The church of Jesus Christ is not a building, it is not a denomination; it is the body, all the believers who dedicate their lives to God, who live in the kingdom of God here on earth, who want to be part of the mind of Christ.[1] The apostle Paul describes how every part of […]
Recently, two dissenting readers sent comments that startled me. The first wanted to know if this was an Adventist site. And the second was disgusted with what I wrote. I get comments like the second one from time to time and I often try to start a dialogue with the person to see if […]
“For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not mere human beings? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to […]
To me the church as a whole is losing membership in the United States because it is divided; it is apt to argue over different beliefs; it does not practice what it preaches. We Christians live a watered-down version of the Gospel of Jesus. We would rather fight with the different interpretations than live […]
Writing about gratitude last week leads me now to humility, the true reduction of our ego-importance to the reality of who we are before God. When we think that human beings are but one of an estimated 7 million species on this earth, and that this earth is but one planet in a vast universe […]
Paul defines the church of Jesus Christ as one body, the one church of Jesus Christ, and like the body the church is made up of different organs and parts which function in interdependence on, and with, each other.[1 Cor. 12:12-27, Romans 12:4-5, Ephesians 3:6, Colossians 1:18, 24] Interestingly, Paul’s metaphor for the church […]
Christianity is a lay-driven movement, not a preacher-driven one. Each of us is to have a personal relationship with Christ, a deep knowledge of the Bible gained through Bible study, an ability to hear and follow God’s Indwelling Spirit, a body of experience of who God is in our own lives, knowledge of our own […]
I have a strict definition of gossip that has come to me over the years: any time I am telling someone else’s story, I am gossiping. I am using another person’s story for my own purposes. Instead what I, what we should be doing is telling our own tales, being honest about who we are. […]
The most inspiring church I have ever seen is the cathedral at Tintern Abbey in Western England near Wales. A ruin since the 16th C., with no roof or windows or doors, and grass growing where the pews once sat, it remains the perfect church to me, a two-story tall one with walls totally […]
The one reaction I have to contemporary Christianity over and over again is this: where is the closeness to God? Where are the people who have an intimate relationship with God like Jesus did? He called God, Abba or Daddy! He regularly spent time alone with God. God’s laws were written on his heart. He […]