Glory of Christ Fellowship

I would like to make the claim that one of the most significant and most central consequences of sin is gender confusion. We could even go so far as to argue that the doorway to sin's entry into the world was gender, and confusion of male and female was the first domino to fall in a long line of them. Here are some considerations: Male and Female Were Created In The Image of God Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.   Day six is the day that gets the most coverage, suggesting the activity that God was up to on that day had perhaps a special place in his heart. What did he do, you ask? He made his image bearers. Mankind would be central and significant to the purposes of God in the world, namely, to display the greatness of God's image throughout all creation.  Notice that one of the first things we learn about the image of God is that it exists in either male or female format...

George Müller is well known as a man of faith and prayer, but did you know that he read the Bible nearly two-hundred times! The reason his faith was strong and his prayers were effective was because his mind was filled with the Word of God and his prayers were shaped by the wisdom of God. For Müller, there’s no way to be a person of faith and fruitfulness without a robust commitment to the Bible, and therefore he offered his readers five pieces of advice for Bible reading ( Autobiography of George Müller , Westminster Literature, pages 21-22). First, above all, we should settle in our minds that only God can give insight and help us profit from our time in the Word. Therefore, we should seek him before we read, while we read, and after we read. Since Bible reading is a relational exercise, it should be shot through with prayer. Second, we should realize that while the Holy Spirit is our teacher, he teaches us in his time and way. Therefore, we may not get the insight or appl...

Over the last several weeks we’ve been sharing a list of ways to reach out to our neighbors with the love and hope of Jesus. As we grow in the passion and skill making disciples for the glory of Christ in the Elk River area, I ask you to join me in praying that Jesus will graciously send revival to our area and even beyond. In this hope, last week I shared Part I of a helpful article by Ray Ortlund on how to pray for revival. This week as you read Part II, I pray God will inspire you to add this kind of praying to your daily prayer routine.  “When Jonathan Edwards described the awakening in his church, he had to use words like ‘surprising,’ ‘extraordinary’ and ‘astonishing.’ The Bible says of the early church that ‘awe came upon every soul’ (Acts 2:43). We can’t program that into our worship: 10:45 am – Awe comes upon every soul. Since revival is of God, we should pray for it. But how? The Bible teaches us how to pray; Isaiah 63:15-64:12 is a biblical prayer for revival… ...

Over the last several weeks we’ve been sharing a list of ways to reach out to our neighbors with the love and hope of Jesus. As we grow in the passion and skill in making disciples for the glory of Christ in the Elk River area, I ask you to join me in praying that Jesus will graciously send revival to our area and even beyond. In this hope, I want to share a helpful article over the next two weeks by Ray Ortlund on how to pray for revival. I pray that God will inspire you as you read to add this kind of praying to your daily prayer routine.  “When Jonathan Edwards described the awakening in his church, he had to use words like ‘surprising,’ ‘extraordinary’ and ‘astonishing.’ The Bible says of the early church that ‘awe came upon every soul’ ( Acts 2:43 ). We can’t program that into our worship: 10:45 am – Awe comes upon every soul. Since revival is of God, we should pray for it. But how? The Bible teaches us how to pray; Isaiah 63:15-64:12 is a biblical prayer for revival....

“Oh, I try not to talk about doctrine. It’s so divisive.” This is a sentiment that I’ve heard expressed, as well as implied, on many occasions, and one that raises the question, does doctrine divide? In answering this question, we must keep in mind a very important truth and that is that everyone holds to some sort of doctrine . “Doctrine” is defined as “a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a church, political party, or other group.” Regardless of whether or not someone publicly holds to a statement of beliefs from a particular church, every Christian, by definition, holds to a particular set of beliefs. As Carl Trueman observes in his book The Creedal Imperative ,       [W]hile Christianity cannot be reduced to doctrine, to mere teaching, it cannot be meaningfully separated from it, either. Even the most basic claims, such as “Jesus is Lord,” carry clear doctrinal content that needs to be explicated in a world where, as we have noted before, every heretic...

Jesus left his disciples to a broken world filled with evil, hardships, confusion, pain, and death. As I meditate on Jesus' departure from this world and his departure from his beloved disciples whom he has just invested three years of his life with it dawns on me that he didn't leave them alone. Yes, Jesus left them. No, he did not leave them alone. At the time when Jesus left I wonder if it ever dawned on you that the kingdom of God was going to sink or swim with these guys. These guys!  One of them had betrayed him for enough money to buy a nice used car, another got scared by a middle school girl and denied him three times, all of them were arguing about which of them was the greatest. Modern Americans with all of our efficiency and protocol probably would have thought Jesus was irresponsible for leaving the work of the kingdom to these guys. Yet, Jesus leaves them but he doesn't leave them alone.  Maybe this is why Jesus tells them this:  "But the H...

Jesus Christ came into the world to glorify God the Father by seeking and saving the lost (Luke 19:10). Then, after the resurrection, he invited his followers to join him in this mission (Matthew 28:18-20). Why did Jesus have such strong desire to give his earthly life to this mission? While there are several important answers to this question, perhaps the most important one is this: Jesus engaged in this mission because he was consumed with love for the Father, even as the Father was consumed with love for him. This love then overflowed in the pursuit of the lost, even as it had in creation (see John 17). The mission of Jesus is the overflow of divine love. Love propelled Jesus out that others might come in. And therefore, when Jesus sent his followers out on this same mission, he was not merely giving them a command. He was not calling on them to fulfill a new duty. He was not instituting an ingenious marketing plan. Rather, he was inviting them into the joy of proclai...