Growing In Grace

In Luke 19:10 Jesus said, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." In and of itself this verse speaks volumes as to Jesus' methods for cultural engagement, but it is even more remarkable to remember that this verse is found right after Jesus called Zacchaeus down from the tree. Zaccaeus is introduced in verse 2 by saying that he was the 'chief tax collector and he was rich.' In a culture of poverty Zacchaeus was rich, but far worse was the fact that he was a tax collector which means that he would have gained his riches by working for Rome and cheating his own people by charging them extra money in taxes. Zacchaeus would have been despised as a traitor. The most amazing part of the story is that Jesus seeing Zacchaeus in the tree calls him down and says, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today." Jesus calls out to and invites Himself over to this sinners home. After Jesus' incredible display of grace and

Over the past few years it seems that many churches have tried to call us back to the power of the early church. I recognize that there are entire 'movements' and church 'styles' that have been attempting to get back to the early church. Some of these are probably great, but some do not appear to be so biblical in there attempts. As w e read of the incredible outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the amazing growth of the early church we must ask, "Why isn't that stuff still happening today?" Lately four of us at my church have been rotating and teaching through the Book of Acts at our Sunday evening service. While reading and studying Acts I have been blessed and amazed by the reminder of the incredible impact the early church was having. Acts is typically known as the Acts of the Apostles, but I prefer the name suggested by some commentators, "The Acts of the Holy Spirit (through the early church)" because it gives us a much fuller picture of what

For a number of you this is a very familiar saying, "Teaching line upon line." It is interesting to me that the saying 'line upon line, precept upon precept' seems to have been taken from the KJV translation of Isaiah 28:10&13. However as the New American Commentary says of the original Hebrew, "The message in v. 10 is made up of a series of monosyllables repeated several times. The meanings of these words are somewhat mysterious. ... They could be the stuttering words of a drunk, which makes about as much sense as the babbling of an infant." It seems that the KJV's mistranslation of the Hebrew text has become a well known part of our Christian vocab. But why? Just to clarify right at the beginning of this post, this is the method of teaching that I wholeheartedly agree with. It is my preference to teach straight through books of the Bible. I believe this approach helps us to stay true to the context of the chapters and verses found within each book

It has been said that man fears death so much because he was created for immortality. I remember the Dave Matthews song lyrics, "Hey my love do you believe that we might last a thousand years or more if not for this our flesh and blood it ties..." Everyone tries to hide from death and delay it as long as possible. The Medical Dictionary defines Terminal as: Causing, ending in, or approaching death; fatal. Nearly 5 years ago my amazing wife Jessica was diagnosed with a terminal illness: Primary Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. To say the least the word 'terminal' fell like a ton of bricks. Here is how it all began: At first the symptoms seemed simple enough, she was having shortness of breath and difficulty walking extended distances or up hills. Our Dr said that Jess was young and healthy, but referred us to a Cardiologist 'just to make sure.' The Cardiologist again said that he wasn't worried because she was young and healthy, but 'just to be sure'