts 13:4-12. As Barnabas and Saul are sharing the gospel in Pap...
Keep ReadingI often talk about being a "gospel-centered" church. What exactly do I mean by that? Being gospel-centered doesn't just mean that the church affirms a written doctrinal statement that's consistent with the gospel. It means that the gospel message of who Jesus is and what he's done to save us is the functional center of church life. The church should have a deep and abidi...
Keep ReadingI recently attended a Community Block Watch meeting in which a plainclothes narcotics detective gave a very interesting presentation on a variety of different topics related to drug abuse and law enforcement. One of the drugs he talked about was heroin since this is a particular problem in Western Pennsylvania. He cited a number of statistics in order to make the point tha...
Keep ReadingOne thing I appreciate about God is that he's not bound by human constraints or limited by the human realm of possibilities. He can do whatever he wants, wherever he wants, and however he wants to do it. Case in point: Ezra chapter 1. This passage deals with a period of time when the nation of Israel was in captivity because of their disobedience to God. Since they didn't...
Keep ReadingI recently traveled to Delaware Valley Baptist Church in New Jersey for the 44th annual meeting of the Baptist Resource Network. This is a meeting in which representatives from various churches across Pennsylvania and South Jersey gather together to make plans for joining forces and partnering together to reach out both locally and globally. The part of the meeting that m...
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