The Fragrance of True Worship
“Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, the one Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there; Martha was serving them, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took a pound of perfume, pure and expensive nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped his feet with her hair. So the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”John 12:1-3 After the amazing miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus returned
The Characteristics of a Kingdom Disciple
The Characteristics of a Kingdom Disciple – Part 1 Matthew 5:1-3: “One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, 2 and he began to teach them. 3‘God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.’” (NLT) Exhausted by the crowds, Jesus leads His disciples up to a mountainside to teach them about being a citizen in God’s kingdom. They were familiar with the Roman kingdom but
Putting on Spiritual Armor for our Children
Dear Friends and Family, Putting on Spiritual Armor for our Children Ephesians 6:4, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” The greatest declaration of our witness as fathers and parents to our family is standing as true followers of Christ in the deadly spiritual war against the enemy. Life in Ephesus was similar to our culture today and forced Christians to stand up to the test of truth. If something is true, we cannot speculate on
Lord of the Storm
Dear Friends and Family, We pray that you and your loved ones have successfully weathered last week’s epic, historical polar vortex of brutally cold temperatures and freezing precipitation that affected the entire state of Texas as well as other parts of this country. Our life storms and Mother Nature’s storms are not news to God. No matter how epic the proportions of our storms—our personal crises—appear to us, Jesus is still Lord of the Storm. No matter what kind of storm Jesus encountered—a storm on the Sea of Galilee,
The Gospel According to Ruth: God uses ordinary people
October 13, 2020 Dear Friends and Family, This morning during a men’s group, we shared how God leads different people into our personal lives to connect us to our faith in Christ. In the New Testament, Matthew 1 starts with a list of ordinary families God used to become part of the lineage of Jesus Christ. God presented his Son, Jesus, to the world through normal, but problematic, human families whose lives were messy and challenging, but whose roots of faith were in God and his promises. We too have
Become SALTY Disciples of Christ
Dear Friends and Family, As in any culture, Christians are called by the world to blend into “political correctness.” In the first century Jewish-Roman culture, Christ was also expected to be religiously and politically correct. However, he challenged the men and women following him as disciples to be like salt and light and leaven in a dark and decaying humanity. Centuries later, we know there is nothing new about sin in our world or the pressures we feel to be like everybody else. Christian persecution, because of our Lord Jesus,