It does make a person wonder what exactly these brothers did to make the Corinthian church pay up.
All tagged Scripture
It does make a person wonder what exactly these brothers did to make the Corinthian church pay up.
If you walk into a pre-K classroom and tell one child you like their socks, within seconds you will have 15 four-year-olds all showing you their socks. We all want to be seen.
If we are to be unified in the church, we’ve got to find something bigger to unite around, and the mission of God in the world may be the only thing that fits the bill.
In the story of Zacchaeus, we see two clear examples of what it looks like to push back against accepted culture and instead do what is right.
In the New Testament—and still today—the Spirit prompts a worldwide and cross-cultural vision of the kingdom of God.
I am thankful we have forthright, get-to-the-point early Christian leaders like James to remind us of the key to it all.
We will mess up, make mistakes, and mis-handle situations. We will sin and fall short. But we will love, no matter what.
I fear that we’ve buried our noses so deep in our texts, that we have forgotten that we have a mission in the world.
Unless we reconsider our traditional handling of the biblical texts on elders, we may stall these selection processes before they even begin.
Could it be that from this point on, the Christian church should be about movement and the spreading of this tent to the ends of the earth?
The Holy Spirit’s presence is seen when people who were divided in the world have learned to come together in the church.
God’s kingdom is all around us, but we must be able to see it as a child does in order to experience its wonder and joy.
We are all storytellers. We want people to see a piece of who we are, who we love, what humbles us, what makes us proud, what shatters us, what brings us peace.
The third (and most annoying) way to end narcissistic shepherding is through the willingness to not shepherd. At least not that sheep at that time.
Our respect for previous generations often creates a crisis when the moment comes for our generation to assume responsibility for the Lord’s work.
Anyone can encourage someone else. It’s encouraging them in God that distinguishes our worldly friendships from those in the body of Christ.
It is important to remember that our purpose is to discern God’s will for how to live, and choose that.
The moral of the story is to be wary of striking rocks as leaders of God’s people. We need to steer away from the temptation to make what we do about ourselves.
Acts 15 provides a witness to the 21st century church, revealing a way forward in a religious world that doesn’t notice how big the tent actually is.
I can’t help but wonder what it would look like to be someone who obeyed the first time the word of the Lord came to me.
