CWR Blog

Christianity Without The Religion BLOG hosted by Brad Jersak.

Peace Arrives!

Our Savior, who rescues us from danger, disaster and destruction has arrived! The peace of God is a new kind of peace, not a relative calm between storms, but an abiding, eternal, internal peace give to those who can never deserve it nor ever do anything to merit it. https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR043.mp3

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CWR Video – Lucy Peppiatt – “The Incarnation Part 2”

Videos
Short video by Lucy Peppiatt on the Incarnation (part 2).

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The Love of God Revealed in and Through Jesus – Greg Albrecht

The significance and meaning of Christmas is critically important – it is far too easy to miss the forest of the gospel while tunnel vision focuses on trivialities such as a Christmas tree. The Christmas tree serves as an example of the less than monumental and momentous aspects of the birth of Jesus, fitting the idiom of “don’t miss the forest for the tree.” There are many trivial pursuits and distractions aren’t there? The meals, the gifts, the music … an endless list of diversions that detour us away from the Christ-centered forest of faith.  The ...

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Reflections Along the Jesus Way

December 10, 2023 - Quote for the Day:  “Christmas is about God who, in the person of Jesus, came to us willing to confront the very worst of what it means to be human, and love us anyway.”  Originally published in: Letters to My Friends ------------------------------------- Help Us Help Others - Give Now

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Sometimes Waiting is Hard – Brad Jersak

Waiting: “Advent” is a word I was unfamiliar with as a child growing up in my Baptist tradition. But in my years with the Mennonites, I became familiar with the ritual of lighting candles on the Advent wreath in anticipation of Christ’s nativity. Advent, I learned, meant arrival but intrinsic to that word was the waiting, the anticipation and the longing of God’s people for his appearance and especially his deliverance. As a little boy, I relived that expectant hope as the calendar slowly edged forward to Christmas. Sometimes Waiting is Hard I think most children ...

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The Long Wait

The sermon speaks to our long wait, waiting for “the blessed hope.” Greg encourages us to "live and experience December" - to fix our eyes and our spiritual compass on Jesus, and recommit to receiving God's grace. https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR042.mp3

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Not What Religion Expects – Greg Albrecht

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. —Isaiah 53:3 Jesus was not just ignored nor was he merely disliked. He wasn’t simply a minor irritant—he was despised and rejected. Strong language—powerful emotions! When someone is despised they are regarded with contempt and scorn, they are hated and loathed, and regarded as unworthy of interest or concern. When someone is rejected, others refuse to accept or recognize them. ...

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Reflections Along the Jesus Way

December 7, 2023 - Quote for the Day:  “She had never been with a man – not even the man she was going to marry.  As a bride-to-be, the teenage girl named Mary lived each day making plans, dreaming of the future and looking forward to her marriage.   Everything was ‘normal’ and her future seemed promising until an angel of the Lord appeared to her saying, she was ‘highly favored.’ … Having a child before she was married was not high on the list of things to which Mary aspired – giving birth to a child before marriage whose father was anyone ...

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The Comfort of Christ

As we begin a season of anticipating the coming of Jesus, Greg's sermon is based on Isaiah's prophecy of Christ as comforter. https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR041.mp3

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God in the Manger

Many of us are more willing to accept Jesus Christ as the helpless, dependent baby in the manger than as Lord of our lives. We don’t want to hear how he challenges our beliefs and our way of life, but the central truth of Christmas is that the baby in the manger is God!

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CWR Video – Lucy Peppiatt – “The Incarnation Part 1”

Videos
Short video by Lucy Peppiatt on the Incarnation (part 1).

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Q&R with Brad Jersak- “How do we trust God when prayers for healing are denied?”

Question: How do you remain in a state of trust and faith when your prayers for healing are continuously denied? Not to mention those of your friends and family.   When I read about Jesus in the scriptures, I see a character who values restoring those to healing and wellness. I don't recall Jesus ever turning anyone away, or saying He wanted to teach someone "a lesson" with their suffering. I also think of the following verse: James 5:14-15 – "Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with ...

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Reflections Along the Jesus Way

December 5, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “… this season of the year reminds us that the future is not our enemy.  For Christians, the future is not a time to fear, it is not the place of death and defeat.  For as certainly as Jesus was born, he will come again.  Christ the Lord has come.  He has come to be one of us, born of the virgin Mary, born in humility and poverty.  He died on his Cross.  He rose from his tomb.  He is coming again!”  Originally published in: Spiritual Soup for the Hungry Soul, Volume 1 -----------------------...

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Coming to Jesus

Travel is very much a part of Christmas. We join bumper to bumper traffic as we shop, we fly many hundreds of miles and travel our freeways to be with family and friends. Travel was a part of Christmas from the beginning, but at the first Christmas travel was for a different reason.

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The Cradle and the Cross

Christmas upsets many people because at least once a year they can’t run away from Jesus. When Jesus shows up, things change, the status quo is threatened. It is a time of challenge and confrontation to religion and politics.

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