CWR Blog
Christianity Without The Religion BLOG hosted by Brad Jersak.
Brad Jersak
Here Is Your Mother
Celebrate Mother’s Day in the context of the love and admiration Jesus had for his mother.
CWR Video – He Loves Us Anyway by Greg Albrecht
Short video on God's love by Greg Albrecht.
We hope that our articles and resources bring comfort, hope, encouragement, and healing to our readers. If you’re experiencing that, please subscribe freely, share freely, and, if you’re able, please consider donating freely toward paying it forward by clicking the blue giving at the top of your screen.
“Why Seek the Living Among the Dead” – Brad Jersak
Violated, Grieved, Relieved & Liberated
A dear friend of mine recently experienced humiliation by patriarchal connivers in her church. It took me back to the era when unwed pregnant teens were forced to stand before their congregation for public shaming and shunning (no father named or present!). Their experiences were violations and overt spiritual abuse.
But my friend is no teenager. She felt the violation, allowed herself to grieve, then relatively quickly moved on to relief and even liberation. Why? Because she can simply leave and, gratefully, safer ...
Reflections Along the Jesus Way
May 6, 2025 - Quote for the Day:
“Some people think God must not exist, or if he does, he doesn’t care because he allows disasters and accidents to happen. But God never told us in the Bible that such things would not happen. In fact, he said they would, to those who are believers as well as those who are not.”
Originally published in:
Between Religious Rocks and Life’s Hard Places
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Sample One of Our Daily Audio Messages
"Mothers and Grace"
If you’ve ever munched on a bag of cookies you thought you purchased with your own “hard earned” money, only to find out that you were eating someone else’s cookies, you know the answer to the question: What do we have that we did not receive?
We hope that our articles and resources bring comfort, hope, encouragement, and healing to our readers. If you’re experiencing that, please subscribe freely, share freely, and, if you’re able, please consider donating freely toward paying it forward by clicking the blue giving at the top of your ...
Mothers and Grace
If you’ve ever munched on a bag of cookies you thought you purchased with your own “hard earned” money, only to find out that you were eating someone else’s cookies, you know the answer to the question: What do we have that we did not receive?
When did the ‘Finished Work’ start? – Brad Jersak
"It is finished!"
One of the beautiful catchphrases in the Christian tradition is "the finished work of Christ." We typically associated the phrase with Christ's decisive declaration from the Cross, "It is finished!" In this post, I'd like to ask what is finished and when it started.
The words, "It is finished," in Gospel context are found only in John 19:30. The full verse says, "When Jesus had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished.' With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."
What was finished?
First, the word we usually translate ...
Wisdom in the Information Retrieval Age
Where is the wisdom that comes from heaven in this most educated and knowledgeable era in human history? What is that wisdom?
The Great Tribulation – Greg Albrecht
Question:
Can you please tell me who will be going through the tribulation? Is it the unconverted, is it God's people?
I have heard so many things about it and they don't make sense. Some say those a part of their church will be, just before the great tribulation, jetted away to safety on the wings of a great eagle. Some speak of a three and ½ year tribulation just before the Second Coming, others say it will be seven years. Who will have to endure it, and who will be saved from it? Surely the great tribulation is not God’s anger being taken out on ...
CWR Video – The Wrath of God
In this CWR Video, Brad discusses progressive revelation and how the concept of Wrath has been used in Scripture.
https://vimeo.com/1015771501
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Reflections Along the Jesus Way
May 3, 2025 - Quote for the Day:
“Penal substitution is a legal term, a forensic model of our relationship to and with God. But the gospel is not about forensic punishment, evening the score or paying our debt. The gospel is about forgiveness, grace, mercy and love, so that God seeks our love, not his satisfaction. God in Christ is not worried about the holiness of his name or reputation – they are set aside on the Cross, when Jesus endured and consumed all hatred, evil and sin forever. How? Not by a legal mechanism, but through ...
God = Grace, Love and Fellowship – Greg Albrecht
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Corinthians 13:14).
God is love. That’s the most concise biblical definition given to us. God IS love… which is infinitely beyond love being one of many of his attributes. Love is his essence, his totality and center of his being.
It seems that God as Triune is embedded within this passage in Corinthians. However, while I believe the best biblically-based explanation about God is a Trinitarian definition, I also believe it is “the best ...
Saints and Sinners
Today's sermon assures us from the Bible that Christians are both saints and sinners at the same time and that Jesus does not turn his face from us.
Giving Life by Ed Dunn
This Month at PTM - May 2025:
Watch a short video and the message on "Giving Life" by Ed Dunn as he updates us on the latest from Christianity Without the Religion and Plain Truth Ministries.
https://vimeo.com/1075400776
Recovering From Legalism – Quiz
Could you be a legalist?—Take the quiz!
Answer yes or no to the following questions:
God's love for me depends on what I do.
Meeting the expectations of others, especially those in my congregation or in positions of authority, are paramount.
Moral and ethical questions are usually black and white and only made into fuzzy shades of gray by hand-wringing, bleeding-heart types.
I try hard to obey God and it irritates me that others think they can get away with avoiding the same level of dedication.
I fall short because I don't have enough faith, or ...
Reflections Along the Jesus Way
May 1, 2025 - Quote for the Day:
“Our physical world is filled with death and decay. The cycle of life ensures aging and obsolescence. You buy a shiny new car and five years later it looks like it has been through a war. You move into a new house and you try to maintain it, take care of the plants and the lawn, keep the house painted – but sometimes, in spite of your best efforts, given the time you have, the house seems to start falling apart around you. You buy a computer, only to find out a few years later that it is obsolete. ...
When Your Religion Fails You
Pastor Greg shows that Christ’s invitation for us to come to him promises rest FROM religion, its legalism, its demands and its failure to give us rest.
Our Debt Forgiven
At dinner in a Pharisee’s house, Jesus forgave a harlot. Her debt was great, yet she was forgiven. You will be forgiven too, if you accept Jesus Christ as your savior, but if you try to do it on your own as the Pharisee did, then your debt remains.
Jesus: Historical and Experiential – Jim Fowler
An unfortunate separation has often been made between the Jesus as narrated in the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the Jesus explained in the rest of the New Testament writings, particularly in the Pauline epistles. In the minds of some the Jesus of history and the Jesus of experience are detached as two different entities or two different stories. How do we explain the differentiation between the physical, visible, and tangible presence of Jesus recorded in the Gospel accounts, and the risen, ascended, invisible, and spiritual presence of Jesus ...
The Transgressive God – Kenneth Tanner
There’s no boundary the human God will not violate to sit down at the table with all of us.
Our transgressive God brushes arms with an agent of larcenous Rome as they dip bread from the same bowl of olive oil.
God leans into a woman, listening; places his arm around the penitent’s shoulders as she pours out the secrets of her heart.
This ease at table with sinners does not sit well with those who mistake God for someone who keeps a record of wrongs on an invisible slate, eager to cancel some persons altogether.
The offended confront Jesus about his ...
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