511 results for tag: blog
What Does – ‘We are Not Under the Law but Under Grace’ – Really Mean? by Greg Albrecht
Many professing and church-going Christians fail to realize what "we are not under the law but under grace" means. Most agree that it's God's grace and not anything we can do that will make us right with God. Most realize and accept that Christians don't follow the rites and rituals of the Old Testament but they are often confused about the Ten Commandments. They believe that the Ten Commandments (except seventh-day Sabbath-keeping) are valid and required norms of behavior.
Here's the Christ-centered perspective we need. When Jesus died on his cross, he completed all the terms of the old covenant. He had kept its terms perfectly, and on his ...
Jesus Is Our Center – by Greg Albrecht
Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don’t have and you are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it. (James 4:1, MSG)
If you have not noticed, our world today is as divided and at odds as it has been for a long time. The divide is not just nationalistic between nations who are either rattling sabers or perhaps openly at war, the divide is not just political between political parties, ...
Love Is… And Love Is Not – by Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from May 2022
Love IS patientLove IS kind.Love is NOT envious.Love does NOT boast.Love is NOT proud.Love is NOT rude.Love is NOT self-seeking.Love is NOT easily angered.Love does NOT keep a record of wrongs.Love does NOT delight in evil, rather it rejoices in truth.Love protects.Love trusts.Love hopes.Love perseveres.Love never fails.—1 Corinthians 13:4-7
The ultimate and sublime demonstration and example of love is the Cross of Christ. There is NO GREATER LOVE than Jesus’ voluntary self-sacrifice for us. When the Cross of Christ was buried in the soil of this earth, Jesus was lifted up (John 12:32). When Jesus ...
Becoming Real – Stuart Segall
It's only been a few days since “Resurrection Weekend.” Jesus the Son of God, finished his human, earthly life and was cast out of the human life and put in the grave. Three days and nights later He rose and when He ascended to Heaven, He did, not as man, but Spirit, the ultimate change.
As I consider this, the child in me also hangs on to another story.
I am in a Velveteen Rabbit mood this wonderful late evening. This children’s story is one of wisdom and understanding on a higher level if you have “eyes to see”
Let's look at one small piece of this wonderful and delightful wisdom, written by Margery Williams.
...
Psalm 22, Good Friday and the Princess Bride
by Carolyn Arends
A New Light on a Dark Friday Cry
My kids finally saw The Princess Bride, a movie their dad and I have loved since our college days. There is something wonderful about watching your favorite people watch one of your favorite films. In this case, the added bonus was observing the light come into their eyes as they discovered the origin of several quirky things their parents routinely say. “Hey!” they shouted with a shock of recognition when Westley first said, “As you wish”—a line they’ve heard their father utter hundreds of times. Vizzini’s “Inconceivable!” produced a similar response. By the time we got ...
“You Can Sit Here…” – Greg Albrecht
It was the first day of school for Forrest Gump. As he walked down the aisle of the school bus his peers noticed the braces on his legs – on Forrest’s first attempt to take an empty seat, the occupant on the two-person bench seat spread his hands out, saying that seat was “taken.”
As I recall this happened several times until finally, near the back of the bus, Forrest paused next to an empty seat, receiving a beautiful smile from a lovely young lady seated by the window. Her name was Jenny and she welcomed him, saying “you can sit here…” Jenny became, as those of us who have seen “Forrest Gump” know (in my ...
The Power of God’s Love by Laura Urista
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.—1 John 4:7-8 (my emphasis)
In the scripture above, we are admonished to “love one another for love comes from God.” The word translated into our English word “love” throughout this passage is the Greek words agapao (verb) or agape (noun). Agapao refers to the supernatural love of God, but that is only part of the meaning. Agapao also refers to the love which arises from a “keen sense of the value and worth of the object loved.” When ...
Jim Fowler and Duke Snider
Jim Fowler
Jim Fowler is one of the great friends and mentors of my life – I’m not the only one who is closer to God given Jim’s ministry. Given a traumatic surgery he has recently endured, allow me to share a few thoughts about my relationship with Jim, a self-sacrificial servant of Jesus.
I first became aware of Jim’s ministry something like 25 years ago. He was then and still is a rare “find” – I look back and I was like an archaeologist who has found a treasure – something (someone) of great value. I quickly determined Jim Fowler to be a prolific writer, a consummate and dedicated scholar who ...
Q&R with Brad Jersak: Will Jesus be ashamed of me? Luke 9:26
Question
Brad, could you help me to see a more beautiful way of understanding Luke 9:26?
"If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory, and in the glory of his Father, and of the holy angels."
Response
That's a difficult passage, isn't it, especially coming from Jesus Christ, the epitome and Incarnation of God's grace and radical hospitality. So when we see a warning so jarring, so out of character with what we know of the Jesus Way, it's good we ask not only what Jesus said or meant, but what he's up to. What is he aiming at with these words? And how might his aim align ...
The Land Dispute – Jim Fowler
Jim Fowler
Many centuries ago in the old country a parcel of land was identified and acquired. The old land deed duly records that the property boundary ran “from the large rock on the southeast corner, west to the sea, north to the top of the hill, east to the large oak tree, and south again to the large rock.” Without precision instruments to measure latitudinal and longitudinal bearings and the exact degrees of direction, this type of land demarcation was common in old land deeds. The large rock that marked the southeast corner of the piece of property was immovable and served as the fixed point of bearing for the position of the parcel.
...
“God is Love BUT …” Brad Jersak
"Everything before the word 'BUT' is horse sh*t." - Game of Thrones
I've heard this statement elsewhere as "Nothing someone says before the word 'but' really counts," especially when an affirmation of love is immediately followed by its negations. The aphorism is loaded with wisdom and experience. Even if you feel that love compels you to bring a word of critique or correction, if you use love as your opening salvo to bring someone down, you'll bring love down with them. It's a big relational mistake... unless it's a case of deliberate 'gaslighting,' which is abusive.
How much more so with God! Does Jesus say, "God so love the world BUT..." ...
Just Fans…Or Members of His Team? by Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from April 2014
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” – 1 Corinthians 15:54
Death has been swallowed up in victory is our victory song! Choirs in heaven sing praises to Jesus, our risen Lord. Here on earth we also sing praises to Jesus and we joyfully remind each other that he is risen! Resurrection Sunday is the grand finale climactic tribute to Jesus because of his triumphant, all encompassing, once and for all – once for all – victory over death and the ...
The Cross: God’s Eternal Mercy Seat – Brad Jersak
The celebration of Easter this month once again places the Cross of Christ and his resurrection front and center of our faith, as they should be. These events comprise a hinge-point in the human story and what theologians have called “salvation history.” The New Testament witness not only records what occurred but also reflects upon the meaning of those occurrences as good news—our gospel.
Unveiling the meaning of the crucifixion is of particular importance to the apostles, because they are convinced that it spelled more than a tragic end to the life of Jesus. Somehow, the Cross is essential groundwork for the reconciliation of all ...
The Great Descent – “A Harrowing Exit” – Brad Jersak
The Great Descent
The Law, the Psalms and the Prophets forecast it.The Gospels and the Epistles allude to it.Ancient Christian hymns, liturgies and poetry announce it.It permeates both Eastern and Western theological tradition.It even has its own line in the Apostles’ Creed.
But only recently has Christ’s conquest of Hades caught the attention of moderns. It’s so central to the gospel message that its omission requires correction.
The same events go by various names—the great descent, the harrowing of hades, Christus Victor. But they all refer to the narrative that culminates in the resurrection of Christ before dawn on ...
Victory Through Christ by Greg Albrecht
But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Corinthians 15:57
Victory! Unless your favorite sports team just won an important game, victory is not a word in high demand over the past few years. So much in our world previously defined as successful and prosperous has changed over the past few years. Of recent dates, instead of progress and growth we have seen and endured much more chaos and upheaval. So many of the routines of daily life are new or at least modified, completely unlike the world before COVID.
Physical life can seem to be running smoothly and efficiently until it doesn’t. We all know, ...
The Joker and the Thief – Henry Sturcke
An unusual LP appeared in stores just after Christmas 1967. The timing and lack of fanfare seemed a conscious counterpoint to the shopping frenzy that precede Christmas.
The LP, John Wesley Harding, confounded those who’d followed Dylan before this. Both lyrically and musically, the album stood in stark contrast to his previous release, Blonde on Blonde. After the dense verbal swirl of Blonde’s lengthy songs, these were brief and understated. And in place of a thicket of sound, we hear a voice, acoustic guitar, and harmonica, subtly supplemented by drums, bass guitar, and (on the final two tracks) steel guitar. It seemed not only a ...
His Kiss by Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from April 2022
While I had many problems with Bible teaching when I was a teenager (particularly how it was interpreted and administered in the church my parents attended), I remember being in favor of one of Paul’s oft-repeated concluding statements in his letters. “Greet one other with a holy kiss” (Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12 and 1 Thessalonians 5:26) sounded like wise advice to me, particularly if the kiss involved an attractive female of my age.
But before my “gospel of kissing girls because the Bible commanded it” could ever pick up much traction, a stick-in-the-mud ...
I Fought the Law – Greg Albrecht
In 1966 the Bobby Fuller Four recorded a top ten hit called “I Fought the Law”—here are the lyrics in the first verse: I’m breakin’ rocks in the hot sun I fought the law and the law won.
The physical image that breakin’ rocks in the hot sun brings to mind is of the endless, soul destroying labor performed by prison inmates—back in the day, soul destroying labor often included breaking rocks with sledgehammers on the proverbial hard rock pile. Prisoners broke the law and now the law returned the favor.
Breaking rocks on the hard rock pile is, of course, an intentionally meaningless exercise— and “meaningless exercise” ...
Looking At Life From The Outside In – by Ed Dunn
Thirty-six years ago, I began to lose the ability to see whatever it was I was looking at directly. I began to lose my central vision. As a college freshman at the time, new to the Los Angeles, California area from the hills and hollows of rural Western Pennsylvania, I was already somewhat overwhelmed by my “big-city” environment. To suddenly and most unexpectedly face the deterioration of my eyesight, after a life of perfect, 20/20 vision to that point, I must admit, I was completely terrified. How would I go on? How would I find my way with so much of life yet ahead of me?
Following a long journey of eye doctor visits and the related ...
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