...But Christ Is Still Our Lover

The church is a mess. Aside from possibly being the understatement of the year, its true. It is very easy to look at the all rampant sin and wonder how on earth the church is being made into the image of God. It is not surprising to see people who, capitalizing on individualism, want nothing to do with the church; they have Jesus, why do they need the church? It is also very easy to look at all the ways that the church has wronged people, the corruption and scandals, the love of money and greed, and to conclude (often rightly) that they are no different from the world. Pulpits are more filled with self-help, empty platitudes, social and political grandstanding, and almost everything under the sun except for what they should be filled with: law and gospel, sin and grace, repentance and the forgiveness of sins. It is very easy to rage against the church and to condemn her. This is nothing new, however. It has been the story of the church since her inception because of one simple fact: the church is made up of sinners, like you and me.

From Genesis To Revelation

At my church we're going through a book called Sacred Bond in our adult Sunday school class. It's a brief introduction to covenant theology, and a very helpful resource thus for. It is a very accessible book for the person who is new to covenant theology, or the uninitiated layperson. Concepts are simple and well explained, and it is quite pleasant to read. I read a lot of theology for fun, but I find myself really enjoying getting back to the basics. This was very true when we went through the chapter on the Covenant of Grace.

When The Temple Fills The Earth

Today in church we continued our exploration of Hebrews 11.32. The past two weeks we've taken glimpses into the lives of both Gideon and Barak. Today, we focused on the life of Samson, a man a little more well known in bible stories. The sermon focused predominately on the death of Samson in Judges 16.23-31. In his death, Samson saved the nation of Israel from the Philistines; he destroyed the temple of Dagon, the Philistine God. This, of course, is a picture of Jesus Christ, the Greater Than Samson, who saved the Israel of God from the enemies of sin, death, and the Devil by dying and then rising again from the dead. One of the comparisons that my pastor brought out was that Samson destroyed the temple of Dagon, but Jesus destroyed the temple of God, at least the physical temple in Jerusalem. The glory-presence of God left the temple when Christ went to the cross and died, which was signified by the temple veil being torn in two.