503 results for tag: blog

A Totem Tale by Jim Fowler

Jim Fowler Fires burn in each settlement across the land. The sound of tom-toms can be heard in the background. It is the time for the perennial carving of totem-poles. Congregating in our tee-pees, each group heatedly considers the essentials of their belief-system. After due consultation of these spirit-matters, consensus is achieved within each tribe as to how they will stack their totem-pole. The meticulous carving begins. Every detail is important, because each cut has implied meaning. Distinction must be achieved, even in the intensity of the painted colors. Extreme effort is made to make it appear life-like. Duly carved and erected for ...

Marriage Counseling by Greg Albrecht

Many years ago, over three decades in fact, in another life, professionally at least – another phase in my ministerial life – I spent many hours talking with young people about marriage.  Recently I was asked, by several people within a few weeks period of time, what I felt were some of my lessons learned from the thousands of hours spent with people, trying (that was my intent at least) to help prepare them for marriage.  Here are a few thoughts from those conversation, really more like interviews:  First of all, and I say this somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but it seems ironically the more I have learned about marriage the ...

The Gospel According to Pooh-Bear! – by Laura Urista

I am a “Pooh” collector. Not quite a “Pooh-holic” or a “Crazy Pooh lady” – but close! Lots of friends have asked me what made me decide to collect all things “Winnie-the-Pooh” over the years.  It’s a long story, going back over 55 years. It was the summer of 1966 and my family had just moved from a tiny town in North Dakota to a slightly larger town in Texas. My Dad had just become a member of a strict, legalistic church and he was determined that his four school-age children should attend “God’s school” – a private school founded and run by the church he had recently joined. A few months after our move, I ...

Prayer – The Steering Wheel or a Spare Tire? – by Greg Albrecht

Corrie Ten Boom once asked, "Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?" When she compared prayer to a steering wheel, I'm relatively certain that Corrie Ten Boom didn't know anything about a modern GPS system—the navigational system many people have in their cars today. As you probably know, GPS stands for Global Positioning System. It’s a radio navigation system that allows land, sea and airborne users to determine their exact position. It relies on 24 satellites in orbit above the earth—positioned in such a way that four of them will always be above the horizon, anywhere on the earth. A GPS receiver, like the ones many ...

Inspired, Infallible & Inerrant? by Greg Albrecht

If God intended to produce an infallible and inerrant literary document, surely he would not have used so many fallible humans in the writing, editing, preservation, translation, production and printing (not to mention interpretation) of the Bible! ----------------------------------------------------------- At some point in the past you may have fallen for some theological pied piper who lured you down a sawdust trail with selected biblical passages, lining them up as proof texts to say what the piper wanted them to mean. We are providing deeper insight for our readers and listeners to better understand and interpret the Bible—so as to ...

Not That Kind of Christian – Greg Albrecht

When I tell new friends or acquaintances that I am a Christian, a frequent response goes something like this: “Well, exactly what kind of Christian are you?” My answer includes specific distinctions about common assumptions. Here are a few: • I am a Christ-follower. I do not follow or believe or trust in religion. I follow, believe and trust in Jesus. I believe God loves us in spite of religion, not because of any efforts or deeds we perform to convince him to love us. • I do not believe that God is a God of wrath. I do not believe that God the Father was so upset with the sin of humanity that he could only be appeased through ...

Such A Time As This – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from October 2016: “And who knows but you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” – Esther 4:14 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. – 1 Peter 2:9 About 475 years before the birth of Jesus, Esther and Mordecai were Jews living in Susa, one of the four capitals of the Persian Empire. The Jews had been taken into exile in Babylon a century before, and then 50 years after that Babylon was conquered by the Persians. The Persians released the ...

Today Is a Gift – by Ed Dunn

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12, NIV Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why we call it ‘The Present.’ – Eleanor Roosevelt We sat together in the cold doctor’s office at County Hospital in Los Angeles, California. It had been a long two-day stretch of testing and we were both tired. I was there as a friend, and yet, I was there as far more than just a friend. I was there in that doctor’s office to be her memory, and to try my best to also be her voice. Several years earlier, things had begun to change dramatically for my friend, my ex-wife and the ...

How Great is the Love – Greg Albrecht

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! —1 John 3:1 There’s a great story about a little boy who was trying to learn the Lord’s Prayer. One night he was kneeling down by his bed, and he prayed: “Our Father who are in heaven, how do you know my name?” St. Augustine, revered as one of the great theologians of the Christian faith, once said that Jesus loves each of us as if there was no one else to love. We can see that reality in the life and teachings of Jesus—time after time we read about people Jesus met who felt and experienced his radically personalized, individual ...

Strange Magic – Stuart Segall

I wanted to share with you some “strange magic” so very recently experienced.  To introduce the magic, I would first like to ask you a question. What are your feelings about the words in 2nd Corinthians 1 where Paul shares thoughts about God’s comfort and consolation? 2nd Corinthians 1:3,4 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.”  Do you see yourself in that statement? Today I am saying goodbye to some clients. I am moving on. These are clients that I have had for 10 years and have spent a fair amount of time with over this period. I have not ...

Focus on Christ – Not on Fear – by Greg Albrecht

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself— nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance" (Franklin Delano Roosevelt, first inaugural address, March 4, 1933). Weltschmerz—a German word meaning world-pain or world-weariness is used to describe mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state. Based on the anxiety and concern contained in reports and letters we receive from those we serve, as well as a general condition of weltschmerz in our society, there is no doubt that fear, worry, stress and tension are wreaking ...

What Is Prayer All About? – Greg Albrecht

Question: I know that praying is not really about us, but for the purpose of helping us draw closer to God.  But I have also heard that prayer for others, even when they have no idea we are praying for them, is important for and to them.  How is that possible?  I'm not clear how it necessarily helps the person we're praying for in cases where that person is never aware we are praying for them.  My (flawed?) premise is that God is Perfect Love and already knows the perfect solution or course of action and will not be persuaded to change His will by my prayer.  So again, I ask...how does my prayer specifically for ...

Let the Party Begin – by Greg Albrecht

  WHEN JESUS WANTED PEOPLE TO  UNDERSTAND GOD'S KINGDOM PRESENCE,  HE USED PARTIES AS A PICTURE     Key Text: The Wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11)   The very idea of any kind of party, any kind of laughter, feasting, light-heartedness and yes, even enjoyment of life itself, is suspect in some religious environments. Our keynote passage does more than just record history, it is inviting you and me to a party, a party that is already in progress! There's important teaching in this passage.    You may have heard one of the take-offs on our passage, which goes something like this: Jesus turned water into wine almost ...

Contentment – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from October 2022 If you are like me, you have had the experience of seeing an old friend your own age, whom you have not seen in “forever,” and thinking how old they have become since you last saw them!Meanwhile, we fail to remember we have been seeing our own aging reflection in the bathroom mirror every day. No one likes to get older. Surgical procedures, injections, creams, lotions and diets are sold, promising to restore what has long since gone down the river of life. Sam went to a new dentist, and as he was in the waiting-room he saw a diploma on the wall —it seemed his new dentist had attended the ...

Q&R: “Let there be light!” Brad Jersak

Question I have had this nagging question. God said, "Let there be light." But it wasn't the physical light. Somehow, the world was already in a state of darkness & needed Light. I know Light can mean Truth, but what is your understanding?  I just want to grasp a God who Loves versus the god I learned through my church, who hates me for imperfection.  Response What an excellent question! Let's start with verse 1 - "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." John 1:1 reads this verse through the gospel. IN CHRIST, God created... We read in John 1 and Colossians 1 that all of creation came to be ...

The Center of the Gospel – Greg Albrecht

Christianity WITHOUT the religion defines Christ-less religion as any systematic method used to either earn or gain favor with God initially, or to improve and maintain one’s ongoing standing with God on the basis of deeds, involvement, attendance, performances, rituals and ceremonies. One of my favorite authors, Richard Rohr, speaks of the “performance principle” as the absolute foundation of all religion.The “performance principle” is the myth that leads humans to live lives defined by achievement—it is a myth that is rooted in and driven by fear. Fear is the foundational building block of Christ-less religion. The “perfor...

It’s All About Grace – by Greg Albrecht

Keynote Passages: Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. —Romans 3:31 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. —Romans 4:4-5 This is the third message in our three-part series discovering what the introductory chapters of this great book of Romans tell us about God’s amazing grace. The first sermon, In Need of Grace, discussed the fact that we are spiritually sunk without God’s grace. We reflected on Romans 1:16-17, as well as the ...

Who is God and What is He Like? – Greg Albrecht

BREAKING NEWS: God is who he is, not who we think he is because of what we have been taught. If you have created God in your own image, or wittingly or unwittingly allowed someone to help you do that then God will probably be a member of your church and denomination. He will keep and observe all your religious ceremonies, holidays and holy days, all your rules and regulations and all your rituals. • God created in your image will hate the people you hate. • God created in your image will vote for the person you vote for. • God created in your image will be a member of your race, nationality and perhaps even your gender. When God ...

Under Reconstruction: Crazy Characters, Unreliable Narrators and the Divine Architect – Brad Jersak

    After Deconstruction The last years have seen a grand deconstruction of Scripture reading and interpretation—some would say of Scripture itself. Of course, this has been an ongoing centuries-long project, but two unique elements dominate the past decade: first, the ‘New Atheists’ are actually reading the Bible—carefully and, unlike liberal scholars, they have read it literally with a view to destroying faith. “The Bible says it; I reject it; and that settles it.” And second, their dance partners in this deconstruction have been evangelicals who are finally questioning the modernist lingo of ...

Grace Alone – by Greg Albrecht

Keynote Passage: But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just ...