Tag: Christ
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The Christian Hope
Why did Jesus have to come and die on a cross? Could God simply have created a world with no sin? Could He not have gotten people into heaven without having to die? It’s His wrath, could He not withhold it if He wanted to? Why worship Jesus? Why celebrate Him? I’m so glad you…
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Dear Teenager,
When I was a preteen and a teenager growing up in church, I remember feeling as though there was no place for me. We had youth group, and our youth group averaged more than one-hundred students on Wednesday evening. We went to camps, went on retreats, did missions projects, had cool t-shirts, had awesome music,…
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Is Christ Really Lord?
If I were to step into any church building and speak to any congregation and ask, “Do you believe that Jesus is Lord,” I would receive a resounding, “Yes!” From less charismatic congregations, I might receive a slight hand raise or nod in affirmation. I have never spoken to someone who professes to be a…
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Is Faith Actually Profitable?
Last week, we learned together that we eagerly give our time to the things that we love. If we love Christ, we spend time with Him. If we love people, we spend time with them. If we love food, we spend our time eating. Amen? The action of taking time to listen to what God…
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Could Jesus Really Rise From the Dead?
As Christians, we really do make a claim that seems to be outstanding. The claim is that our Savior not only died on our behalf, but was also raised from the dead. In all reality, I have to wonder if anyone really has a reason to believe that we are making the correct claim. As…
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Christ’s Eternal Nature
Darkness and light. We could think about the differences. Darkness obscures while light distinguishes. Darkness hides while light reveals. We relate darkness with cold and light with warmth. In the darkness we can hide our imperfections but we don’t know where we are stepping. It’s impossible to move forward and to grow more mature. In…
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Christ’s Resurrection
In Matthew’s Gospel, the resurrection is the resolution of the story and the final proof of Jesus’ messiahship and authority. Jesus was born “King of the Jews” according to Matthew. He performed many miracles, taught that He was the Messiah with the very authority of God. Jesus predicted His own death 3 times in Matthew’s…
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When Wrong Feels So Right…
One of the first things I dealt with as a serious Christian was the distraction of worship. There are two ways that we can try and worship God. One way is in Spirit and in truth and the other way is according to our own preferences which are outside of the Spirit’s leading. It’s not…
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Pride (something deeper than sexuality)
Over the last forty-eight hours I have seen more pride than I can manage. I am not speaking of the LGBT community or the recent Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states. Chances are, most of those reading this know exactly where I stand on the moral issue of sexuality.…
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Christian, is your world too dark? (Matthew 5:13-16)
Consider, briefly, the purpose of the pen. It is used to record and that is its purpose. Just as the pen was designed with a purpose, so also you and I were designed with a purpose, and we belong to a community that was called to a specific purpose. A pen is at its…