Blog (Page 10)
The Resurrection Gospel
Resurrection. Gospel. We hear these terms a lot in gospel churches, and rightfully so. But do you really understand the full impact of both of those words—resurrection and gospel? One is an event that happened at Easter, and the other is a message we have. We are coming to the end of our third Wall (the Ekklesia—the set-apart and called-out ones) of theological understanding on how we are BUILDING HIS CHURCH. Let’s remind ourselves again: what is the Church? The…
Watching Out for the Wolves
READ AHEAD: Acts 20:13-38 As you prepare for this coming Sunday, read the above Acts passage ahead of time as your homework. In this narrative, you will find that the Apostle Paul gets very personal. It reads like a love letter written from someone on a distant battlefield, writing heartfelt words home to loved ones. You see here how much Paul had poured his soul into these people and how much love he had for the people in the churches—the…
Reflections
I have been reflecting on how God has been guiding me my whole life. I grew up in a Christian home and attended church every week from the time I was born—but in my early years, I didn’t have a good role model of a loving parent at home. I went to private Christian schools (including a college from which I didn’t graduate). I became very familiar with the Bible through weekly lessons, sermons, and classes. But it took me…
Gospel Conversations Training: A Plea
In a few weeks, we will be hosting Gospel Conversations Training here at LifeWay. This is an all-day event on Saturday, February 26, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. We have announced this upcoming event on Sundays, written about it in the InnerView, and included it in our weekly 90-second updates—but I want to tell you again why is so important for you to spend a Saturday in late February for this training. If you haven’t noticed, I have preached almost every week,…
Do You Know How To Love Your…Enemies? (Part 2)
Okay. So Jesus commanded the Jews to love their enemies, and to pray for those who persecute them. In an exact same way, you and I are to love our enemies, and to pray for those who are out to make life very hard for us. But if we are honest, there is something in here that feels absolutely strange to us. We are to make life easier for our enemies, yet something inside of us is fighting just that.…
Mind Wars
1 Corinthians 10:12-13So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. I remember clearly the day I heard 1 Corinthians 10:13. I was a junior in high school, and I had gone to my youth director for advice…
Do You Know How to Love Your…Enemies? (Part 1)
Have you thought which verse in the Bible is the most difficult to you? I don’t mean to say which verse is the most difficult to understand, but which verse is the most difficult for you to obey and do. You will say to me there are so many of them in the Bible, and I will agree with you. For me, I don’t know if I can definitively say I have one verse that is the most difficult to…
Yes, That Unholy Behavior
Three years ago, I bought my wife a Christmas present: an unlimited car wash membership. We had just bought one of the few new vehicles that we had ever purchased, and she had always wanted an efficient way to keep a brand-new vehicle as new as possible for as long as possible. With this unlimited membership, not only she could go through the exterior wash as often as she wanted, but she could then have the interior vacuumed as often…
Wanted: Your Stories
What has God put on your mind and heart that your church family might need to hear? If you have been divinely inspired and encouraged recently by an experience, Bible passage, book or thought, and you are willing to write about it, we invite you to contribute to LifeWay’s blog! No previous writing experience is required—all submissions will be reviewed, proofread and edited by LifeWay staff, so don’t worry about twisting your grammar or mixing your metaphors. The important thing…
Crossing the Line
What bad behavior will send me to hell? Where’s the line in the sand? Wow…what a blunt question. But this is a fairly common question in church family circles. It’s actually something that was brought up when I was in youth group back in the ’70s. It comes up in youth group now, too! Some things never change. We all want to know where the line in the sand is drawn regarding “unholy” behavior. What can we do and not do in…
Cornerstone
Can you explain what is a cornerstone? Has anyone ever shown you one before? If you happen to be someone who has a background in construction, you may know much more about it. As for me, I am thinking that the cornerstone represents the stone that is set down on the foundation of a structure before any other stone. In addition, it is set down at what would be the corner of the structure, and thus the name, “cornerstone”. Perhaps?…
Welcome, Michaels Family!
LifeWay, I am proud to introduce to Edwin and Danielle Michaels and their children. Edwin Michaels is coming to join us as our newly appointed Youth and Children’s Pastor. Welcome, Michaels family! Long before Kevin and Rachel left LifeWay for their service overseas, we began a search for someone to serve in this important role with us. In fact, Kevin and Rachel were originally here to serve only two years, but due to COVID-19 craziness, they were pushed to three years.…
Prestigious Christianity?
Have you ever met someone prestigious, someone with name power and recognition? I like playing the game where you name three famous people, two of whom you have met and one you have not—two truths and a lie. Let me play the game now. I, Billy Arnold… …have shaken the hand of a U.S. President—before he was president, though. He was running for state governor at the time (now that narrows down which president I am speaking of). …drank coffee…
Should Your Toddler Drive Your Car?
Dealing With the Erosion of Shallowness in Our Church One of my favorite things to do with really young kids is to ask them how old they are. The answers are proudly shouted out: “I AM FIVE YEARS OLD!” Then I ask a follow-up question. “Do you drive a car yet? Do you have a driver’s license?” They seem a little confused and disoriented at that point, because they are trying to find a logical answer for why they don’t…
We Shall Be Holy
On Sunday, Billy introduced us to the third wall of the church, the ekklesia. In the most general form, the word means, “gathering”. But when the word is used in the Bible, it almost always refers to a “called out” gathering, a “holy” gathering, or a gathering that is “set apart”. The Bible has much to say about being holy. In the middle of 1 Peter, the Apostle Peter wrote that we must be holy in all our behavior. 1…
Ekklesia: The Third Wall
As we begin the new year, we start this coming Sunday with the third wall to building the Church: the Ekklesia Wall. What in the world does Ekklesia mean? And why is it so important for us to know this? I believe that this term, and this wall, is where the rubber meets the road. I believe this wall is the hardest to live out. I believe this is the most challenging wall to us. I am using this coming…
Awe and Wonder in the New Year
From my family to yours: Happy New Year to the wonderful LifeWay Church family! This coming Sunday, January 2, 2022 (!), we are going to have a family-style service—no kids’ classes, no youth group. Instead, kids and youth will join the adults. Together we will celebrate the New Year with some great musical worship, and we will open our Bibles again to an important message about how to Build His Church. I will be closing out the fifth message about…
Ambassadors Are We
I am nowhere near a news junkie, as Billy would sometimes call himself. But from time to time, I like to keep up with the news and get informed about what is going on in our world. This week I learned that our president nominated Caroline Kennedy and Michelle Kwan to be U.S. ambassadors to Australia and Belize, respectively. The Kennedy nomination caught my eye because she formerly served as U.S. ambassador from 2013 to 2017 to Japan, a country…
Christmas is a “Remembrance” Worship
Christmas Eve services are the most beautiful and meaningful services of the year. There is great theological depth to the word, REMEMBRANCE. God has told us that we are to REMEMBER times of undeniable encounters with him. He has instructed us to REMEMBER what he has done when we take the communion meal together with other believers. This week at our Christmas Eve services, we take advantage of this significant holiday in our world—and use this event to truly REMEMBER that…
Joy to the World!
Joy to the World—the 4th Advent Candle One of the most familiar of all Christmas carols starts like this: Joy to the world, the Lord is come!Let earth receive her King;Let every heart prepare Him room,And heav’n and nature sing. We know the story, but do we understand how amazing it is that the God of the universe came down to us AND he came for us—that he is a substitute for what we could not do on our own?…
What Child is This?
This coming Sunday morning, December 19, we will be all in for Christmas during our worship time together. On this day of Christmas celebration, we will have the kids light the fourth Advent candle, we will give a special Christmas gift to the children, and I will share a Christmas message entitled, “What Child is This?” Most of us have a list of favorite Christmas songs; on my favorites list is the song with that title. But it’s not just a…
A Dependent Prayer Life
As you get ready for this Sunday, December 12, read ahead in these three locations out of the book of Acts: Acts 1:12-14 Acts 2:42-47 Acts 4:23-31 Philippians 4:1-13 2 Corinthians 5:7 We are working on building what would be called the second Wall to His Church—the Koinonia/Fellowship wall. This week, I am concentrating on the prayer part of the believers’ life. In each of the above passages, I want you to highlight the word prayer when it appears, thinking…
The Image of God
In my devotional time with my 12-year-old son this past week, we talked about what it meant for God to say that we were created in his image. Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’” After our sovereign God created the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the cattle and every living thing that creeps on the earth, he created the man and woman in his image. What…
Advent, Week 2: Love
This coming Sunday, we will enjoy watching the second Advent candle being lit, the candle that represents love. Whose love are we talking about? Luke 1:26-38 tell the story of the angel Gabriel coming to the young virgin girl Mary, who was pledged in marriage to Joseph—but it was announced to her that she would have a child. When this was announced, of course she was scared to the core. But in this announcement, she was told that she has…
Breaking Bread, Sharing a Table
There are times when I like to read the Bible slowly, and even in a repetitive fashion. Now, of course I read chapters of the Bible most of time in the same fashion we all read—rather quickly. But I like slow reading, too, as I will go back and review a verse or two over and over again, thinking carefully about why certain words or phrases were used the way they were. This is true of the short passage in…