Posts from 2023 (Page 2)
Summer of 2023 in the books!
This past Tuesday our staff office team had a review and evaluation time of the summer events, programs, teaching, and ministries we had as part of the life and LifeWay for the summer of 2023. It was productive for review, but far more importantly we had to ask ourselves ‘was it productive when we measure our goals. So… what was our goal? The goal was our theme for all things post Easter (May – August). The theme was Engage! Engage…
All Things Work Together for Good
What Bible verses can you recite from memory? Most Christians can usually recite a few verses from the Bible. The reason why they can remember a certain Bible verse varies from individual to individual. Maybe it was the first Bible verse they ever remembered from Sunday school. Maybe they bought a coffee mug or throw pillow, with the verse printed on it. Maybe the Bible verse become a favorite because it encouraged and inspired them during a difficult time in…
Spiritual Habit of worship
Over the whole summer, beginning in June, we have spent time with 6 Spiritual Habits for a growing and thriving Disciple of Jesus… This Sunday August 27 we will look at the 7th on our list… When you use and hear the word “Worship,” most of us think of music, singing, or even we might call it “going to church.” But it is far beyond this. As you come this Sunday morning, spend some time looking over and contemplating Romans…
For in the day you eat of it (Part II)
Read Part I Adam and Eve, however, did not die only physically. That is only part of the story. When a sinful being collides with a holy God, something else is happening. Colossians 2.13–14 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has…
For in the day you eat of it (Part I)
We all know the story. In the beginning, God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Genesis narrative seems to say there were many trees inside this garden. God told Adam he may eat from any tree in the garden. But there was one tree in the garden where its fruit he may not eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat…
Desna Cup 2023
You should know by now that we will once again (2nd weekend in a row) NOT be worshipping in our building, but instead this week we will be at the sports field at Saghalie Middle School Federal Way (close to Fred Meyer) for an outdoor service joining with a few other churches. We did this last year, and it was wonderful, so we are doing it again. But what is “Desna Cup?” Why is it called that? What is the…
Essence of Rest
REST What is rest? As a spiritual discipline, rest can be defined as the ceasing of work with the purpose of focusing on God. Why do we need to rest? We as humans are tasked with work. From the very beginning of creation God tasked humanity with a work to do. Certainly that work became toilsome because of Adam and Eve’s sin, but there always was and always will be work to do. However, God also commanded his people to…
Fear of the Lord leads to Sharing our Faith
How often do you think about fear? Maybe when you talk with young children about a bad dream that they had. Or maybe when you talk with a parent of a teen that’s about to move to a new city and start college. Or maybe when you talk with someone who is in an unstable work environment and their future seems unsure. In all those cases, the root idea of fear is that something, whether known or unknown, is coming…
Giving Faithfully
You already know this but the Bible teaches the Christ believer to give to God. This includes resources of all types such as our time, our gifts, our energy, and our talents. One of the most distinctive practices of the Christian life is, however, that he or she also gives financially to God. Not everyone in the world understands this behavior. We especially cannot expect those who do not understand what is the Christian faith to understand why Christians give.…
Spiritual Habit of Giving
We have identified 7 Spiritual Habits for a Christian that we are teaching all summer long. Most of us would all agree pretty easily that (1) Prayer and (2) Reading the Bible are an easy fit. We may or may not actually do it regularly, but it is easy to agree that we should and would like to learn to do it better. We would even easily agree that “Gathering” (or simply put — be at church gatherings regularly) fit…
Essence of Giving
What is Giving? Scripturally, we are to give of our time, talent and treasure. These are not mutually exclusive. Our Creator has blessed us with time, abilities and talents, and financial resources. Giving back in each of these areas is simply a recognition of our understanding that, without God’s blessing, we would have none of these! For purposes of this discussion, we will focus on the giving of our financial resources. Why is Giving important? We give to demonstrate where…
The Spiritual Habit of sharing
A couple decades ago, Matt and I were living in Dallas while I was in seminary. As a part of my evangelism class, he had agreed to come with me to the State Fair of Texas to work at a booth where people could ask questions about faith or have someone pray with them. It seemed non-intrusive enough—until one of our friends (a guy with a huge heart and a clear gift for evangelism) said, “Hey Matt, let’s go chat…
The Spiritual Habit of Gathering
Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 4 with the last few verses from each of these has always been a picture of what a church gathering should look like. I have heard teaching lessons all my life from these sections. I have also taught these passages many times dating all the way back to my high school days. Whenever church members have needed a good example of what a church gathering is to look like, this is where we most…
Spiritual Gathering
Did you know that there is a spiritual habit of “Gathering?” This is the label that we give it in our church when we include it on the spiritual habits list. Some might use the term “meeting” or “assembling” or “get-together,” or even “fellowship.” But I would use the basis for this spiritual habit from two major Scripture passages in the Bible… Look these passages up before you come to service this Sunday and use the filter of the importance…
The spiritual habit of God’s Word
When you hear the word “discipline,” do you think of words like control, regulation, work, authority, rule, or strictness? Maybe it explains why so many Christians ignore the pleas of pastors across the country who want their flocks to make a discipline of reading their Bibles daily. Polls show that although the Bible is still among the best-selling books of all it remains one of the least read. At Lifeway, we believe being in God’s Word is critical to our…
The Discipline of Spiritual Habits Summer 2023 (Part II)
A huge thank you to our guest speaker for the last couple of Sunday’s, Scott Brewer. If you did not get a chance to be at the services, you can listen to those messages via our website. Scott spoke to us out of his years of experience on how to grow strong with a consistent prayer life. This week Alvin and I have also led what we are calling a “LifeWay Prayer Lab” where we have laid out some practical…
What If There Were No Bible?
The American Bible Society issues an annual State of the Bible each year. The title of the 2022 survey statistics caught my eye. The study reported that roughly 26 million Americans had mostly, or completely stopped reading the Bible regularly during COVID-19. This made me sad. It says to me for one reason or another, Americans who used to read the Bible have decided they would no longer do so. The reason may be because we are busier than ever.…
The spiritual habit of prayer
At LifeWay we elevate prayer as a hallmark of a maturing Christian’s life. God commands in scripture that Christians pray for a host of reasons including: It is clear that scripture indicates that prayer is about so much more than simply asking God for what you need. Rather it is a consistent communication path with God available to us all at any time. Matthew 6:9-13 is the most famous prayer of all when Jesus himself commands us to pray: “Our…
Lesson from a Hose
Have you ever thought about how God uses people, places, things, and timing as He answers prayer? Some people would say “It’s a coincidence”, that at just the right time the right person or the right place or the right action answered a prayer. I think a lot about the ways God answers prayer. I pay attention as he reveals answers. Sunday, we heard from Scott Brewer. He shared that listening is key to recognizing God’s answer to our prayers.…
The Discipline of Spiritual Habits Summer 2023
Last week Alvin wrote an article, then preached a sermon on Sunday to help launch us into our summer plan. He used the word “Discipline” — a word that most of us don’t like very much. We all know we need it, but it is just too hard! We just don’t seem to have enough willpower. It often just takes too much work, right? But most of us really know we need it in several areas of life. Why do…
…Practice These Things
What do you think of the word, Discipline? I don’t mean discipline as in using discipline to punish a person for making a mistake. But I mean discipline as in training oneself to reach a certain improvement or goal. This past week, a friend told me he had been training hard for his very first triathlon in his life. But for the most of us, No, we don’t think very highly of the word. Discipline stirs up feelings of pushing…
Knowing the Unchanging God in an Ever-Changing World
This Sunday I am going to teach the last in this series “Knowing God,” but by saying this, please understand, there is NO WAY that we have come to end of what it means to Know God. We have taught about 35 Sunday’s using this headline “Knowing God.” We have taught a great deal from Exodus, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Matthew, John, and Hebrews… and have looked carefully at many other Scriptures as well during this whole academic year. Some of us…
The Shema: Deuteronomy 6:4
The Shema: Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” In the days of Moses, just before they were to cross the Jordan River to enter the promised land, the people of God – the Covenant people Israel – were given this command that we find in Deuteronomy 6:4. It is famous in the Jewish world and called “The Shema.” This literally means… “listen!”…
Raising the Next Generation to Know God
What a joy it is to be a parent. Well… most of the time, right? Just this week I saw on Facebook another one of our families who is celebrating their little babies month by month birthday. It’s that cute photo of the infant laying on a blanket surrounded by those 12 numbers with a circle on how many months old they are now. Those are the cutest photos and what a joy it is to celebrate. This coming Sunday…
Some of My Thoughts on the Levite (Part II)
Read Part I. When we hear that the Levites did not receive a land inheritance like all the other tribes, it is easy for any of us to think they were, in some way, less than the other tribes. But that would be a mistake. It would be wrong for us to think God did not care for them as much as he cared for the other tribes or love them as much as he loved the other tribes. Why…