1786 results for tag: Greg Albrecht

Great Exchanges – by Greg Albrecht

Your first thought at this time of the year might be those frenzied crowds in shopping malls and department stores on the days immediately following Christmas. People exchanging and returning gifts they received that were the wrong size, wrong color—or just plain wrong! But there's another exchange we need to keep in mind. This great exchange is the reality of the cross of Christ. Jesus Christ took our sin and died for it, paying the debt that we could not pay. In exchange, God, because of his grace, gives us eternal life. Our sin for eternal life! The great spiritual exchange. Great exchanges characterize the month of December for Christians ...

Nothing But Jesus

While it probably wasn't a New Year's resolution, the Apostle Paul made a resolution that can inspire and direct us as we prepare for a New Year. https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR463.mp3

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

December 26, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “… when Jesus was born, he was born far from the doors of any cathedral or temple made with human hands – far from any mega-church campus.  The place where Jesus was born had more in common with places today where homeless people fill shopping carts with redeemable containers and poor day laborers wait for someone to hire them… When Mary gave birth, she gave birth to Jesus in a barnyard, and laid him in a feeding trough designed to feed animals.  This scene was not a beautiful hospital birthing room – Jesus was not laid in a hygienic room with a window where friends and relatives could view ...

Do Not Be Afraid

One of the most frequent and comforting biblical themes was part of the message given to three of the principle characters in the first Christmas. Join Greg for this Christmas message as we see that Zechariah, Mary and the shepherds were all encouraged "not to be afraid." We are given that same encouragement! https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR201.mp3

Joy To the World

Join us for this fitting special Christmas service of celebration and praise as Michael North joins Greg. Michael sings while Greg discusses the gospel contained in this great hymn, whose lyrics were written by Englishman Issac Watts. https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR202.mp3

When the Time Had Fully Come – by Greg Albrecht

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But When the Time ...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

December 24, 2023 - Quote for the Day:  “The Incarnation is about The Visitor, when we became a visited planet… The Visitor brought heaven to earth.  Moses gave us the law, but The Visitor personally delivered his grace and truth (John 1:17).  When the law came, it came by the mailman (or, if you like, by Fedex), but when grace and truth came, God delivered it personally.  God, in the person of Jesus, personally delivered grace and truth, so that you may know that God’s law has no power or condemnation over you.  God’s law, delivered through Moses, cannot accuse you, because it was God in that manger.”  Originally ...

It All Started With a Baby

God in the flesh decided to start out as a baby. Who would have written that script? Why in the world did he begin his earthly life as a baby? Celebrate the birth of our Lord with us! https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR253.mp3

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

December 21, 2023 - Quote for the Day:   “Christmas is about a baby, a really vulnerable baby, born into poverty, into a land that is militarily occupied, to a race of people who are horribly oppressed.  God in the flesh – even when it didn’t seem like God is with us. Christmas is about a baby whose life is threatened soon after his birth so that his family has to run to save his life – they have to become aliens and immigrants.  That doesn’t sound like God is with us, does it? Wait – What about beautiful Christmas trees and expensive presents and lavish meals and feasts and huge choral concerts?  Nothing ...

God With Us and God For Us

Join us for a Christmas celebration as we ask and answer exactly what Christmas is and what it is not. https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR358.mp3

January 2024

CLICK HERE to read now (PDF Format) Articles: A Tiny Ripple of Hope – pg. 1 Four No's of Our Lives in Christ – pg. 2 Ageism: Prejudice Against Our Future Selves – pg. 4 What's New? – pg. 6 Eden as a Metaphor – pg. 7 Quotes & Connections – pg. 8

John’s Christmas Story

The Christmas story in the Gospel of John is the one that is least heard and least told in Christmas sermons, yet it is the mind-expanding big picture of the birth of our Lord. https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR357.mp3

Just Another Party? – Greg Albrecht

Many contemporary Christmas celebrations and traditions have strayed far from the reason for the season. Jesus is often left out in the cold as many observe one of two opposing celebrations that appropriate his name: 1) a secular Christmas, or 2) a religious Christmas. A secular Christmas is usually all about eating, drinking, spending and consuming to excess. It’s just another excuse for a party. A religious Christmas is all about doing the right things at the right times in the right places with the right people. Authentic Christianity offers a third option, one that is neither secular nor religious. The focus of a Christ-centered Christmas ...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

December 19, 2023 - Quote for the Day:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning (John 1:1-2).  While many stories begin with the words ‘once upon a time’ John’s Christmas story, about eternity invading human time and space… begins with the words ‘in the beginning.’  Instead of telling us about ‘once upon a time’ the sense here is ‘once before time.’ John writes about ‘in the beginning’ – before time existed, before time began, before the creation of the world as we know it, and before God came into the world in the person of Jesus… He ...

Change Don’t Come Easy

The birth of Jesus announces the radical transformation of God's grace, a change that angers and upsets performance based religion.   https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR409.mp3

That Baby Was God!

It’s so easy to sugarcoat Christmas, turning it into a fantasy land dream world of decorations and tinsel and holly and gifts and inspiring music. It’s so easy to miss the fundamental, majestic and mysterious truth of the incarnation of God. https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR408.mp3

The Real Story of Christmas – by Greg Albrecht

Many customs and traditions that surround Christmas are flights of fancy promising unrealistic escape from the here-and-now into a never-Neverland of endless fun, frivolity and feasting.  But the real story of Christmas is far from an idyllic fantasy filled with “stuff and fluff.” The real Christmas story is about the pits, foxholes and dark places of our lives – to which our Savior comes, to be with us and one of us. The real story of Christmas is that Jesus comes to us – he joins us where we are. Jesus does not rapture us away to “somewhere over the rainbow.”  Matthew 2:13-23 tells us the story of a murderous despot ...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

December 17, 2023 - Quote for the Day:   “God, though what we call the Incarnation, came into our world in the person of Jesus.  Jesus came into our time-bound world from eternity.  The dilemma that the Incarnation presents for our human minds is that Jesus remained divine while becoming human.  He still inhabited boundless eternity, but he also inhabited the limitations of our world and what it means to be human.  He came into time.  He was born, lived, died on the cross and was resurrected.  He is now risen; He’s still in time as well as being outside of it.   The Book of Revelation is from ...

It’s Not All About Mary

God came to our world in a completely unexpected and miraculous way through Mary, an ordinary teenager who was completely different from a woman who would have been considered worthy of such a calling. Jesus is still coming, to completely unexpected, ordinary people, like you and me! https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR407.mp3

Who Is, Who Was, Who Is to Come – by Greg Albrecht

"Who IS, and Who WAS, and Who IS TO COME." This phrase begins with the word "who"—a reference to Jesus Christ—and ends with the word "come"—which is also a reference to Jesus Christ, and his comings. When people think of Jesus, they think of either one, or at the most, two of his comings. They often think first of what is popularly called his "first" coming—the coming of God, to this earth, in the person of Jesus. The first coming is the Who was in the title of this article and in the first chapter of Revelation. Next, they think of what is popularly called his "second" coming—the future coming of Jesus to this earth. The second coming ...