81 results for tag: Christ-centered

The Christ-Centered Mission of CWR/PTM – Greg Albrecht

How CWR/PTM fulfills our mission as a media ministry, and the resources and services we offer, often leads to questions and comments about how we in some ways function as or like a church, and then to comparisons of our ministry with a more conventional, traditional brick-and-mortar church.   We conclude, as many do, that we are a media ministry, and a bit more. Being more than just an electronic media ministry means we are a para-church ministry working outside and across denominations and congregations that worship in a brick-and-mortar building.  Perhaps it would help to understand how CWR/PTM is both a Christ-centered media/...

A Lion and A Lamb – by Greg Albrecht

Will a cure for cancer ever be found? Will there ever be a time when little children don't go to bed hungry? Is there a way to end crime? Don't you just wish that someday, some way, the abuse of the very young and the very old would stop? Will anyone ever find a way to disarm all armies, to melt down all weapons of warfare—to beat swords into plowshares, as the Hebrew prophets foresaw? We all long for peace for the entire world. We all want solutions to the misery and suffering of our world. We want the hatred and violence to end. Of course, you're way ahead of me—but don't get too far ahead—because what I want to talk about may surprise ...

A Great Grace Give-Away — by Greg Albrecht

David asked, "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?" Now there was a servant of Saul's household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, "Are you Ziba?" "At your service," he replied. The king asked, "Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness?" Ziba answered the king, "There is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet." "Where is he?" the king asked. Ziba answered, "He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar." So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of ...

Spitting Into the Wind – by Greg Albrecht

Call me the "Quester." I've been king over Israel in Jerusalem. I looked most carefully into everything, searched out all that is done on this earth. And let me tell you, there's not much to write home about. God hasn't made it easy for us. I've seen it all and it's nothing but smoke— smoke, and spitting into the wind. Life's a corkscrew that can't be straightened, a minus that won't add up. I said to myself, "I know more and I'm wiser than anyone before me in Jerusalem. I've stockpiled wisdom and knowledge." What I've finally concluded is that so-called wisdom and knowledge are mindless and witless—nothing but spitting into the wind. Much ...

Downward Mobility – by Greg Albrecht

Jesus tells his disciples, in no uncertain terms, if you think that my kingdom is going to replicate the power-hungry, authoritarian, serve-the-big-shots-first-and-foremost kind of authority this world often sees, then think again. "Not so with you." Jesus tells his disciples that if they choose to be ministers in his kingdom then they will choose love over power. If we want to follow Jesus, serving others in his name, then our lives will be exemplified by sacrificial love as he demonstrated on his cross rather than the crass control mechanisms of authoritarianism, whereby Christ-less religion and its leadership always gets served first, many times ...

Grace and Truth Come Through Jesus Christ – by Greg Albrecht

  Here's a news flash! Religion is confrontational and hostile to anyone that dares to differ with it. Religion is, at best, irrelevant to our relationship with God. Christ-less religion actually leads people away from God! Grace-less religion advances its agenda, which is all about the relationship it offers (or inflicts upon) its followers. The relationship religion offers usually includes a relationship with a building, with real estate, with icons, with treasures (real or imagined) and with rituals and performances and traditions which are themselves reputed to be of heavenly value. In many cases religion promises spiritual rewards based on ...

Christ-Centered Contentment

Our contentment in Christ, does not come from affluence, achievements or acquisitions. Join Greg and study the secret of Christ-centered contentment.   https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR337.mp3

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 ...

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, ...

Reading from the End (with children) – Brad Jersak

Reading from the End (with children) Bradley Jersak Hannah (an alias) is an undiscerning fan of R-rated literature. Granted, the exclusive focus of this compulsive vice is her daily dive into the Bible. For those who’ve actually read the Bible, this is of little comfort, given that she’s weighs in at just eight-years-old. It’s certainly alarming to her parents, who catch her sneaking away to read the Old Testament tales of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll unsupervised. They seriously considered hiding this contraband from her, but she is incorrigible. For her ninth birthday, she asked her parents if they would finally reveal what the ...

Christ is Our Strength Within – By Ed Dunn

Friend and Partner Letter from September 2021: Just as his insights graced our September 2020 letter, Ed Dunn returns to write our letter for September 2021. Ed is one of our key staff members, and he wears many hats. He contributes as a Board Member, a blogger, writer, and most recently, as the host of our monthly video This Month at PTM. He works with electronic and digital systems in our fulfillment center, and is one of the voices those who call 1-800-309-4466 hear. Ed is an uplifting co-worker who enriches our office team and a fellow Friend and Partner with all of you, another team member who shares this ongoing work with you. We ...

How Far Will God Go? – Greg Albrecht

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; ...

Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word

What've I got to do to make you love me? What've I got to do to make you care? —Sorry Seems to Be The Hardest Word, Elton John, 1976 Unrequited love normally brings to mind memories of romantic, "puppy love" that failed to hear an echo. But teenage infatuations that end in agonizing, emotional dramas are surpassed in intensity by the crushing heartbreak experienced when, for some reason, a parent or child fails to respond to each other. This is a story of a girl and the relationship she yearned to have with her father. Like many others in her generation, Karen grew up in a home ruled over by an authoritarian veteran of World War 2. Karen, ...

How Big Is God?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.    The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and ...

Getting Caught Up In a Religious Show

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means "son of encouragement"), sold a field he owned and brought the ...

Downward Mobility

They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. "We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise." Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask." "What do you want me ...

What is Our Eternal Reward?

Q: What is our eternal reward? A:The Bible does speak of a reward, but should that reward be viewed as a prize given as a response for our diligent performance of deeds, then our reward would not be by grace through faith, but of works. According to the gospel of Jesus Christ a measured reward we receive on the basis of our own efforts cannot be the reward the biblical writers have in mind. The New Testament is clear and absolute: our eternal reward is given, rather than earned. Everything we as Christ-followers are able to produce by ourselves here in this temporal life is physical and has a shelf life. Nothing we can produce, apart from God, ...

Righteousness by Law or by Faith?

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will ...

The Law was Given Through Moses – Grace and Truth Come Through Jesus Christ

by Greg Albrecht For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. —John 1:17 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the ...

Hope in Desperate Times

By Greg Albrecht— Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. —Proverbs 13:12 People often give up on God because they feel he didn't fulfill their expectations. And where, exactly, do people receive their education about what they can expect from God? If you answered "religious institutions" you get to pass "Go"— collect $200 and receive a "get out of religion free" card. One of the major sources of discontent with God is that many people do what they think God wants them to do because they expect him to make them feel good ("bless" is often used instead of "feel good"). And of course we all want to ...