What does it mean to live like Jesus? What does it mean to love our neighbors and even our enemies? I think we’re often content with not doing them harm but loving them goes so much farther than that. Listen to this week’s message on loving your enemies.
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Growing up I used to spend time outside with friends. We would play games and imagine what life would be like if we were all soldiers or marines. We would form sports teams in the neighborhood playing games like football and kickball and baseball. I remember when I was fairly young we used to ask for a do over when things didn’t go quite the way we wanted them to go. We’d miss the ball at kickball – Do Over! We miss the tackle in football or miss the pass – Do Over!
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Timothy Keller writes a powerful and challenging synopsis of the difference between world-views. As he compares and contrasts the Christian perspective on life with a more secular worldview, the reader is brought into an almost scientific comparison of these seemingly opposing views of life.
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Some days are just OK. And for a long time I thought that OK was somehow less than, well OK! If you’ve ever passed me in the hall and asked the predictable question How are you? A question no one ever cares to hear the answer to – then you have undoubtedly heard my reply. And it’s never OK! My reply is always something like Excellent! Better than I deserve! Terrific! It shouldn’t be legal to be this good! And honestly, the majority of the time that’s the truth! But every once in a while the day is just OK. Sometimes life isn’t good, or great, or wonderful, or even fine! Some days are just…OK.
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As we walk through life it’s easy to think that God is somewhere off in the distance and somewhat foreign, aloof or unreachable. But that’s not the picture that we receive from Scripture at all. As a matter of fact the storyline of the Bible is quite the opposite! God’s story is one of rescue, redemption and restoration for the entire human race. But it gets better than that! The story of the Bible isn’t just a general story of new life for the world. It’s not just God loving the people of Israel. It’s God’s story for you!
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This week in our message we took a simple word and realized how not so simple it really is! The word love is probably one of the most overused and yet misunderstood words in our language. I mean think about it. We can use the same word for how we feel about our spouse or significant other and for pizza, dogs, sports, cars, just about anything! Does it mean we think of them all the same? Does that mean we love our husband or wife the same way we love our car or our pets? Of course not! But how can we be a little more clear?
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This week in worship at Living Word Galena we talked about love and how it’s so often misunderstood. It can be hard to love people who don’t you back. It can be hard when it seems like others take our love and then don’t return it in a way that we can see it. Our Music Monday this week is a fun song by Kirk Franklin and his band. It’s called Love Theory.
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Louie Giglio pretty much nailed it with this book! The book reads like a story but has the power of a devotion. It’s a little different perspective on the story of David and Goliath in the Bible. If you’re not familiar with the story of David and Goliath then I highly recommend reading it! But if you’re not into that whole bible reading thing, you don’t really need to know the story to get something out of this book. Here’s a quick recap of the Bible account.
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Now I’m not one who normally likes to fit the typical mould. I stand out in a crowd more often than I blend in. I’d rather make my own picture than coloring one that someone else creates for me. But there are times when it’s necessary to color inside the lines. As a parent I try to teach my children to slow down and follow the boundaries of the pictures they are coloring. I like it when I see the picture of the teddy bear with two colors of brown, a darker for the fur on the body and a lighter color for the belly. It just looks like they took more care and time with it. The same is true with life. When we carefully take the time to shade our lives and color inside the lines, we begin to see a picture far better than anything we could draw ourselves.
Continue readingThis week in worship it was time to get real. It was time to be honest, bold and hold nothing back. Our world is trying to rip the words of the Bible out of our hands. People are redefining terms to fit their agenda. And while all of this is happening, the church is sitting idly by minding its own business. But that has to end! And it has to end now. In this week’s message I spend a little time unpacking the reality of who we are as followers of Christ and what we’re supposed to be about in this life. We’ll look at a variety of ideals and how they are all impacted by God’s Word and design for life.