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 provid...

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....

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...