Glory of Christ Fellowship

Exposing our Law-Centered Tendencies in Parenting Martin Luther said, “the law of God, although beneficial and beautiful, cannot advance us on our way to righteousness because we cannot obey it.” Yet, with children, it is exceptionally easy to reduce the Bible to a moralistic guidebook and wield its authority to impose behavioral standards upon them. It is easy to take a story such as Jonah and conclude that you need to obey God or else “you too will get swallowed by huge fish.” Or how about David, the mighty warrior? “David was brave and fought Goliath, therefore you too should be brave, just like David.” No doubt, obedience and trust are fruits that are reflected in Christians. However, those fruits will never be produced through ultimatums. Why not? It is because fruits are produced through the Spirit of God and not through the will of man. Indeed, this is an example of reducing the primary purpose of God’s word to a rule, a moral, a command, or a directive, wh...

As Christian parents we recognize our responsibility to “train our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). I am currently reading through a book titled Give Them Grace authored by Elyse Fitzpatrick and her daughter, Jessica Thompson. The subtitle of the book is Dazzling your children with the love of Jesus. This is an excellent book for helping Christians understand how the Gospel applies to parenting and diagnosing the subtle ways we allow the law to influence us negatively. It is a desire of mine to help parents see the ways that we parent out of the law even when we think we are not. Furthermore, to help parents understand the ways to parent out of the Gospel even when we think we already are. In the end, the glory of God in the gospel, the next generation of his kingdom, and the happiness of our children are at stake in our parenting. May God help us to be good ambassadors of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, starting with our children. W...

This morning on Facebook the Biblical Counseling Coalition posted an entry entitled, "14 Resources on Forgiveness." I encourage you to look over the page here . One of the resources may make a good Christmas present, or a good tool for you as you prepare to deal with family and friends over the holidays. May the Lord of life set us free as we learn to forgive, even as we were forgiven.  

Here is an update that we just sent to our church regarding Sarah Fergus who is heading off soon to serve the Lord in Madagascar. If you're interested in helping Sarah, please write me a note and I'll be glad to pass it on to her. One way or the other, please join us in prayer! Dear Glory of Christ Fellowship, Thank you for all your prayers in the last few weeks. I have been very encouraged by many of you on Sunday mornings and after visiting several community groups. This church really is a blessing to me as I am being constantly reminded that I am not alone in this. One huge praise is that in the last week I was pledged about half of what I still needed for monthly support! Reminder of dates: Dec 13th is when I need financial clearance. Jan 8th is my planned departure date. Finance Update: Total amount still needed per month: $279 Breakdown: 6 people at $50 a month 12 people at $25 a month Please continue to keep this in prayer for the next few weeks. I also have a lot to...

As I slowly find consciousness my hand feels around for the covers and I can tell they’ve shifted in the night. My exposed foot is no longer toasty warm due to it dangling off the edge of the bed. I turn slightly to peer over my shoulder, the blanket and sheet are pulled back where my husband had been sleeping, I realize a sliver of faint light is streaming in from the window, it must be morning. I missed him saying goodbye... There was a time, not long ago, that my husband annoyed me pretty much every morning. Because every morning he would kiss me goodbye and whisper, "I love you" or something similar. They nerve, huh? Yeah, I know. I was totally and completely, 100% undeniably, selfish and ungrateful. But would you believe there was actually more to it than that (as if that wasn't enough)? You see, for me, there's always been this underlying current of pain and fear that subconsciously compels me to respond to acts of love and kindness ...

So far in this series about sharing our faith, I've talked about what the Gospel message is , why we are to share our faith  ( and part II ), tools for sharing , and how to utilize question s (thanks, Randy Newman and  Sovereign Grace Church - Fairfax, VA !). Today I will share how to handle tough questions and tough people. If you haven't done so, before continuing, check out my last blog post and watch the video of a message preached by Randy Newman. His teaching is better than anything I could share here. I will share more some suggestions rather than step-by-step tips. When you think back to your road to salvation, you probably weren't won over by a formula, and neither was I. But I was won over by honest people (thanks, Mom and Dad) willing to engage honest questions from an honest seeker. Below are some thoughts. Pray, pray, pray. And then pray. When you talk to your Heavenly Father, pray for the person, their situation, their doubts and their longings. ...

Mitt Romney's run for the presidency has brought Mormonism to the forefront of discourse in America, which can be a good thing for evangelical Christians if we're wise about it. In other words, the attention to Mormonism gives us a chance to articulate, in love, why Mormonism is not a branch of Christianity but is in fact a rejection of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I must admit that I've been surprised lately by a number of people in the church I serve who have no idea what Mormons believe and don't understand why we evangelicals deny that they are Christians. This is due to a lack of clear communication and equipping on our part, so over the next several months I plan to blog quite a bit about Mormons, what they believe, why they are not Christians, and how we as evangelicals should relate to them.  For today, I simply want to recommend a good article by Hank Henegraaff entitled The Basics of Mormonism. You can access the article  here . Henegraaff offers a v...

This blog entry was written by Jordan Pepin, an Elder at Glory of Christ, his wife's name is Jen.  “Jen. Obama won.” That was the text my wife received from a friend last night. With just a few words, there was much said; anxiety, fear, concern for her young children, lack of hope. I knew her feelings because I had the same feelings. Like many others I’m sure, I did not sleep well last night, mostly tossing with different thoughts of what could transpire in the next four years. Mostly, there was fear for what my kids would have to go through. I spent the night tossing.  This morning I woke with the same dark cloud over my heart. I began to preach to myself (saying things like, “God is in control”, “God is the one that sets up rulers”, etc.), but the preaching was dry and not impacting my heart. But, God by the Holy Spirit began to preach to me, and He is a much better preacher than I am. His preaching impacted my heart significantly. That is why I am writi...

So far in our evangelism series, I've shared what the Gospel is , why we are to share our faith ( part I and part II ), and I've shared a few tools to share our faith.  Today, I'm going to share a sermon that deals with how to share with particularly hard hearers.  I ran across a message preached at Sovereign Grace Church - Fairfax, VA .  To be honest, it was completely by accident - I was looking for a message at a different Sovereign Grace church.  This sermon was in the middle of their evangelism series from the beginning of 2012, and I was very much blessed by it. Rather than try to recap the highlights, I asked permission of the church to post this message here.  Originally shared on February 22, 2012, guest speaker Randy Newman preached a message about the effectiveness of using questions in sharing the Gospel.  The main thrust of his message was how to effectively use questions to get the hearer thinking. His ideas work especially wel...