"But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." Galatians 4:4
God's timing is perfect.
I must have heard that phrase a million times in my life. So often, in fact, that I almost never think about the ramifications of what it means. I just hear it, accept it, and move on.
But Christmas makes that phrase worth thinking about - especially in light of what led up to that first Christmas.
Long before there was Christmas (Jesus coming to…
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"The LORD had said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go the land I will show you." Genesis 12:1
WhenI run back into the world of Genesis - back into the beginnings of how people deal with God and God deals with people - I am increasingly amazed.
Take Abram for example (Abraham being his later name). There is no record of Abram doing anything with God before we meet him in Scripture. Saying anything to God. Behaving any way that would make you believe that he is different than anyone else at the…
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"Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that could be written." John 21:25
To think that we only have a small glimpse of all that Jesus did is staggering. After all, this is the most accounted life in the history of humanity.
It would be great to have more books about the life of Jesus from eyewitnesses, but we don't. God gave us all we needed (and probably, more accurately, all we could handle). I wish there were more books, selfishly,…
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"Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said: 'Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in the darkness, and light dwells with him'." Daniel 2:19b-22
When I woke up onWednesday of last week, I knew something had fundamentally changed.
The United States of America had elected the first African-American President in its 230-plus-year…
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11Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; 12if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; 13if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.2 Timothy 2:11-13
I like conspiracy theories - at least in the movies. Often when I hear them in real life, I can't help but think how silly most of them sound. They are intriguing for sure, but they mostly come off sounding plain weird. I'm sure some conspiracy theories have more truth to them than we…
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I get asked alot about this topic, so here is an article I wrote.
Developing Missional Church Structure
Its no secret. The North American Church is declining in numbers and impact as every major research agency has endlessly testified. What are we missing? Do people not understand the mission of the church?
That doesnt seem to be the problem. Ask virtually any congregation what their mission is and they will tell you something that at least moderately resembles the Great Commission. So if it is not that they dont understand their mission,…
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"'Do you refuse to speak to me'? Pilate said. 'Don't you realize I have the power either to free you or to crucify you?' Jesus answered, 'You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above'." John 19:10-11a
Sometimes I think we may put way too much faith in the halls of power.
Ok, maybe not sometimes, maybe most of the time. Whether those halls are located inside the Beltway, or whether they are much closer to Broadway (like, say, Wall Street) - it seems an undue amount of trust is placed in these locations. It's as if…
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"Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse." Proverbs 28:6
As of this post, the financial state of America is less than stellar. Some would have us to believe that the current economic crisis is so critical that without doing something drasticthrough government intervention, we very well may be facing "Great Depression: Remix."
Maybe.
There are others, however, that are trying to remind the American people that the way of America has not been in the nationalization of businesses and free markets, and…
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"One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple." Psalm 27:4
Flying home from out of town a couple of weeks ago, I ended up sitting next to a young twentysomething woman. We were somewhat delayed, so we chatted a little about small things to start - where we were from, what we did, yada yada yada. I found out she was from Buffalo and was an Art History major. I don't know squat about Art really, but I made a…
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"When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12
This is thatseason in America where many a person will be dragging around work because of a lack of sleep. We finished the Olympics from Beijing, rolled into the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, and are now embarking on football. All of these things can cost Americans sleep.
Maybe it's that lack of sleep that is causing such ridiculous things to be said in…
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