To Whom Shall We Go?

This is a great article from Jonathan Leeman. Click here . Essentially, it is a distillation of his excellent little book called Reverberation . This is an extremely helpful book that addresses what the Bible actually does in the life of a church, that is, when the people make room for it. In other words, the church must let the Spirit of God use the word he has sovereignly inspired. Here's a taste of the article: For starters, God’s Word creates the church, not detached Christians. It creates a group of believers who are covenantally united in one Lord, faith, baptism, and remission of sins. “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls” ( Acts 2:38 ,  41 ;  4:4 ;  6:7 ). God’s Word actually creates local churches. It unites you and me to other Christians, and the local church is the place on planet earth where we demonstrate and practice our Word-created unity. You will find, therefore, that Bible ...

When you read through one of the four gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), you get to see God at work. Jesus heals, and you remember that God is immensely powerful. Jesus casts out demons, and you marvel at God's supremacy in the spiritual realm. Jesus feeds multitudes, and you perceive that God satisfies the soul infinitely more than one meal satisfies the body. Jesus--God-in-the-flesh--steps into a scene in the gospels and draws your attention clearly unto the greatness and glory of the Triune God. I wonder if our hesitancy in evangelism, for example, is in part caused by our failure to truly marvel at the glory of God, seen in the face of Jesus. It seems to me that if I will be more and more captivated by the Savior, then the inevitable result will be my inability to contain the amazement. The greatness of God! Spilling over into every conversation--live or electronic. So instead of spurring on evangelism with the heavy burden of guilt, we fill our hearts with fasc...

I keep getting bowled over with the person of Christ.   It seems that no matter how many times I read about him healing someone, casting out a demon, or even raising a young girl from the dead, I just cannot help but be blown away by Jesus. His mercy is wondrous. His compassion is deep. And he’s got the power and authority to back it up. When we look at him and what he did while on earth, we witness the very presence of Almighty God. Truly, he does all things well (Mark 7:37). He is our Beautiful Savior.  

I'd like to think that my coffee palette is more refined, but...

Last Sunday's sermon included the narrative of Jesus's incredible display of authority over demons as he cast out Legion in Mark 5. In my study of the passage, I was faced with having to think through a moral dilemma that has always concerned me. The destruction of 2000 pigs has always seemed to me to be a huge waste of both living animals (those poor piggies!), and of economic assets. Well, as I related in my sermon (listen to the audio here ) I discovered that my question has always been wrong-headed. While there may be some usefulness in discussing the various questions related to this economic loss, the reality is that such questions miss the mark. First, such questions fail to exalt the stunning authority of the man Christ Jesus, which is truly the focus of the narrative anyway. Second, they fail to praise the merciful God who would love a person enough to free him from the demonic slavery in which he had existed for some time. He lived in torment! He lived in anguis...

I recently penned a review of the excellent book The Trellis and the Vine  by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. It's an indispensable book for pastors and church leaders. I wrote the review for 9 Marks Ministries, and it was just published on their website a few days ago. 9 Marks is an excellent ministry--helping churches reflect the character of God. Don't you want that for your church? I'd encourage you to donate to their good work on their website. It's easy to do and only takes a minute.