Podcast: Gospel in Life

Confident in Love

Philip asks Jesus for something I think most of us can identify with. He asks Jesus to actually show them God. And at this, Jesus is exasperated.  Philip’s saying, “We believe in God, but it’s hard. So give us just one view, and that will be enough for the rest of our lives.” And essentially,…

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Confident in Hope

Trouble will come. And because we’re going to have trouble, Jesus says he wants to give us something so that our hearts are not troubled by the trouble. John 14 begins and ends with Jesus saying, “I don’t want you to be troubled.” So what is it that Jesus does to give us confidence and…

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Our Vocation: Lay Ministry

To live a Christian life is much more transformative than just trying to live better. If you’re a Christian, you are a living stone in the temple of the Holy Spirit, and you are a holy priesthood called to do sacrifices to the Lord, because you’re related to the cornerstone, Jesus Christ. Now that’s quite…

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Our Walk: The Freedom of Submission

The Christian understanding of freedom is at complete loggerheads with what our culture tells us. And I’d say most of us as Christians have trouble understanding it ourselves.  An extremely important concept for understanding the Christian life is the freedom of a Christian. It’s a theme that runs all the way through the New Testament:…

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Our Cross: Path of Suffering

The book of 1 Peter is probably more about suffering than anything else.  It might be the only book in the New Testament completely devoted to the subject of suffering. And it shows us that going through trials, troubles, and sufferings is one of the main ways in which we grow into Christlikeness.  So let’s…

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Our Call: Holy Living

When we become Christians we don’t just turn over a new leaf, we’re spiritually raised with Christ and his resurrection power comes into our lives. And so, what does such an empowered life look like? We’re called to be holy, but this is a difficult term to get ahold of. In our modern culture, both…

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Our Identity: Joyful Exiles

Jesus’ resurrected power is in our lives now. Even though we are not yet bodily resurrected, Christians are, according to Ephesians 2, raised with Christ and knowing the power of his resurrection. What does that mean? What does it mean to live that kind of life? What kind of life should we live now in…

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Our Birth: Cosmic

When we unite with Jesus Christ, his resurrection power comes into our lives.  Even though we believe we’ll be resurrected in our bodies at the end of time, there is already a spiritual resurrection that happens to us now. What does that look like?  Looking at this text, we can see 1) what happened, 2)…

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Encountering the Risen Jesus

Jesus’ resurrection isn’t supposed to just change history—it’s supposed to change you and me. The New Testament everywhere says we should expect to encounter the risen Christ. And that’s how our lives are changed.  Peter is a case study for us, because we have here the story of how the resurrected Christ sat down with…

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Clothed With Power (Easter)

Easter is too marvelous for words, but we’re going to try.  Luke 24 is an account of the resurrection: from the morning when the empty tomb was discovered, to the middle of the day when Jesus appeared on the road to Emmaus, to the evening when Jesus appeared to his disciples. And in that evening…

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