Years ago, almost 15 years ago in fact, I sat waiting for someone to unlock the building next to our church. It had been a busy week. While I waited, I decided to pray. The Lord spoke a few short sentences. I have never forgotten them. These few short sentences continue to define my understanding…
Category: Church
Who, Me?
“You have abandoned the love you had at first.” “You accept other gospels.” “You tolerate sexual immorality.” “People say you’re alive but you’re dead.” “You are lukewarm, self-satisfied, and complacent.” These are things Jesus said to the churches in Revelation chapters two and three. As I read these statements today, I thought about whether any…
Daddy’s Little Helper
My four year old son loves doing projects with me. Any project. Today we stained a railing bordering exterior stairs to our basement. I showed him how to dip a brush in the stain, wipe off excess stain, and apply stain to the railing. To the best of his ability, he worked with me almost from…
Keep on the Shunny Shide
A book I’m reading advocates for the Matthew 18 model of church discipline: If someone sins, talk to him one on one. If he doesn’t respond, re-approach with two or three others. If that doesn’t work, take him before the church. If he doesn’t listen to the church, “let him be like an unbeliever and…
David & Michal
One of the high points of King David’s reign was when he brought the ark into Jerusalem. Priests carried the ark into the city of David. Wearing a linen ephod (priestly boxers), David danced and leapt around worshiping with abandon. The people blew the top off the city with shouts, praises, and trumpet blasts. It was…
Mosaics, Quilts, and Piles of Socks
What should church “look like?” How should we “do church?” I hear these and similar questions bandied about regularly. There are lots of different answers. Some say we should “do church” like they did in the New Testament. In reality, there was no single New Testament way of “doing church.” There was a mosaic of…
My Sister, My Bride
The following are lyrics to a song the Lord gave me a few years ago. (Listen to the song here). The words are based on Song of Songs 4:8-5:1. At the time of their writing, Solomon was poetically praising his lover. In the Spirit, we can hear Jesus singing a love song to His bride,…
Divine Polygamy
Polygamy lurks in the shadows of theology. We know it’s there but don’t talk much about it. Christians consider polygamy heretical and immoral. But what do we do with Abraham, Jacob, or David? All of them had multiple spouses without one rebuke from God. And why would God say anything? Polygamy is nowhere condemned in…
Synergy
http://www.123rf.com/photo_13502276_green-atom-electron-llustration-on-black-background.html Judges 19 tells the story of a woman who dies after being gang-raped. Her grief-stricken husband cuts up her body and sends a piece to Israel’s 12 tribes (Judges 19:29). Outraged, the tribes assemble “as one body” to deal with the crime (Judges 20:1, HCSB). The woman’s dismemberment evokes the Last Supper and the…
The Thousand and One: Guest Post by Cameron Fultz
Recently the Lord showed me a symbol that the early church had built directly into the architecture of their churches. It is a symbol that, I now believe, expressed the reality of our life union in Christ in a number of ways including the major patterns of biblical types. While searching for ancient examples I…
The Voice of One 