If you were going to take all the responsibilities we have as church members, and pick just one word that summarizes them, the word the Bible would pick most often, is love. For example, Ephesians 5. Paul’s been talking about … Continue reading Every Member’s Responsibility
A second reason the local church is so important is because of what the church does. Obviously as a local church we can be involved in lots of things. Even at our church, we are just beginning as a church, but … Continue reading Church: Why It Matters #3
Why is the local church so important? In Timothy 3:15 Paul gives us two reasons why. The first reason is because of what it is. Paul uses two phrases to describe the church in verse 15. “I hope to come … Continue reading Church: Why it Matters #2
I want to take a little time to talk about the church. Specifically, we are going to be looking to the Bible for guidance about what we are supposed to be doing as a church. But, I guess, as we … Continue reading Church: Why It Matters #1
Do you attend a me church? Continue reading Me Church
I’m not usually one to gush, actually probably I am, but whichever, it doesn’t matter, I’m going to anyway. I just can’t get over what a privilege it is to be part of a local church. I mean, I was sitting at church yesterday thinking to myself, man who has this? Who has a group of people who have committed themselves to being one hundred percent for them? And not just for them, in like a hey I’ll say whatever you want me to say kind of way, but really for them, in like a hey I’ll love you enough … Continue reading It’s good to be a church…
Since we’ve been talking about being committed to a local church, I thought I might close this series of blogs with a few ideas about exactly what that might look like in practice. It means for one thing you are going to have to spend time with the people in your church. We need to be careful and make sure that we aren’t legalistic and say more than what the Scripture says, but we can say this much for sure, it is really difficult to love anyone very well if you don’t spend time with them. But of course, time … Continue reading Putting Feet to Our Commitment…
I read recently where someone I once knew was saying, he loved Jesus and was all for Jesus but was tired of all the problems he encountered in the church and so he was giving up on it. What I’m not sure he understands though is that that is like a contradiction in terms because while he may have given up on the church, Jesus hasn’t. Jesus’ commitment to the church – it’s not just a past commitment – something that happened on the cross. It’s not just a future commitment – he’ll really show his love for the church … Continue reading Loving Jesus requires Loving the Church
You take the most committed, intimate, human relationship…the relationship between a husband and a wife… we’ve seen Paul says that relationship is specifically designed by God to represent how commited Jesus is to the church. I want to think about exactly what that means. What exactly does that tell us about the extent of Jesus’ commitment to the church? For starters, it tells us that Jesus is committed to leading the church. That’s what Paul means by calling Jesus the church’s head. He writes, “Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head … Continue reading All Out…part three
It’d be basically impossible for Jesus to be any more committed to the church. Just look at Ephesians 5. We usually turn to Ephesians 5 to talk about marriage which is fine because it is about marriage, but it is also about something more than that. It’s about Jesus and the church. What Paul is doing is comparing the relationship between a husband and a wife with the relationship between Jesus and the church. That’s why he says things like, in verse 23, “the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church…” … Continue reading One hundred percent committed…
