Glory of Christ Fellowship

In three days from now, 2019 will give way to 2020 and the first year of a new decade will begin. As those who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and eternally adopted into his family, let’s choose to aim our lives in the right direction by resolving to be rich in the word of Christ! As the Apostle Paul wrote, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:16-17). The word here for “dwell” means “to establish a house or a residency,” so that Paul is urging all believers to allow the word of Christ to establish a residency in our souls and therefore in our way of life. In order to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, we’ll have to commit ourselves to hearing it, reading it, studying it...

John Chrysostom (ca. 347-407) was a fourth- and early fifth-century pastor and bishop who sought God with all of his heart for over forty years, and who exercised great influence over the church for many centuries. He was indeed a hero for whom we should be grateful to God, but he was a broken hero. From the time John was young, he was given to extremism which psychologically stems from insecurity, and theologically from a gross misunderstanding of the gospel. On the one hand, John lost his father as a small child and he spent much of his childhood seeking the approval of adults. When he decided to seriously seek after God, his instinct was to go to extremes to gain God’s approval. On the other hand, John’s extreme pursuit of God shows that, in his younger years, he didn’t understand the gospel. For two years he chose to live in a cave where he denied himself all but the sheer necessities of life. He refused even to lay down because he thought this was the only way to obey Jes...

Talking about sex with your kids can be intimidating and awkward. Yet, they are wondering about it whether you address it or not. And if they are wondering about it they are also finding answers to their questions one way or another. When we look at Proverbs chapters 1-9, for instance, we can see that the Bible envisions parents having very open, candid, detailed discussions about sex wth their young teens and that these discussions are a key part of discipleship. We should ask, if parents will not instill a biblical theology of sex and sexuality into their kids who will? The cultural consensus is happy to instill their worldview of sex into our kids but is this what we really want? That brings me to this blog post. Here are 15 ways that our kids will pick up wrong ideas about sex (and how to respond to them biblically). If you are not actively engaging your son or daughter and shaping in them a biblical worldview these are most likely the ideas they are picking up, like it or ...

What does the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego have to do with Mary and Joseph? Being Christmas time and all, it seems obvious that our attention would shift to the young newlyweds...excuse me, they haven't tied that knot quite yet. In fact, this fact is part of what got them into such hot water...or maybe we can say they came under fire?  In the book of Daniel we know that God helped the three youngsters when they were thrown into the furnace. God was with them. However, sometimes it is easy to forget that the reason  they were thrown into the furnace was for the same reason: because God was with them. They took a stand for God and wound up in the fire.  Now we can see a connection to Mary and Joseph. They got engaged and somewhere between signing up for their gift registry at Target and deciding whether or not to have a dance at their reception they found themselves up to their necks in controversy. What was it, you ask? It was Immanuel, God with us (M...

John Chrysostom (ca. 347-407) was a fourth- and early fifth-century pastor and bishop who sought God with all of his heart for over forty years, and who exercised great influence over the church for many centuries. He was born in Syrian Antioch (modern-day Turkey) and raised by his mother, Anthusa, for his father, Secundus, had died when he was a small child. Anthusa loved the Lord and taught John to love him as well, but she longed for him to have a successful career of one sort or other, and thus saw that he obtained a classical education and formed connections with prominent people. For a time, John pursued a career in law, but at some point the Lord gripped his heart and he devoted himself instead to the monastic life. This was disappointing to his mother, but John felt that he had to obey the Lord, and obey he did! Not one to be half-hearted, John spent two years living in a cave where he denied himself all but the bare necessities of life. As Robert Payne notes, he “denied...

Isn’t it exciting to learn of good news of something out of the ordinary? Don’t you just want to be the first to share this with everyone? There is great joy in having news to share. This type of experience almost makes us feel like children again, nervously racing around, trying to tell everyone we know before someone beats us to it. Luke tells us that the angels went to the shepherds first. Thus, we are put into the shoes of the one receiving good news rather than the messenger of good news. However, have you ever stopped to think about God’s excitement in sharing the news about the birth of His Son, Jesus? I really haven’t stopped to think about this before. Who is he going to tell first? We know the answer, of course, it was the shepherds of Israel. There they were, tending sheep in the mundane, very un-glorious and un-lucrative career of shepherding sheep. Now they were, for once, the chosen ones. If it were the political leaders of the day sharing news the shepherds would ...