Last Sunday at church we had a special service called “A Day of Worship in Song and in Story.” We sang more than usual and had four different people share their stories. Stories of spiritual journey and becoming a Christian, stories of the gospel becoming real and taking root in their lives, stories of coming to love Jesus’ church…it was a special time. Everyone has got a story and those stories are important. Here’s why…
Last Sunday I preached the first sermon where I have ever publicly addressed the topic of predestination. In my sermon I promised to provide some additional material in this week’s journal entry for those who want to study it more. So this entry includes resources, both books, essays and online material for those who want to press into predestination. These resources are not meant to be exhaustive but extensive. The bulk of the material supports and further explains the conclusions I presented and is categorized as “reformed literature”. For the purpose of fairness, I have provided some materials from those who do not deal with the biblical material in the same way and end up with far different conclusions.
Part 6 of the “Suffering and the Glory of God” sermon series. Part 6 is an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:28-30 addressing the themes of God’s effectual calling, foreloving and predestination and how it relates to suffering and faith. This sermon was originally preached February 17th, 2008 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
Community. The ancient Christians identified themselves as a community with the symbol we use for our logo at The Resolved Church, what looks like the letter “P” on top of the letter “X.” They are the first two letters of “Christ” in Greek. Today there are all kinds of different communities…geographical communities, ethnic communities, sports communities, virtual communities and on and on. But what is community? Why do we need it or want it? Everyone is looking for it even in the most individualistic pursuits. A common unity. The sense of belonging. For many Christians community is a culturally combative thing or it’s a pretty non-existent thing. What kind of communities of Christ (communitas Christus) are we to have and how do we approach that at The Resolved Church?
Part 5 of the “Suffering and the Glory of God” sermon series. Part 5 is an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:29 addressing the theme of God’s good purpose in conforming believers into the image of Christ. This sermon was originally preached February 10th, 2008 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.