What does God want? Praise? Thanks? Commitment? All of those are good, but Micah mentions three other things that are good, three behaviors that God wants: He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with [...]
Archive for the ‘Church’ Category
What God Wants
Posted in Bible in a Year 2011-2012, Church, Micah, tagged community, faith, humility, life, mercy, religion, spirituality on May 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
A Restoring River
Posted in Bible in a Year 2011-2012, Church, Ezekiel, Spiritual Disciplines, tagged faith, life, religion, spirituality, worship on May 14, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Ezekiel’s vision continues with a river that flows from the temple, the place where people worship God together. It’s a restoring river that provides nourishment and healing to a dry, dying land. A group of church leaders once asked me what I thought was the main purpose of worship. My answer: to praise God. Worship [...]
Returning Glory
Posted in Bible in a Year 2011-2012, Church, Ezekiel, Leadership, tagged faith, God, life, Randy Harris, religion, Rubel Shelly, spirituality, The 2nd Incarnation on May 13, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve been reading The 2nd Incarnation: A Theology for the 21st-Century Church by Rubel Shelly and Randall J. Harris. The revised edition was published in 2001, and I wish I had read it earlier. But it’s helping me do some thinking and praying that are beneficial at this point in my spiritual development. One of [...]
Take Me There
Posted in Bible in a Year 2011-2012, Church, Ezekiel, tagged faith, life, religion, renewal, revival, spirituality, vision on May 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The prophet Ezekiel says that the Lord “was on me and he took me there. In visions of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain… He took me there, and I saw… The man said to me… ‘Tell the people of Israel everything you see’” [...]
Breathing into Dry Bones
Posted in Bible in a Year 2011-2012, Church, Ezekiel, tagged faith, life, religion, revival, spirituality, valley of dry bones on May 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Countless generations before us have heard prophetic voices of revival. I still hear them today, especially in ministry with young adults who are so passionate about spirituality and service. We want to see change. We desire authentic experiences of God. We need to be parts of a mission bigger than ourselves. Sometimes our zeal gets [...]
You Are Not God
Posted in Bible in a Year 2011-2012, Church, Ezekiel, Poverty, tagged faith, humility, life, religion, rich and poor, spirituality on May 8, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
In the pride of your heart you say, “I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas.” But you are a mere mortal and not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god. The prophecy against Tyre continues with those words in [...]
Idols in the Church
Posted in Bible in a Year 2011-2012, Church, Jeremiah, tagged faith, idolatry, life, religion, spirituality, worship on April 14, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Most Christians I know would never worship the kinds of idols found in the book of Jeremiah, idols chiseled out of wood and decorated with gold and silver. My culture contains temptations to worship other idols: financial investments, technological innovations, political preferences, professional prestige, personal safety and comfort, capitalism that oppresses. Such idols command our [...]
Life in Community
Posted in Bible in a Year 2011-2012, Church, Conflict, Proverbs, Relationships, Unity, tagged community, faith, hold your tongue, life, Love, peace, religion, speech, spirituality, words on March 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Biblical spirituality happens in life together, and that life of humility and love requires us to look beyond our own desires and preferences for the good of the community. Healthy communities need healthy communication. Words of gossip, slander, and rebellion result in unnecessary conflict; but words of righteousness and wisdom nourish peace, as we see [...]
Day 183: Psalms 96-102
Posted in Bible in a Year 2011-2012, Church, History of Christianity, Psalms, Spiritual Disciplines, tagged faith, hymns, religion, songs, spirituality, worship on March 1, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Psalms 96 and 98 begin with the same words: “Sing to the LORD a new song.” When I was preaching for a church in Texas, I taught a series about the history of worship. We began with worship in the Hebrew Bible and continued through the New Testament and the subsequent history of Christianity. One [...]
