Apprentice 2 Jesus

Church

  • The Clueless Church

    As I walk through Ephesians I am struck again by the power the Church has in Christ. Yet, we stumble around without much of an idea as to who we really are in the kingdom of God. Read more

  • God doesn’t mind small beginnings

    In Acts 19, Paul finds a handful of people following Jesus and much as they know how to follow at that point in time. He then completes the story for them, baptizes them, and then they are filled with the Spirit. Verse 7 is notable: There were about twelve men in all.  Read more

  • The grief in my heart

    Over the past few years I’ve witnessed a historical shift in American life. Growing up in a politically active time and family, I had enjoyed politics and national issues. That has eroded over time. Yet, that doesn’t disappoint or grieve. That grief in my heart is over the American Church. Over the past several days… Read more

  • Prayers for the Church in these times

    The Lord seems to have increased my burden in prayer for the American Church. I ran across this prayer (in part) this morning: Revive your Church, Lord God of hosts, whenever it falls into complacency and sloth, by raising up devoted leaders… and grant that their faith and vigor of mind may awaken your people… Read more

  • Worthwhile (and necessary) reading

    Over the past few weeks, I have not been released from a burden to pray for the Church, especially in America. At the beginning of this year, the Lord spoke to me about a window of opportunity for the American Church to truly repent. That window is closing. Will we repent?  Read more

  • Is it time to quit the Church?

    The past few weeks have been heavy news for the Church. For evangelicals… it’s been Willow Creek and the leadership failure of that megachurch. (Then there are those trying to cling to evangelical as “tribe” but the politics of it right now are a bad mess.) For the Catholics, it was the grand jury findings… Read more

  • The road to Babylon

    The past couple of weeks have been contemplative for me because of issues I’ve reflected on in the last few posts. This morning I woke up with the same thoughts. They were slightly different, but when I go back and read my last few posts, especially the longer one I linked to on the Daniel… Read more

  • Dealing with the sin of church leadership

    Between the vestibule and the altar     let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord,     and make not your heritage a reproach,     a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples,     ‘Where is their God?’” (Joel 2:17, ESV) Read more

  • Prayer for the day

    As I have been out of town the past two Sundays, I look forward to a continued search. We are still seeking a place to call “home” in our new hometown. We haven’t been able to be “here” too many Sundays but we have enjoyed the churches we have visited. The Body of Christ truly… Read more

  • We plead for a poor and servant Church

    My current devotional reading is in Hans Urs von Balthasar’s book Engagement with God. I can take a paragraph and let it simmer for a day. (Which chafes my flesh because I want to get through books quicker to achieve my reading goals.) Read more