The Christian Life

Sunday, February 24, 2019: What Shapes Your Expectations for Gathered Worship?

February 21, 2019 // 0 Comments

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration (Read More)

Sunday, February 17, 2019: To Be Seen or Not to Be Seen—That is the Question

February 14, 2019 // 0 Comments

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:14–16) But when (Read More)

Sunday, February 10, 2019: Gathered Worship is an Act of Confrontation

February 6, 2019 // 0 Comments

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9) I don’t like confrontation. I try to avoid it, and when it cannot be avoided, it agonize over it. Which is funny to me, because, as a worship leader, I think of gathered worship largely as an act of confrontation. I agree with author (Read More)

Sunday, February 03, 2019: God is Jealous But Not Insecure

January 30, 2019 // 0 Comments

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? (James 4:4–5) Much of the time, as far as human beings are (Read More)

Sunday, January 27, 2019: The Key to More Jesus

January 23, 2019 // 0 Comments

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? (Psalm 85:6) Perhaps the greatest mistake we can make with the Bible is to confine its witness to the past—to see stories like God parting the Red Sea or bringing down Jericho’s walls as relics we admire from a distance as we tour a museum of theological history. Yet (Read More)

Sunday, January 20, 2019: How Gathered Worship Gives Us Perspective on Life

January 16, 2019 // 0 Comments

Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:17) We live in an atmosphere of anxiety. With just the swipe of a finger, you and I can access countless news feeds (Read More)

Sunday, January 06, 2019: Enjoying God’s Steadfast Love in 2019

January 2, 2019 // 0 Comments

“How precious is your steadfast love, O God!” (Psalm 36:7a) The Bible speaks often of God’s “steadfast love.” Or in Hebrew, His hesed (חֶסֶד). Hesed is love in its most durable form. It is covenant-keeping love. When things get dire, hesed does not throw in the towel. It does not ebb and flow based on (Read More)