Category: Bible

Bible, Christian Living

Blessed are the Pacesetters (1)

Chris

Driving has become a vital element to our daily lives. Many of us commute to work, and though mass transit has found a greater role in recent years, we often still find ourselves driving a portion of the distance. We also drive to our supermarkets, Wal-Marts, shopping malls, sports events at professional and pee-wee levels, friends’ houses, family reunions, etc. Without our vehicles, we would be “trapped” within a short distance from our birth places.

Instead, we get to enjoy the open road. Of course, some locales are more open than others. You wouldn’t consider rush hour in any major city to be the open road. But you would find yourself in steep competition to get ahead, to move further in less time than the vehicle next to you.

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Bible

Reflections on Ezekiel 47:12

Chris

I had the privilege of preaching again on Sunday, January 25th. I had actually written the sermon for a service back in February of last year, but at the last minute decided that it wasn’t right for the audience or the setting. Instead, it became the jump off point for my latest book project.

As our pastoral staff prepared for the coming of 2009, our lead pastor was searching for a theme for the year. In October we relaunched our home groups program by team-preaching on three of the tribes of Israel. One of those sermons was about Joseph, and the topic of the message was Fruitfulness. Out of that message came three words: fruitfulness, increase, addition. From those words came our theme for 2009: Fruitfulness: Living lives of increase and addition. With the lead pastor ready to launch the theme, I found the opening I needed to preach a sermon entitled, “The Useless Tree.”

Now, I’m not going to tell you a lot about that message because you can listen to it if you’d like. Instead I’d like to share some extra thoughts that came out of a time of prayer this past Sunday night. We have started a four-week emphasis on prayer on Sunday nights, and I quickly found myself jumping into a routine that I enjoyed in a previous church. Out of that time of prayer came the following reflections on Ezekiel 47:12.

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Bible

Give Me A Reason

Chris

My wife and I often find ourselves in different rooms in the house during the day. She’s kind of a neat freak and baker, and I’m more of a computer-book nerd. When we get in our individual modes, she’s usually off in the kitchen and I’m in my home office. My office doesn’t have a traditional door, just a couple of curtains hung in the open thruway. So when she has the radio on up in the kitchen, I get bits and pieces of what she’s listening to while I’m trying to do my own thing.

She was recently listening to a radio program, and the speaker mentioned how when he had honest questions about God and Christianity, those around him who were Christians failed to fulfill a task we should all be ready for.

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Bible, Christian Living

What else could it be? Questions about sickness.

Chris

This week I’ve been thinking about my father-in-law.  Most of you wouldn’t know him from Adam, so I think I’m safe discussing things here.  Actually, he is on our minds a lot.  Why?  Because he’s dying.  There’s no easy way to come around to it, it’s just a matter of time. 

A few summers ago he had a series of strokes and possibly heart attacks that so ravaged his body that the doctor’s never expected him to live.  But he came out, for the most part, with little consequence.  About a year ago he had surgery for colon cancer, and they removed as much as they could; some was still near the spine, and that has since made it into his bone.  And now a genetic disease, Huntington’s Disease, that most of us knew would be kicking in, has come on full force and is taking his mind.

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Bible, Christian Living

Eyes on the Prize

Chris

It’s the “dog days of summer” now, and though baseball is making it’s way to the playoffs, most other professional sports are on hiatus.  In the (American) football world, the CFL just recently hit the regular season, while the NFL just started its preseason.  The NHL and NBA are on their off-season, while the WNBA is getting going again.  There is talk of drafts, free agents, trades, contracts . . .

But what is the goal of every game, every player transaction, every contract and every move?  To win a championship.  In the world of sports, it is easy to identify the prize, and equally obvious what it means to keep your eyes on the prize.

We as Christians also have a “prize.”  There is a goal that we should be living for.  That prize is Heaven.

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Bible

Eternal Roles 4

Chris

There is just one more role that we should examine.  If you have questions from the previous post, this might actually help answer some of those for you.  The basis of our ability to rule/judge in eternity is because of this last role.

If you thought that these were acts reserved for God alone, we have to take one thing into consideration.  For we know that Christ is King and Judge, and He receives those roles Himself because He is the Son of God.  But we, too, are sons, adopted as if we were born of the Father Himself.  Therefore we are joint-heirs with Christ.

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