528 results for tag: blog

Realities – Old and New – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from June 2023 Two friends had been drinking at their local bar most of the night, and now they were finishing their evening by watching the 11:00 news. The lead story was about a despondent man standing on the side of a bridge threatening to jump.  As viewers watched footage of the main poised to jump, the newscaster promised to get back to the story after a short commercial break.   Don, thinking that his friend Gary had not seen the 6:00 news which showed footage of the man eventually jumping off the bridge, said to Gary “I’ll bet you $20 that he is going to jump!” Gary enthusiastically replied, ...

Battle About the Bible – by Greg Albrecht

... we do not worship the Bible. We do not believe it to be infallible. We believe that God alone is infallible. No human or human product is infallible. The Bible helps us to know God as God reveals himself to us through its pages.

Just What Do You Mean – The Narrow Gate? – by Greg Albrecht

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.—Matthew 7:13-14 This passage is often preached from the perspective of how hard it is to obey God and keep his laws—how hard it is to "make the grade" to get into heaven—how relatively few souls will be counted worthy of heaven while the broad majority will end up in hell. Matthew 7:13-14 is one of those passages that is regularly preached to mean something altogether different than the meaning that God intends. In fact, ...

A Joy Not a Job – Ed Dunn

Our Plain Truth Ministries team was working its way through a full agenda at a production meeting a few days ago. With those of us in the office around a conference table, joined by Brad Jersak (who lives in British Columbia) as he connects via Zoom, we hold these production meetings once a month. We use this time to plan the content and timing of upcoming issues of our two magazines, partner letters, special letters, upcoming podcasts and videos, website blogs, books to be published, as well as any number of events on our PTM calendar.  The time is also enormously beneficial in making sure we are updated about each other’s activities. ...

Ground Zero of Our Faith – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from May 2018 These first century A.D. Christ-followers lived in a port city, surrounded by promiscuity and permissiveness. They seemed anything but one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28) as they debated and endlessly argued some rather minor, inconsequential issues while losing sight of the BIG PICTURE altogether. Some appeared proud of tolerating incestuous sexual sin within their fellowship.  The Apostle Paul wrote two letters to this “wild bunch” of Christians in Corinth, addressing many specific problems and issues while relentlessly insisting on the BIG PICTURE of the cross of Christ. At the beginning ...

He Can’t Stop Loving You – by Greg Albrecht

By Greg Albrecht— Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”—John 11:25 Ray Charles is one of my favorite blues singers of all time. The movie about his life, produced several years ago, won several Academy Awards, and was simply titled “Ray.” Human suffering has given birth to much of our music, poetry, literature and art. The tragedies and the traumas of human relationships were the fertile soil from which many of the story lines and lyrics of Ray Charles’ music grew. CLICK HERE to ...

My Two “Moms” by Laura Urista

My mom, Charlotte Jean (“Jeannie” to those closest to her) passed away nearly eleven years ago. If she had lived, she would have celebrated her 97th birthday a few months ago. My mother-in-law, Teresa, would have been 90 years old this year. But as I write this, she died nearly two years ago. As I think about my two “moms”—these two wonderful matriarchs I was blessed to have in my life—I am struck by the stark contrast in my unique relationships with each of them. “Jeannie” My mom and I had what would be considered a fairly close relationship, but like many mothers and daughters, we excelled at “pushing each other’s ...

One In Christ Jesus – by Greg Albrecht

By Greg Albrecht— There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.—Galatians 3:28 What exactly is a mother? What is her job description? What does a mother do? There's a story about a man who came home from a long day at work—when he drove into his driveway he saw his three children, still in their pajamas, covered from head to toe in mud, fighting and screaming. He was just too exhausted to deal with it, so he walked right past his kids, through the front door, into a house that was in upheaval. Chaos reigned supreme. The TV was blaring, furniture had been knocked over, dishes were piled ...

Q: Has the Resurrection made Death our friend? (pt 4/4) Brad Jersak

This article completes our series on the question of whether or not Death is now our friend (click here to begin at part 1). So far, we've seen that while we must all pass through a process of dying that culminates in the event or moment of death, the resurrection of Christ radically changed the nature of death itself. It is no longer a destination or destiny to be feared in some dreary grave or gloomy underworld. Death in that sense has died and dying is a transition into the joy of the Lord. In this article, we explore surrender: a posture towards disease, dying and death:   What if we never have to ...

One Day in May – by Ed Dunn

We walked slowly into the funeral home together amidst a shower of cold rain and gray ash. Following him in, I can still see the collection of raindrops and ash making a paste on the shoulders of my father’s black pinstripe suit. My best friend, Tim, had died after being struck by a car a few days earlier. He died while delivering newspapers from the back of a bicycle on his early morning paper route. We were there, on that bleak day in May, to express our sorrows, to pay our last respects, and to say goodbye to Tim. A few days earlier, I had learned the pure joy of experiencing the natural intersection of blind chance, sport and self-disc...

Jesus’ Resurrection made Death our friend (pt 3/4) Brad Jersak

In this post, part 3 of our series asking if Death is now our friend, we will discuss Dying. Unlike death, our defeated foe, dying  is an inevitable reality we can come to accept:  Dying is not the same as death. Dying is a process prior to death. In our previous posts on death, we suggested a distinction between death as a moment or event that we all experience and death as a defunct destiny or destination that we need no longer fear. To that distinction, let's add two more important clarifications: We can now regard the event or moment of death as part of the dying process.  And we can treat ...

Q: Has Jesus’ Resurrection made Death our friend (pt 2/4) Brad Jersak

In this post, we will explore how Christ and the NT as a whole describe a fundamental shift in the nature of death in two essential ways as a result of Jesus' resurrection.  (CONT'D from Part 1, which is posted HERE). How have the death and resurrection of Christ fundamentally changed the nature of death itself? a. One approach is to say that death itself has changed. Death used to mean “consigned to the grave” (whatever that meant) but then with Paul, death came to mean “present with the Lord.” Death as our destiny shifts radically with Christ’s conquest of hades and the emptying of ...

Q: Has the Resurrection made Death our friend? (pt 1/4) Brad Jersak

QUESTION: Has Christ’s resurrection made death our “friend”? RESPONSE: I have reservations about calling death a friend. But I think it's worth doing an autopsy on death to explore the way Christ’s work changed not only our relationship to death, but changed the nature of death itself. I want to ask first, how is death not our friend, then how it might now be our friend and finally, how might we talk about death. So first, and easiest, why is the statement “death is our friend” not true? Most obviously, in 1 Cor. 15—dubbed “the resurrection chapter”—Paul calls death an enemy, and in fact, the last enemy to be destroyed, ...

The Mother Side of God – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from May 2023 We all have an intimate relationship with mothers – we are sons and daughters of mothers and grandchildren of grandmothers. We are husbands whose wives were/are mothers. We are parents of daughters and even granddaughters some of whom are themselves mothers. Breaking news! Remember, you heard it here first!! It’s obvious, I know, but for the record, let’s remember we all had a mother. Some are blessed to still have a living mother… if you do, take advantage of the time you have with her. Many of you are mothers, may you hear and know that you are cherished and loved by your children. Mothers are ...

Jesus: More Than a Man – by Greg Albrecht

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" (Matthew 16:13-15).        More than two thousand years ago, Jesus asked his closest disciples the same question that he has asked humans ever since. Who do you say that I am? The answer his disciples gave then, and that you and I give today, radically determines the direction of our lives.        Even those who have been skeptical ...