This blog is Pastor Jay's weekly musings about God's Word, God's world, and God's call to our culture. We hope they encourage, challenge, and inform you. Sign up to recieve them in your email.
Knowing God's will is an ever-present issue in Christian living, and rightly so. We are called to follow Christ, to submit to his will, and to obey. These commands make it necessary to know what God wants us to do. This much is clear. But after that clarity, the chaos begins. There is no end to the wild ways people have pursued knowing God's will. People have done everythi...
Keep ReadingLast Sunday we gave some focus to the matter of waiting upon the Lord. The matter of waiting does not seem to be a complicated one. We have waiting rooms in which all we do is sit. Isn't waiting the most brainless, effortless activity of them all? That is not the kind of waiting we are talking about. Life is not like a waiting room; a response like that would be closer a...
Keep ReadingIt is an awesome thing to think that this command in John 15:9 "abide in my love," has been uttered by the infinite God. If ever there was a command to embrace, this is it. In fact, it is made even more mind-blowing when Jesus says immediately before this command that "just as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you." How can this be? Jesus loves us with the depth...
Keep ReadingI read a letter from a missionary today and it got me thinking about a topic the church needs to think through regularly and precisely. That topic is expendability. What do we mean when we speak about being expendable? It means the willingness to be spent completely, in all manner of life and experience, up to and including death, for the sake of the kingdom. That mis...
Keep ReadingOne of the most frustrating realities, and at the same time one of the most wonderful realities, is that God is not like us. This is wonderful because if God became moody or capricious, even for a moment, all of reality would be unalterably unhinged. We tend to forget this. And we forget it because we are busy suppressing our angst that God hasn't done what we see as c...
Keep ReadingWe have all been asked the question. If you could choose just one superpower, what would it be? Today I heard an expert weigh in on the issue. During an interview on Up To Date, hosted by Kansas City Star's Steve Kraske, two long time science fiction writers, George R.R. Martin and Melinda M. Snodgrass, were asked this very question. I was very interested. Here were two ...
Keep ReadingKnowing God's will is paramount for the Christian. At some point, God brought us to our senses and we found that our own understanding got us into the pig slop of the prodigal or the self-righteous bondage of the Pharisee. But by grace, we tasted the fresh air of Jesus' lordship, wisdom, love, and more. Our short-sighted, sinful take on life was just not going to work an...
Keep ReadingLeaving a church should be a difficult undertaking for multiple reasons. First, it should be difficult because of the questions one needs to answer before leaving. Second, it should be difficult because of the relationships you built within the church. If your leaving is not a very difficult thing, it is because one or both of the above has not been adequately considered...
Keep Reading1. When there are church problems Ironically, this is one of the most common reasons people leave a church. When you think about it, however, this is crazy. Satan is hell-bent on destroying the church. With such a powerful being opposing us, do we really think any good church will avoid problems? I would say you have something to worry about if there are never problems....
Keep Reading1) When there is false teaching. Doctrine is the engine of decision making. What we really truly believe drives our behavior. Therefore, there is nothing more important in a church than continuous, faithful teaching of Scripture; especially in matters of essential doctrine. If our beliefs are not constantly challenged and corrected by Scripture, then we might be in a ch...
Keep ReadingThis is a great question. I mean that. It really is. To be more precise, the question is "why does God seem to heal all types of diseases, but never once heals someone with an amputation?" Don't get me wrong. I know how this question can be asked. This question can be launched from a person who is looking at you with the narrowed eyes of a hunter peering through a rifle ...
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