Doing God's work, one step at a time

For those of you who were not with us last week, we were going through “The Life of Christ” and we had our course corrected by God. We started looking through this idea of “Why do YOU go to church?” What is it that brings you to church service on Sunday morning? We went through some various reasons why, but we came to the conclusion that we are supposed to be here first and foremost to Worship God only. That’s why we’re here. Today we are looking at the 2nd reason why. This week was my final week of Intro to the Pauline Epistles. I had to do a research paper on a certain passage from one of the letters of Paul. As I started to dig into the passage, 1 Timothy 3, which is the leadership passages, I discovered that Timothy was located in the church at Ephesus. We also have Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church in our Bible as well. The Ephesian church was being warned by Paul to repent otherwise there will be some dire consequences from their actions. This Ephesian church was extremely div...

Is everyone ready to be thrown off today, because I am preaching from the pulpit this morning? It is not something I normally do, but it is something that I felt I needed to start doing. Before I begin, the past week and a half for me has been extremely difficult, but extremely spiritual. I have come across some things and made some discoveries that I believe everyone needs to hear. On Monday, I was in my office and I was very depressed. I wasn’t feeling the spirituality. I was just very down. I was talking with a colleague of mine that day and he is having trouble in his ministry too, so we were just patting each other on the back, trying to give another look on the situation. It can be very helpful to have another opinion. While we were talking, we decided we needed to go back to the basics and reexamine what “The Reproductive Church” looks like. So, we sat down and came up with this model of the “Acts 2 church”. I know I’ve said it before, but it is the church described in Acts 2 th...

This week for the blog, I am going to post an answer I gave for one of my assignment questions this week. After this post, I will make a few more comments. Now, if you are unfamiliar with the word 'cruciformity', it merely means 'crosslike'. So, if I were to state that we should live a 'cruciform' lifestyle, that means that we need to live a 'crosslike' lifestyle, in other words 'formed to the image of Christ'. 2. Which of Paul's big ideas (chapter 6 in Gorman) do you find most compelling for the church to grasp or grapple with at this time? Choosing between two of these is going to be difficult. The reason being is that two of these, in my mind, go hand in hand. Gorman lists #9 as “Cruciformity, or The Law of Christ” on page 140, and #11 as “The Church as Alternative Community” on page 141. The way I see our culture is that we are self-centered, pied-piper following groupies. Most people go to church on Sunday to get their “get out of he...

God is good. God is faithful. Just when we are having issues with certain things, He prompts us with beckonings of the Holy Spirit to guide us in our thinking, walk and lifestyle. I was having lots of issues this week with direction for the church when I listened to a sermon today on "Confusion". Ooooooh goodness...basically it stated that "oneness" can be a good thing, and it can be a bad thing too...Just because we unite together in a church, doesn't necessarily mean we are doing God's Will. Only by seeking His face through the disciplines will we see the direction He is calling us. Unity is a good thing...we just have to be sure we are all united on God's path, not our own particular desires. So, what's the direction for our church? Well, it's gonna start with prayer, fasting, solitude and sacrifice. We will then realize the goal for our little church in due time. I can guarantee it doesn't involve only sustaining the church. It involved g...