Jesus the Preacher
I grew up in a tradition that treasured good preaching; we had a long list of examples of those who did it. In some cases we thought “good preaching” was a rip-snorting condemning of sin of all kinds. I have come to understand that the real Model that we say we follow did not
Jesus the Teacher
Jesus taught that obeying the commandments is a matter of the heart; He moved beyond the letter of the law to the spirit of the law. He challenged His hearers to look at their own hearts for lust and hate; He redefined idolatry beyond image making to things like serving money and materialism. This
Loving More and More
Most of us have a desire, as an ideal, to love God and neighbor more. This desire is of little consequence as a goal if it finds no ways for practical action. Do we look for ways to express it? Does it generate any concrete deeds? Human need all around us calls love to
Counting Our Days
New years, birthdays, funerals, and other things remind us of how fast our days are passing from us. Disease, disaster and death come and shorten our days. We pray with the Psalmist “O my God,” I say, “take me not away in the midst of my days— you whose years endure throughout all generations!”
Incomplete Stories
I don’t like books or movies that leave me hanging in the end. I like happy endings, or at least endings with a completed story. Stories do not always happen that way. We are all writing our stories. We can die in the middle of our stories; we can die with tasks unfinished and
Burdens
There are burdens that we bore one time and then laid them down. There are burdens that become almost like our companions that we carry all of our lives. There are new burdens before us that hitherto we have not borne. Some are personal and we have to bear them alone. Some are so
Receiving to Give
We receive in order to give. We are not baskets to collect gifts; we are channels through which gifts pass. We are pipes allowing the generosity of God to flow through us. Paul is clear that the gifts of the Spirit are not for our private consumption, but are given to us to serve
Living for Glory
Humans can live for self-glory and know nothing about living for divine glory. Glory is the manifest presence of the Lord. Remember the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night; remember the overwhelming presence in both the Tent of Meeting and the temple where the priests could not come near.
Identity
I am His and He is mine. I am in Him and He is in me. He sought me and found me; when He found Me, I found who I was and who I was meant to be. We are social beings and to a significant degree we are the sum total of all
Seeing Jesus Only
On the Mount of Transfiguration the disciples had to move their focus from three down to one. The two others who appeared had a role, but that role was all tied to the central One. Have you come to the place that Jesus is truly central? Do you stand looking at Him, and loosing
The Story of Jesus
The greatest thing that has ever happened to this planet is the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Schools of learning were born, hospitals were created, the value of humans redefined, helping institutions of all kinds came into being because of Him. Jesus has radically changed our world; He gave it a conscience
We Shall See Jesus
(Connecting Advent and Holiness) There are three verses in Romans 6, taken together, and in context, that give us a concise summary of the whole chapter in regard to sanctification. Romans 6:13,19, 22: “Present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God....For just as
Participatory Sanctification
(Connecting Advent and Holiness) It is interesting to see all the calls to “sanctify yourself” and the others which say the Lord is our sanctifier (Leviticus 11:44 & 20:7-8, Ephesians 5:25-27; 1 Thessalonians 5:24; Hebrews 10:10; 1 Peter 1:1-2 & 3:15). It is obvious the first call is to consecrate ourselves as a gift
Made Ready
(Connecting Advent and Holiness) The church (the bride) is being made ready for our great presentation to our Lord Jesus Messiah. This is being accomplished through the work of sanctification. “So that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and
Sexual Purity and Holiness
(Connecting Advent and Holiness) A sex-saturated culture views sexual satisfaction as its highest good. It will shout all voices down who would challenge it. The NT apostles connected the dots between sexual purity and holiness. (1 Peter 1:14–16, Titus 2:11–14, 2 Corinthians 7:1 as well as many others.) None is clearer than 1 Thessalonians
Holiness as Completion
(Connecting Advent and Holiness) In Matthew 5:43-48 Jesus redefines “Be holy for God is Holy”, to “Be perfect as your Father is perfect.” Perfect in the NT means “complete” or “fulfilling intended purpose”. Jesus recapitulates “be holy” to “be perfect” in love; for Him it was the Great Commandment. We are completed in unconditionally
Hope of Glory
(Connecting Advent and Holiness) “…That is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of
The Great Pursuit
(Connecting Advent and Holiness) “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14 NASB). Some translations say “holiness without which…”; it is best translated sanctification. That is we are to pursue the action and process by which we are made holy. Hebrews 12 starts with
Deification
(Connecting Advent and Holiness) The Eastern Church saw spiritual formation leading to deification. This does not mean that we become gods, but it does mean that we become like the Divine. Sanctification is the action and process of deification; it is our being shaped in the divine likeness. This must be our intentional pursuit.
Ascend and Descend
(Connecting Advent and Holiness) At His first advent He descended to us. When His mission was complete He ascended to His Father. At the end of our earthly lives We ascend to Him. At His second advent we will descend with Him. He descended to gather a people and make them holy; they are
Two Cups
(Connecting Advent and Holiness) At His first advent He came to drink a cup (Matthew 26:39); the one to which He said to His Father, “Nevertheless, not my will but Your will”. He also came to give a cup (Matthew 26:27) of the Lord’s Supper. We will drink it again with Him in the
Incorruptible
(Connecting Advent and Holiness) “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, died, was laid beside his ancestors, and experienced corruption; but he whom God raised up experienced no corruption” (Acts 13:36–37 NRSV). Our bodies will go back to dust, but the day will come “When the perishable
Spirit of Holiness
(Connecting Advent and Holiness) “Concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,” (Romans 1:3–4 NASB). Jesus was the Son of David according
Grace Appeared
(Connecting Advent and Holiness) The advent of Jesus was the appearance of grace. Further, grace trains us to live lives of holiness. If grace is at work in your life, that is what it is doing. Being holy does not mean that we have to live a cloistered life in isolation from the daily
We Call Him Savior
(Connecting Advent and Holiness) "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21 NASB). He brings us salvation; this is spelled out as deliverance from sins. Sin is our sickness, it is our disease, the infection from which we need