60 results for tag: Jesus
January 2023
CLICK HERE to read now
(PDF Format)
Articles:
Nothing But Jesus – pg. 1
A New Beginning – pg. 2
Loving Doctrine More Than People? – pg. 5
Savannah Bananas – pg. 7
Quotes & Connections – pg. 8
Focus on Christ – Not on Fear – by Greg Albrecht
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself— nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance" (Franklin Delano Roosevelt, first inaugural address, March 4, 1933).
Weltschmerz—a German word meaning world-pain or world-weariness is used to describe mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state. Based on the anxiety and concern contained in reports and letters we receive from those we serve, as well as a general condition of weltschmerz in our society, there is no doubt that fear, worry, stress and tension are wreaking ...
Q&R – Does Christ ‘deny us’? with Brad Jersak
Question:
I have a question about Matthew 10:33 and 2 Timothy 2:11-12. Both passages describe Jesus denying us. This seems to be contrary to his nature and contrary to most of the theologians I find myself reading. Yet, I see these statements (among others) that seem to paint Jesus has relatively severe.
My task has been to try and see the self-giving God revealed in Jesus and yet not neglect the hard sayings of Jesus. I’ve actually found the task of Christology to be more difficult than I had imagined.
Response:
Let's start with our shared assumptions,
(1) that the God revealed in Jesus Christ is radically inclusive, unfailing Love whose mercy ...
Built to Last – by Ed Dunn
Matthew 7:24-25 (NIV) - “Therefore everyone who hears these
words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built
his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the
winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it
had its foundation on the rock…”
As we’ve all been faced
with the fear and uncertainty caused by recent events, and many of our
normal rhythms and routines of life have been forced to change, at least
for the time-being, I’ve been reflecting on a favorite teaching Jesus
offered for just such a time as this.
In this passage,
Jesus presents the parable ...
May 2022
CLICK HERE to read now
(PDF Format)
Articles:
Closer Than You Know – pg. 1
Reflecting on Grace – pg. 2
Scared Prayers – pg. 5
Memories & Mercies – pg. 7
Quotes & Connections – pg. 8
When Your Dreams Wind Up in the Pit
By Greg Albrecht—
"Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other. "Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams." When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. "Let's not take his life," he said. "Don't shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don't lay a hand on him." Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.
So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the richly ornamented robe he was wearing—and they took him and threw him into ...
Who Am I — Who Are You?
Chances are you have asked yourself one or more of the following questions: "Why am I living?" "Am I making a real difference?" "How can I be successful in my life?" "When all is said and done, will my life be regarded as significant or insignificant?"
As we try to answer these questions about what is truly important and how we can be a significant person, our world at large offers counterfeit solutions which lead us through a maze of meaningless activities. A famous musician flying in a private jet is worshipped as an idol—and accorded the ultimate honor of being called a "star" —while a farmer who works the land and produces crops for ...
You Ain’t Got No Easter Clothes
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."—John 11:43-44
Welcome to the party! Easter is the annual celebration Christians around the world anticipate and long for. Once again we savor victory in Christ. As Christians we are celebrating the most triumphant and victorious day in all history.
Let's begin with the words of Peter, who tells us, in 1 Peter 1:3-4:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has ...
When Jesus seems unChristlike – Brad Jersak
What do we do with Scripture when even Jesus seems unChristlike?
I can think of a good number of occasions where Jesus seems to either depict his Father as harsh and brutal (if we incorrectly read the king/master parables as straight-across imagery for God) or seems quite "judgy" himself, to the point of what we imagine as unChristlike. While many such verses can be chalked up to rhetoric, hyperbole or figures of speech, sometimes they do seem over the top, particularly in the letters to the seven churches of Revelation (chapters 2-3).
If Christ reveals the nature of God as love, as cruciform (cross-shaped) and as non-retributive, then ...
Hope in Desperate Times
By Greg Albrecht—
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
—Proverbs 13:12
People often give up on God because they feel he didn't fulfill their expectations. And where, exactly, do people receive their education about what they can expect from God? If you answered "religious institutions" you get to pass "Go"— collect $200 and receive a "get out of religion free" card.
One of the major sources of discontent with God is that many people do what they think God wants them to do because they expect him to make them feel good ("bless" is often used instead of "feel good"). And of course we all want to ...
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 ...
Who IS, and Who WAS, and Who IS TO COME
by Greg Albrecht
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
John,
To the seven churches in the province of Asia:
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful ...
The King Who Became a Man
by Greg Albrecht
The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood (John 1:14, The Message).
During his reign (1910-1936) King George V of the United Kingdom and the British Empire visited Leeds, a city in the north of England. When he was informed that a school was situated next to the railway line, King George agreed to have the train slow down so that he could appear on a platform and wave to the children as the royal entourage passed.
When the king came outside the train he wore no outward signs of royalty, but was dressed in a suit, like any other male subject of his kingdom. After the train glided by and the cheers of ...
Is Jesus too religious for you? Brad Jersak
Belief in What Jesus Did
As a young Evangelical of the Baptist persuasion, my spiritual tribe taught me a lot of beautiful things about what Christ has done for us. Our preachers sermonized week after week about salvation by grace through faith in Christ crucified and risen, almost always from Paul's epistles (or so my fading memory recalls).
I don't at all regret that Baptist immersion into the saving effects of the Cross. Since then, my vision of what Christ did for us all has broadened, deepened, heightened and lengthened. It's less like an economic transaction or judicial verdict and much closer to a revelation of divine love. It's ...
How Can Jesus Be 100% God + 100% Human?
Q: You have said the Bible does not teach a mixture of divine and human natures. Could they be joined in such a manner that it would be possible for Jesus Christ to die as both God and man?
It is hard for me to believe these two natures were united in such a manner as to allow only the man in Jesus Christ to die. It is said the Son of God became flesh so he could suffer death for all men. Did God fail?
You have also said that Jesus was and is God. "He always was God and always will be God," you once wrote. If the man in Jesus died and the soul of man was commended to God in heaven and the body of Jesus went to the grave, where was the God ...
I Want to See
By Greg Albrecht—
For the last time during his earthly ministry, Jesus was en route to Jerusalem. He had only a few days left in his earthly life—with every step he took toward Jerusalem he knew he was that much closer to the awful pain and suffering that awaited him. The road took him through Jericho, a city located about 17 miles northeast of Jerusalem. It was just before Passover—one of the three times in the year when pilgrims traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts of the old covenant. So the road was crowded with travelers, and as a result there were many others alongside the road—small businessmen and entrepreneurs, as well as ...
“Break It Up” by Ed Dunn
We received a distressing email from our Mom the other day. Both the tone and the content of her words were uncharacteristic, and alarmed my brothers and sisters and me to a point of picking up the phone. Over a series of calls at different times, we needed to make sure she was okay.
Our Mom’s message expressed a deep concern for everything that’s been happening in our nation today - the political divides, the racial divides, the economic divides, and the fact that no one seems to be listening to anyone, anymore. She lamented how far we’ve come, so fast, and that, not in a positive direction. She then went on to worry about the world her ...
Love or Justice?
by Greg Albrecht
The discussion of eternal torment and the fate of the "unsaved" is often framed, by the law and order crowd, as a matter of God's love or his justice. Those who are intent on relegating those who, to their knowledge and satisfaction, have never heard or accepted their version of Christianity to eternal torture, often characterize those, like myself, who primarily look for answers based on God's love and grace, as soft-headed, soft-hearted and weak.
So which is it—love or justice? Is God primarily a God of love or a God of justice? Here's what I see as the fundamental flaw in real, he-man, tough-as-nails Christianity:
...
Plain Truth Ministries | Box 300 | Pasadena, CA 91129-0300
