Embracing Biblical Diversity

When we spend eternity together as children of God in the New Earth, what color will we all be? What language will we speak? How loud will the music be? Which genres of music will be heard? What will our dwellings look like?

If you're picturing a scene similar to the movie iRobot, where thousands of identical, white robots are lined up in a uniform and sterile environment, then I'm afraid your conception of heaven is far off. Consider a couple of observations about the New Earth from the book of Revelation:

Giving Up in Order to Gain

Sacrifice always hurts, because sacrifice requires that we lose something.

We don't like losing things. If our flesh had its way, we would always hang on to our time and treasures. We would only accumulate -- gaining, gaining, gaining until we die. 

This is just greed, is it not? Greed can be defined as the insatiable thirst for more, or the never-ending desire for the next thing. We thirst and desire because we tell ourselves (or have been told) that it will satisfy. But this, of course, is deception. Sometimes we know it, and pursue it anyway.

Wisdom, Help, and Perspective

If the Word of God is not your ultimate authority, then what would be? You could think of several answers: scientific researchers, political leadership, popular philosophers, your own inner voice, your parents, some ancient book of proverbial sayings like Confucius, etc. But what do all of these options have in common? They all come from man and focus on man.

True Relationship with God

 

When people hear you talk about your spiritual views...

(Pause. Do people hear you talk about your spiritual views?)

When people hear you talk about your spiritual views, do they hear more about church, programs, and other people, or do they hear about the living God?

Twenty Years A Christian

I was fifteen years old. Lost. Unaware of the road ahead.

I first trusted Jesus Christ in June of 2006. The Lord had been explicitly drawing me to Himself for months prior. In the first half of December 2005 I was invited to the church I lived next to -- a non-denominational, Bible-based community church. Though my family moved there when I was five, I attended my first service there about a month after I turned sixteen. That Sunday morning I saw joyful faces and heard a joyful noise. I'm sure I heard the gospel. It was different, and I was interested.

That June, though, is when I first expressed personal faith in the Lord. It came about through dramatic circumstances that I wouldn't have chosen for myself if God had consulted me. Praise Him that He didn't.

The Greatest Love

Last year our church studied John 15, covering verse 13 which says, "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." It was a good time to dwell on this verse, as it was just before Veterans Day in America, when we remember the great sacrifice that so many servicemen have made so that we may live in freedom.

Christ's great love for us is a sacrificial love for His friends. It's also a sacrificial love for His enemies (see Romans 5:6-11). This sacrifice liberates captives, releases prisoners, and frees slaves. Sinners are forgiven of all of their sin and law-burdened weaklings are emancipated.

By Faith, Not By Sight

How do you effectively live for God when you can't see Him working? 

At times, we can start to live under the impression that we should see and understand God's works in all of our dealings. We begin to think that what God is doing should be relatively obvious, and, if we can't see it, there must be something wrong with us. Or perhaps God is not involved in that particular situation. Or maybe He has abandoned us to one degree or another.

Church: An Essential Service

There are some professing Christians in the world who have a very poor attitude toward the church. Sometimes they have been hurt by others; other times they have just never come to understand the purpose of the body of Christ. I always hate to hear someone claiming the name of Christ out of one side of his mouth, while down-playing the importance of regular local church fellowship out of the other.

More Ideas for Better Fellowship

Fellowship is the life of the church. Without fellowship, our gatherings are just mere meetings instead of being corporate worship experiences. Without fellowship, we are merely associates instead of being brothers and sisters. Without fellowship, God's word ceases to have the effect it should--our common goal being to "love one another" even as Christ has loved us.

Below are some ideas you could employ to deepen your fellowship with the members of the body here this week.

The Gospel Must Be Proclaimed

"Proclaim" is a good word. Like any word, it can start to sound and look strange if you repeat it too many times or stare at it long enough. But in English, it comes from the Latin words for "forth" (pro) and "shout" (clamare; think "clamor"). The Greek is similar, as it combines "from" and the base word for "angel," or "messenger." This verb then carries the sense of declaring, announcing, and preaching. 

The Apostle Paul used the word in this wonderful verse: "Him (Jesus) we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ," (Colossians 1:28, LSB, emphasis added).