This week we take a break to consider the birth of our Savior by reflecting on the experience of Zechariah. Although Zechariah was a righteous man, he had lost perspective and also, it seems, hope. Zechariah regained his perspective on the reality of God's power to fulfill His promises as he reflected on the good news that had come to him. Hope is our confident expectation that God will be who He is and do what He has promised. Hope is the foundation of both our faith and our love.

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Tags: hope | faith

For a follower of Jesus, living a life of forgiveness is NOT optional. At the heart of our relationship with God and our relationship with others is the transforming truth of forgiveness. God has not counted our sins against us. He has released us from the debt, guilt and ultimate consequences of our sin. If we have received so much from our Heavenly Father, how can we not extend the same grace to others who offend us?

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Tags: forgiveness

One of the core benefits of God's work in Christ for us is that we have been redeemed. God has paid a great price in handing His One Unique Son over for all of us who were confirmed as His enemies. Yet Jesus has poured out His blood for us so that we could be set free from all keeps us from becoming complete in Him. As we think about His great sacrifice for us, we should be mindful that not only has Jesus provided this redemption freely by His grace, He also desires that we become people who express this redemption to others.

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Tags: redemption

Why did God save us? Why does God do what He does? Why would He send His one unique Son to be killed for us? In Ephesians Paul makes it clear that God has blessed us to the "glory of His grace." When God acts for the sake of His glory, it results in the greatest blessing for His people. God's grace toward us is almost incomprehensible. Nevertheless, as we think on all that He has done for us in Christ, we are moved to the only proper response - joy and gratitude.

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Tags: grace | glory

This week, we take some time to review where we have come from and where we are heading as we consider the major spiritual formation "mile markers" on our journey to our final destination. We consider the decisions and commitments we are called to make as we move along, seeking to make our journey worthy of our destination.

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Tags: discipleship | spiritual formation

This week we explore the three "tenses" of salvation. God has saved us, He is saving us, and one day (when we see Christ face to face) we will be fully and comletely saved. Even though this process is not yet experientially complete for us, we know with certainty that it will be because God our Holy Father has the responsibility of finishing what He has begun in us. For this reason, we can be eternaly secure in His care and have hope.

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Tags: salvation

Too often, the eternal aspects of God's choosing and predestination of those who will be saved is discussed apart from the reality of the Cross of Christ. Before we can fully grasp the implications of God's gracious work of choosing in salvation, we must first see ourselves from the perspective of being the very people who first despised, mocked, beat, spat upon and crucified Christ. God chooses to redeem His enemies; in this lies the scandal of His grace.

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Tags: election | salvation | jesus | grace

This week, we take a sideline discussion to explore the meaning of God's "foreknowing" us in relation to His choosing us for salvation. We look at 1 Peter 1:1-2 and then trace the idea of "foreknowing" and "knowing" in both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures.

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Tags: election

We continue our discussion of our new relationship with God by exploring "our part" in God's saving work in our lives. We do have certain responsibilities in the process of our salvation. Our primary responsibility is one of responding to God's gracious work in or by faith. God is transforming us in a way that only He can. As we develop a VISION for what He is doing in us, we turn in trust to Him, rejoicing in the "all things" that have freely been given to us in Christ.

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Tags: vision | identity

We continue our discussion of our new identity and position in Christ by considering this topic in the context of spiritual formation and discipleship. In discipleship, we are simply making a decision to submit to God the Father working in Christ through the Holy Spirit to form Christ in us. In this we make a decision to cooperate with God as He forms us spiritually.

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Tags: identity

We continue our study on spiritual formation and discipleship by considering the new identity and position that we have "in Christ." It is important to understand who we are in Chirst so that we can have a vision of the type of person that God is shaping us into, conformed to the likeness of Christ. We do a "fly over" of Ephesians 1 looking that the big picture that we will "unpack" over the next several weeks.

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Tags: identity | position

This week we continue our discussion of Philippians 3 by considering the the main goal of keeping our eyes focused on the main goal - Christ. In this passage Paul says, "One thing I do: Forgetting what lies behind and looking to what's ahead I press on..." Our past, whether good or bad, is behind us and in the present God wants us to keep looking toward our goal - being fully transformed and conformed to Christ's glorious image.

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Tags: jesus | grace | vision

We take a look at Philippians 3 and Paul's "one thing" that gives him vision and clarity as he follows Christ. Anything that we might consider personal "asset" becomes dung when we compare it to the exceedingly better "asset" of knowing Christ and discovering the righteousness come to us by means of faith. Whereas the false gospel of religion says, "I am accepted and loved by Christ for what I do," the true gospel of faith says, "I do what I do because I am loved and accepted in Christ."

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Tags: jesus

Romans 3:21-26 may be one of the most significant passages in the New Testament. In this passage the heart of Paul's Christ-centered theology is explained: God's righteousness is revealed in the faith (and faithfulness) of Christ for the faith (and faithfulness) of the believer. When we believe in the message that Christ has done all that is necessary to redeem us from our fallen way of life and reconcile us to God, we are declared righteous. This declaration is no "legal fiction" - stating something that is not really true. When God declares that we are righteous in Christ, this powerful and creative act changes our identity and our position before God. Our relationship with God has changed and this is the beginning of His work in us to transform us and conform us according to Christ's perfection.

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Tags: faith | jesus

We continue our discussion of the faith of Christ as part of the revelation of God's righteousness. The Gospel reveals both that God is righteous in both being (His character) and doing (His actions). In the Gospel we see that God reveals a way to be right with Him that is not according to law - self-righteousness by good works - but by way of Christ's faith.

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Tags: jesus | faith

This week, we begin a two part discussion on the faith and faithfulness of Christ. God saves us based on the faithfulness of Christ to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. In all that He has endured as a human, Jesus is qualified to be our faithful and merciful high priest who saves us by His grace. The Gospel therefore calls us to focus on Christ as our one and only savior.

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Tags: faith | jesus

What does Jesus mean when He says, "Do not judge so that you will not be judged." This week, our exploration of the 12 Aspects of the Gospel leads to a lively class discussion about the nature of God condemning our sin in truth but also displaying His grace to us in and through Jesus Christ.

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Tags: judgment | grace | jesus

This week, we begin to explore how Jesus' "one act of righteousness" on the Cross heals our fallen condition. We begin to look at 12 aspects of Christ's work as the means to providing eternal redemption. We will continue this discussion next week.

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Tags: the cross | jesus | grace | redemption

This week we begin to explore what Christ has accomplished for us by observing Paul's teaching in Romans 5:12-21. Here we see that Adam (our first human father, the father of us all) made choices that have had disastrous consequences for the rest of us. In the same sense, Jesus has made choices that have provided an alternative to Adam's rebellion. We also take a brief overiew of Jesus' time on the Cross as His "one act of righteousness."

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Tags: jesus | grace | righteousness

This week, we continue to explore what hinders us from hearing the One True Gospel by discussing God's holy love. As we have seen in the previous studies, God has given us desires (needs) for significance, security and satisfaction. The only way that these needs/desires will ever be satisfied is by experiencing God's holy love expressed in Jesus Christ.

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Tags: gospel | desire

Today, we move from the Larger Story of life to the Central Story of the Gospel. Central to the Gospel is the revelation of what Jesus has done for us AND what He desires to do to us. As we begin to consider this, we begin by thinking about three types of people and their response to the message of the Gospel. We will conclude this discussion next week.

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Tags: gospel | jesus

This week we explore The Larger Story that the Bible reveals about life as the proper context within which to pursue our core desires. We discuss what it means to be lost and how God has given us a larger framework within which to find our bearings in life.

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Tags: bible | questions

As we continue to explore the power of the Gospel, we begin to look at what has gone wrong with us in the corruption of our desires. The human race was created good and true, so what went wrong? We also discuss the framework of ORIGIN, DESTINY and PURPOSE for understanding the meaning of our lives.

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Tags: desire | redemption

In this discussion, we continue to explore the Biblical teaching on the power of the Gospel by finishing up Acts 17 and beginning to look at some of the problems that face Christ's disciples as we interact with our culture.

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Tags: gospel | story | questions

In this discussion, we begin to develop the Biblical teaching on the power of the Gospel by dealing with Acts 17 and Paul's preaching to the Areopagus at Mars Hill in Athens.

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Tags: gospel | story | questions

The second half of a two part dialogue, we conclude developing a VISION for spiritual formation and discipleship by discussing the final key "milestones" in spiritual growth.

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Tags: vision | spiritual formation | growth

In the first of this two part dialogue, we begin to develop a VISION for spiritual formation and discipleship by discussing some key "milestones" in spiritual growth.

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Tags: vision | spiritual formation