Glory of Christ Fellowship

Well, what can we say about 2020? Online classes, distance learning, wearing masks, not going to restaurants, empty stadiums, and cancelled events are all things we have come to expect. This makes March 12 seem like it was more than ten months ago. In between that time, we have seen racial tensions spill over into rioting in the streets, leaving us to wonder just how far the mayhem would go. We have experienced job insecurities that have led to layoffs and employees hoping to survive the cuts. Some roles have changed to the point where job descriptions are undesirable and unrecognizable. We have witnessed a historic and contentious presidential election, the most important perhaps in American history that featured many “irregularities” and procedures that violated election laws. Currently, our country is gearing themselves up for a Joe Biden and Kamala Harris presidency which, for many in the church, will mean an attack on several issues that are of grave concern: abortion, religious l

Have you noticed that the original Christmas story was surrounded in controversy, danger, and difficulty and each person who was closest to Christmas encountered fear? The angel told Mary not to be afraid (Luke 1:30). Joseph was told to not be fearful in taking Mary to be his wife (Mathew 1:20). Zechariah encountered an angel when he went to the temple and he feared (Luke 1:11-13). Fear fell upon all the neighbors of Zechariah when he regained his speech and blessed God (Luke 1:65). The shepherds feared in the fields (Luke 2:10) before they were told of the good news of great joy. Let me offer three takeaways: We Want The Transcendent...But We Don’t The Bible tells us all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. To encounter God is to encounter his glory. To encounter his glory is to recognize our sin in his presence and this causes fear.  Christmas highlights the conundrum that sinful humanity is in. We long for the transcendent and supernatural that only God can provide. Y

Every Christmas season I ask my kids what the incarnation means and they don’t know. This is a great reminder to never assume that your kids know what you are talking about when you use certain words. Remind yourself to frequently ask your kids if they know what a certain word means. They may not, and your family devotions will be the richer for it. Incarnation refers to the idea that Jesus has taken on flesh and dwelled among us (John 1:14). I used to study Spanish and remember “carne” means meat, or flesh. My son was quick to point out the word carnivore is someone who eats meat. Thus, incarnation refers to Jesus taking on flesh. There are glorious implications of Jesus taking on flesh. Here are three that you should consider: God is represented to Mankind. When Jesus took on flesh and dwelled among us a strange and wonderful reality occurred, God became man. When Jesus took on humanity it was a great indication of God’s intention to move towards us, not away. In Christ, the almight

As we work our way through Esther it is hard to ignore the topic of pride. Haman and Xerxes were the two most powerful people in the world at this point, and they both had plenty of pride to boot. Haman’s pride is easier to point out because it so visibly and so neatly satisfies one of our favorite Proverbs:  Proverbs 16:18 - Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.  Haman wanted genocide for the Jews when Mordecai refused to bow down to him. Haman made a gallows pole that was 75 feet high for Mordecai. This is ridiculously high and would have been seen for miles around.  The danger for us in reading the Bible is that many of the examples of pride are so fantastic that we might not think we relate. Maybe we should be thankful for the outlandish examples. If we had the resources of Haman we might go to equally ridiculous lengths that he did. In this, we see the potential of pride within our own hearts.  There is another consideration as well. C.S. Lewis had thi

You would have thought that the title of this blog contains a typo. Not so, not so. Yes, in fact, I intended to spell family as "family." If you have ever heard of the word "brunch" you know it is a mash-up of the words breakfast and lunch. Thus, brunch. Can you guess which two words gets the mash-up here? If you guessed Trinity and Family, you are correct. I am reading a book by Herman Bavinck called The Christian Family. So far so good. As Herman B explores some of the biblical foundations of family he says something intriguing about the origins of the family and it’s connection to society: “The two-in-oneness of husband and wife expands with a child into a three-in-oneness. Father, mother, and child are one soul and one flesh, expanding and unfolding the one image of God, united within threefold diversity and diverse within harmonic unity.” Bavinck continues... “This three-in-oneness of relationships and functions, of qualities and gifts, constitutes t

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone...For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. - Isaiah 9:2, 6-7 In the book of Isaiah we are given several prophecies about the birth of Jesus Christ. One of the greatest is in chapter 9 where we read about a child being born, a son given (Isaiah 9:6-7). Earlier in the chapter we are told that Jesus is a “great light.” It is important to understand that when the Bible talks about darkness it refers to “evil and ignorance.” In other words, the world i

Many Christians are dismissing John Piper and cutting ties with him over his recent article on the 2020 elections. I think this is a mistake.  For the record, I also think his article was problematic for a number of reasons. As much as I found myself disagreeing with his counsel it has left me wrestling with a much bigger question: what do I do with John Piper? Should I, like many other Christians, tune him out in protest to his political views?  My answer is no, I shouldn’t. And I don’t think you should either. John Piper started teaching at Bethel Seminary in the mid 1970’s. At minimum he has 45 years of ministry under his belt. Let’s not forget, this is faithful, fruitful ministry. The average stay of a pastor in a church is around 3 years. John Piper served Bethlehem Baptist church for 33 years, that’s 30 years longer than the average stay. Piper has always remained humble, he has battled sin and the temptation to self-glorification. I was at Bethlehem to see the inner workings of

Maybe the title is superfluous. Maybe it should just read, “Parenting a Child” and it should be assumed that parenting all children is difficult. Yet, if you have done any parenting or any volunteering with any number of children anywhere at any time you probably know that one size does not fit all. Not all children are created equal, some are easier while others are not. Some are more obedient while others push the limits. Some learn quickly while other do not. Some are compliant while other challenge everything. Some are motivated and self-directed while others can spend their entire day being distracted and get nothing of value accomplished.   In other words, some children are difficult, and yes, more difficult than others.  This can be true in seasons, as well. It may not be so that a chile is always difficult. It may just be they are going through a challenging stage of development or a difficult transition that requires extra wisdom, extra patience, extra grace, extra extra!

In our first sermon in our series on Esther we covered chapter 1 and the tremendous party King Xerxes threw. The party lasted six months for his army and officials and governors. After this period of 180 days was over Xerxes threw a party for seven more days that the entire city of Susa was invited to. Xerxes was showing off his wealth and showing off his glory to everyone far and wide. This “showing off” climaxed when, in his drunken state, decided to summon his beautiful wife who was also Queen Vashti so that he could impress his guests with her beauty.  You are probably familiar with the story as it unfolds. Vashti isn’t impressed. She isn’t flattered that her husband is still attracted to her, even after all these years. She refuses him and it brings him great embarrassment when the King isn’t able to parade his catch in front of the drunken crowd that is hungry for some entertainment. So it seems to beg the question, should she have submitted to the king or was she justified in

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. -Psalm 131 Short and sweet, but not short and shallow is this Psalm. It addresses a common human tendency and gently diagnoses some heart motivations that need to be addressed. The apex of the Psalm is perhaps in verse 2 where it says that I do not occupy myself with things too marvelous for me. What does this mean?  After getting a little help from David Powlison in his book Seeing with New Eyes, I can say that the propensity to occupy oneself with things “too marvelous for me” is the propensity to occupy oneself with things a person shouldn’t. We recently got a dog. It’s a wonderful dog. Every morning Rosie comes to wake me up at quarter to six by walking to the sid

As I was walking away from casting my vote at St. Michael High School over lunchtime I found myself wanting to crawl in a hole and wake up after this whole thing is over. If this goes the way some are suggesting, I might be looking at a season of hibernation. That is only half way funny, I suppose.  What I really need is to calibrate my heart with the truth of Scripture. I wonder, is it possible to be joyful in Christ on the day of a very contentious election? An election for which many possible outcomes have been speculated?  Here is a prayer that I wrote out that is designed to shepherd my own heart and hopefully, yours too.  For our collective joy in Christ, Pastor Kevin -------------------------- Father in heaven,  We give you all the praise and all the glory for who you are and how you have worked throughout history to save a people through Jesus for your glory.  -We praise you for being the God who sits enthroned in the heavens and does all that he pleases.  - We praise you for b

Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples. - Psalm 77:13-14 This is our Fighter Verse this week and I would like to help explain how this verse helps us to fight the fight of faith. There are four basic assertions these verses make. Let me list them.  The first thing we are told is that God’s way is holy. Holy is a word that describes the way God is completely separate from us. God is separate from sin, he is utterly pure. This assertion draws attention to the ways of God and not necessarily the being of God. The Psalmist is saying that God has his own ways of doing things, which alerts us to the fact that the way man approaches life and the way God does are often at odds. This verse helps us to fight by setting our expectations right, allowing us to take comfort in the very different ways God operates from the way we would.  Second, God is uniquely great. God’s holy ways make him comple

There is no doubt that 2020 keeps getting more and more unpredictable. By the time we hit April no one would have disputed that what we were experiencing is something no one would ever have seen coming. Now that GCF is pushing into November we can say the same thing, we couldn’t have seen this coming and our situation keeps getting further and further from normal.  I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has faithfully been walking with us through this season of life at GCF. It has been a corporate season of affliction but it has been more than that. As I make my rounds within the church and visit with people I can see many people are burdened. They are burdened with church, with life, with family, with big decisions about their careers, with bosses who are lacking compassion, even deaths of loved ones.  It has led me to the conclusion that God does his work in seasons. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 tells us that “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under hea

When people say that their relationship to their church is not equivalent to their relationship to their spouse they typically mean that they are not married to their church for life. I would agree with this and in this way, your covenant relationship to the church is not on par with the covenant you make in marriage. Thus, as a church we don't want to be cultish in the way we never allow people to leave the church. Far from it.  On the other hand, covenant is a serious word and it should be meaningful. While your covenant relationship to your church isn't equal to your covenant relationship to your spouse there are some similarities that should be seriously considered. Covenant is first displayed by God and it is a word that tells us that he is committed to his people in and through all of our flaws. Despite our sin and shortcomings, we have confidence God isn't going to leave us because of his covenant love. This gives us some real freedom to move and operate as believers

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. - Colossians 4:6  Salt has many functions. It flavors food. It preserves food. It also rusts cars. Assuming camels or donkeys didn't deal with rust issues we can be confident Paul wasn't thinking about our Toyotas or Fords. When Paul talks about salt in this passage it probably has to do with flavoring. Just like salt makes food taste good so speech should taste good to other believers.  The passage begs the question: how does a believer season their speech with salt. I know how to do it on French fries, not so much on the words exiting my mouth. To answer, let’s ask a question of the text, namely, what's the connection? What's the connection between letting your speech be gracious and knowing how to answer each person? This is the way the verse is constructed. Let your speech be gracious so that you may know how to answer each person." In other words,

  If someone were to ask you "what does it mean to be a woman" or "what does it mean to be a man"what would you say? It is a little trickier than it first seems, isn't it? I imagine I would stumble and bumble and fumble through some words or thoughts and ultimately not come to anything all that concrete. I might say say a few things that are true along the way but leave the person I was speaking with more confused than they were before I opened my mouth.  Here is a very helpful and thoughtful answer from Kevin DeYoung. To combat the a "alphabet groups" such as the LGBTQA+ groups Christians can form their own. ABCDE is the new group designed to answer and articulate with biblical clarity: A - Appearance  ("Men and women are different and should look different...Confusing the appearance of our genders is contrary to nature. When Paul says that nature itself teaches long hair is a disgrace to man, he's not making a universal statement about hair-