Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote two books in which he discussed the call of Christ both to the individual and to the congregation (The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together). He said that Christ calls the individual alone, but that individual does not remain alone. Bonhoeffer gave us a...
A strange thing has happened since Jesus first told his disciples that he would always be with them. The promise of Jesus’ presence has been separated from his command to go make disciples of all nations. The Lord is with his people always and everywhere. But,...
A strange thing has happened since Jesus first called people to follow him. Faith in Jesus for salvation and following him as Lord have become two distinct Christian experiences. It’s as if there are two different ways of approaching Jesus and we are free to...
We all want the world to be right. We want goodness and peace. We long for things to be as they should be, where people are doing what they are meant to do and the world is functioning well. This is a good longing, and we...
As important as it is to have something to live for, we can’t overlook the need to have something to live by. We live for a purpose, a calling, an ultimate goal. We live by some kind of guiding principle, set of values, and convictions...
Years ago, I realized that I didn’t really like going to conferences related to my work. I almost gave up reading anything related to pastoring and church growth. There was one big reason for this: I wasn’t “amazing.” Listening to the experts often left me...
We have all heard that actions speak louder than words. God’s action is his word. We hear his voice by seeing his deeds. Romans 5:8 says that God demonstrated his love for us by sending his Son Jesus to die for us while we were sinners....
Embedded in our culture is the proverb to “follow your heart.” The idea is that we are what we are, what we are is basically good, and we should let what we are take us wherever it leads. This way of living is thought to...
This Sunday at Grace we will bring our summer preaching series on prayer to a close. In June, we considered Jesus’ prayer in John 17. In July and August, we have been in the Gospel of Luke. We could talk about prayer from any book...
Jesus told his disciples that the world is a harvest field and that they are the laborers (Luke 10:1-3). We understand Jesus to mean that the church is to pray and go into the world with the gospel of the kingdom of God and call...
