Archive for the ‘ Church ’ Category
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Matthew 22:37-39 ESV
In world focused on ignoring God and loving self, we gather together to encourage each other to love God and others sacrificially.
What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4:9, ESV
This world draws away from God and His Law, so let us gather together to study Scripture and help each other to live in a way pleasing to God and have His peace.
Send thine hand from above; Rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children;
Psalm 144:7, KJV
We gather as the Church to remind each other of God’s grace and faithfulness in the midst of a society that rages and wars against God.
Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down! Touch the mountains so that they smoke!
Psalm 144:5, ESV
We come together to remind each other of God’s promises and covenants, especially that God came to us to redeem us from sin.
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!
Psalm 143:10, ESV
It is not natural for us to want to do God’s will, so we meet regularly with fellow believers – those empowered by Christ’s Holy Spirit – to encourage each other to lovingly obey Him.
Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.
Psalm 143:8, ESV
We need reminders of God’s love and faithfulness, and this is why we gather together as the Church, to lift each other up to our Savior.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
John 15:12, ESV
God became a man to show us His love and grace, reminding us of the greatest commandments: Love God and love others.
Now we share His grace by loving His saved and forgiven people, the Church, as well.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
James 1:22-24, ESV
We all want a better world, but we must be part of making the world better. If we are truly followers of Christ, we will obey Hos commands to go into all the world. Otherwise, we are merely actors, not workers.
I wrote this 12 years ago, and it still applies. I can happily say that I currently live in a place where many churches live this out. I am part of a Youth Leader cohort that meets about once a month. They are very dear to me, as are the chances to meet up with them!
Daniel
There are a lot of disagreements between the various denomination in the Church, and even between various congregations within those denominations. Some congregations are non-denominational, yet they can still be as unfriendly toward other churches. During the Reformation, countries were divided by regions. Each region could choose to be Catholic, Lutheran, or whatever else was […]
Denominational Cities
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
James 5:16, ESV
We like to think we can do things on our own, including earning forgiveness.
We must regularly confess our sins – to each other that we might lift each other up, and to God that His forgiveness may flow in us.
a simple man of God 