Blog (Page 10)
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…
Devoted to the Word of God
Acts 2:42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship (Koinonia), to the breaking of bread and to prayer. As we taught last Sunday morning, this verse is a snapshot of what was taking place in the early Church that we see in the book of Acts. The amazing events at Pentecost had just occurred; thousands came to faith there in the city of Jerusalem, and the Church (the Koinonia church) was coming together. And what did they do? What was…
Giving Thanks
There is nothing is quite as grand and noble in life than GIVING THANKS! Thanksgiving is such a unique and wonderful American tradition, but as we learned at our Thanksgiving service last Sunday evening, giving thanks is historically not unique to America; it comes out of the tradition that God set up with his covenant people long ago. One of the powerful theological terms that we build our faith on is the word, remember. God says over and over again,…
To Whom Shall We Pray?
In your daily quiet moments with God, to whom do you pray? What I meant to ask is do you pray to God the Father? Or do you pray to God the Son? Or neither? Or simply, God? Somewhere, sometime, I must have learned to pray to God the Father whenever I prayed. Ever since I was a little boy, I have mainly prayed to God the Father. I say mainly because sometimes I prayed to God the Son. And if I…
Fall Leaves: KidVenture Art
Last week during KidVenture, I helped teach the LifeWay kids some basics in acrylic painting. I have been teaching art for years and wanted to share my expertise with them. While we painted huge cutout leaves, we reflected on the sermon and shared stories about being an effective witness. God created each person unique and individually beautiful—just like the leaves in fall. Each has a different shape and yet belongs to the family of leaves. LifeWay children are important to…
Koinonia: The Fellowship Wall
Κοινωνία—The Fellowship Wall We Build for His Church When you are around a church for a while, one of the most familiar terms used to describe it is FELLOWSHIP. The English word here comes from the Greek word in the New Testament, Koinonia (κοινωνία). When I was a young man, this word was most often used as the ideal goal of the Church. There was the feeling that this is what we sought after, described with words like… Caring fellowship Loving…
Thanksgiving in the Bible
Some of you may know this, but I didn’t grow up in America. In Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan where I grew up, as in America, people celebrate holidays. But there were no holidays I can remember where families and friends came together purposefully to give thanks in those countries. This is why it is most interesting to me there is Thanksgiving in America. The most important holiday in both Taiwan and Hong Kong is the Chinese New Year. The…
GIC: What’s the Big Deal?
What’s the big deal with Global Impact Celebration week at LifeWay? Right now as this goes out to our church family, we are in the middle of our annual Global Impact Celebration week. Last night (Wednesday) we kicked things off with a celebration worship service, where we introduced some amazing guests who represent incredible gospel work around the world. But one part of the service really stood out to me. For about eight minutes, we showed a video produced here…
International Students: Sojourners Loved by God at Our Doorstep
I recently learned there’s a special day dedicated to students studying outside their countries and it’s coming soon. It’s International Students’ Day that’s celebrated on November 17th. Here’s a short description via Wikipedia. “International Students’ Day is an international observance of the student community, held annually on 17 November. Originally commemorating the Czech universities which were stormed by Nazis in 1939 and the students who were subsequently killed and sent to concentration camps, it is now marked by a number…
Dear LifeWay Church Family…
You have often heard me say that the Global Impact Celebration (GIC) week at our church is far and away the most important week of the year. I have said that now for 10 years; that has been and remains to be true to this day. With that said, I’m writing this to remind you of the value of what is coming over the next few days. I am pleading with you, as your pastor, to treat this week with extra care and attention. If…
Preparing for Sunday
Beginning with last Sunday, we are taking four Sundays to work through the biblical application of the word, OBEDIENCE. The essence is that we must determine our identity, and then literally live it out—do it—BE it. Take a moment and try to remember back as a child, to what you dreamed of being as a grown-up. I wanted to be a naturalist—a wildlife specialist of some kind. All I knew of and imagined in this job was that I would spend…
The Doctrine of Prayer, Lost
Recently, Billy and I attended the Puget Sound Baptist Association Leadership Conference and Annual Meeting. There were the usual things to cover at a meeting like this. The Executive Director gave a report. Ministry teams also gave reports. New leaders for the coming year were announced, and the new budget was decided. But in the middle of the order of events, a representative from the International Mission Board came up to encourage us and remind us the importance of prayer.…
Global Impact Celebration—GIC Time
I recently preached two of what I call “location sermons” on video. The first of those sermons was in front of the Annex, where I began many years ago. The second sermon was in front of our main building, which was built about 30 years ago. I did this to help illustrate the fact that we think a church is traditionally formed—a building, a place, a pastor, a sermon. These elements are wonderful parts of our history, but they are not…
Preparing for Spiritual Battles
Have you ever been in battle? I mean a real military battle! For me, one who was born in the USA in the late 1950s, I was never in the military. I was too young for Vietnam. Neither of my parents served in the military—they were too young for WWII. Neither of my grandfathers served in the military—they were both too young for WWI, and too old for WWII. My wife’s father served in the Korean conflict days, but didn’t…
Distributing the Priceless Bounty of God’s Kingdom
Have you ever owned something of great value that was extremely precious to you? Have you ever shared something of great personal value with someone who benefited greatly from it—maybe something that filled a huge void in the person’s life? A meal to someone who was hungry? A tutoring lesson to someone who needed help with a classroom assignment? Emotional support to someone who was experiencing grief? A shoulder to cry on for someone experiencing pain? This coming Sunday morning…