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We have to get MORE serious about the Great Commission
I’ve grown up always thinking about the Great Commission. It’s only over the past few years I’ve realized how incomplete my thinking was on that goal. “Great Commission” Christians meant missions. It meant going overseas or sending people to go overseas. We were focused on the “all nations” part. What we need to recapture is the “obey everything” part. THAT…
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Pursuing Perfection
The call is clear: “Be perfect as your Father in heaven in perfect.” (Matt. 5:48) That isn’t an impossible command. That isn’t something given by Jesus for the “sweet by and by.” It is an expectation given to us as we also receive all power to get it done. Jesus leaves us with HUGE challenges in Matthew 5. Your righteousness…
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We are created to be idols of God
This dangerous thought comes via Jason Hood in a book I am working through right now called Imitating God in Christ: Recapturing a Biblical Pattern. Some quick thoughts: When God created humanity, he made us to e his image-bearing idols. (Elsewhere in the Old Testament the word that is here translated “image” (Ex. 20) usually refers to idols that represent gods…
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Engaging the Kingdom — The Two Builders
Matthew 7:24-27 What determines the true follower of Christ? Right knowledge? Right answers? Some insight on who is “in” and who is “out?” Jesus is fairly plain about this. Storms. Storms determine the quality of the workmanship. If you heard and obeyed what Jesus taught and entered into kingdom life, the storms can’t bring down the house. If you spent…
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Engaging the Kingdom — Ask, Seek, Knock
Matt. 7:7-11 Jesus seems to lay down the impossible before us when it comes to being in the Kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount can be read as incredibly demanding and grueling. The King doesn’t ask his disciples to do the impossible. He lays out the means to climb to what seems impossible. It lies in those very simple words:…
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Transformational Living — Romans 12
I am given grace for MY life. There is a measure of faith given TO ME. I cannot measure my life in Christ against someone else. I cannot live my life in Christ in front of the world as a marketing tool. Judging yourself with sober judgment is near impossible in a Facebook gazing, self-marketing world. But that is our…
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When Things Go Wrong — Constructing a Moralism
I have picked up Eugene Peterson’s work Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places again. I have picked at it for the past several years and find myself drawn to his words again. In the chapter “Christ Plays in History” Peterson deals with the threat of “moralism” in our lives. His contention is we have a tough time dealing with Christ in history,…
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What We Love
“What we love we shall grow to resemble.” Bernard of Clairvaux — Marlena Graves (@MarlenaGraves) February 27, 2013
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2 Peter and the Call to Spiritual Formation
The first chapter of 2 Peter (one of the letters we are reading this week) calls us walk in spiritual formation. We need to learn to build spiritual character in our lives. Spiritual disciplines aid us in this walk. QUESTION: What do you know… what have you learned… in the area of spiritual formation? For starters… what practices do you…
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Building Spiritual Muscle
In Matthew 6 we get those verse that talk about trusting God for the basics of life. What to wear, what to eat, etc. Trust him. Easier said than done, I know. Wow, do I know! I live in more anxiety than I’m willing to admit! (And I happen to be admitting some, so just think…) So, how do we get to…
Tag: Spiritual Formation
