Atlanta Westside Presbyterian Church

The tower of Babel is a powerful picture of human cooperation gone wrong—and of God’s overruling grace to make things right. It’s not really about pride and folly as much as the drive to find security and identity apart from God. When we resist being drawn with God into the thrilling diversity of his world, we find that: we’re always exhausted, our fear never goes away, we’ve got company, it doesn...

Noah’s drunken final chapter reminds us that all of us are shaped by the models around us, especially our families, but that God always works through fallible people. Ultimately, Jesus is re-gathering people from all the scattered descendants of Noah into his new family where grace reigns.

After the flood, God leads us to expect that life and blessing will continue to multiply, but in the shadow of death and judgment. This includes a new relationship to animals where we, the “apex predators” are accountable to God for how we treat animal life and especially human life. It also includes God’s covenant to preserve creation until Jesus returns to make all things new. In the sign of thi...

Waiting is hard, but God is at work while we wait. During Noah's long year in the ark, God reconfigured his posture toward the animal world, making him a more humble, cooperative, wondering steward of their lives. Above all, God was training Noah to trust him. We need to learn that same trust today. For Christians, our hope is not just in the "wind" that God uses to blow away the waters of chaos,...

Genesis 7 lingers in the devastating details of the flood in order to deepen our appreciation for the mercy of God. Noah is not the hero of this story; God is. God gathers the animals, God shuts the door, and God preserves every creature within from the rising waters. 1 Peter 3 says the ark is a picture of baptism, which saves us because of the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus himself reminds us in Ma...

In the time of Noah, unrestrained sex and violence revealed that human beings didn’t want to serve God; they wanted to be God. Rather than an angry overreaction, God’s plan to flood the world was a grieving act of uncreation and re-creation, bringing judgment and mercy at the same time. But Noah didn’t earn the right to receive this mercy; as verse 8 emphasizes, he “found favor in the eyes of the...

The book of Galatians is a case study in loving well and loving poorly. Paul’s letter highlights the importance of building, nurturing, and protecting a relational culture shaped by the Gospel.  The Gospel creates a very unique relational culture—a culture that affirms our beauty, acknowledges our brokenness, and anticipates the Day we will “be made perfect in love” (1 John3:1-3). We who love poor...

Human culture always has the capacity for good, for evil, or for some combination of both. The descendants of murderous Cain engaged in good pursuits: city-building, livestock farming, music, technology, family-building and poetry. Yet because they rejected God’s loving rule, the way they practiced them was often corrupted, most heinously by Lamech’s polygamy and violent hyper-retribution. Enosh,...

The story of Cain and Abel shows us ourselves, and more important, it shows us the heart of God: ·      We are stubbornly independent from God, but God is stubbornly interested in us ·      We are half-hearted toward him, but he is relentless in pursuing us ·      We are envious of others, but he is curious about us ·      We are vulnerable to sin’s sneak attacks, but he is powerful to fight with...

Joseph of Arimathea is the patron saint of sharing your circles—all the human networks that connect resources to needs. Even Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary," despite their apparent powerlessness, used their nonthreatening social status to become vital eyewitnesses to Jesus' resurrection. In the economy of God, grace is free and our participation is a gift, opening up limitless possibilities to...

Jesus loves rich people and wants everyone to be "rich"—so that we might share what we have with others. His interaction with a rich young man reveals that stuff is never just stuff, but sits right next to our hearts, often choking out the light of God's face. The only way to find the motivational thrust to release our stuff is by receiving the free grace of God, trusting that in him we have more...

People who share the burdens of others must be willing to share their own. Jesus modeled this habit throughout his earthly ministry, especially in his agonizing night in the garden of Gethsemane. While his burden was utterly unique, Christians can follow his example by first sharing our burdens with our Father, then sharing some things with someone (not everything with everyone). And even when peo...

Attention is the most basic form of generosity. Jesus modeled this attentiveness in his unusual interaction with the Syrophoenician woman. Like her, we who know the gracious attention of Jesus are liberated from self-absorption to give our attention to others, even if only for a few minutes. Seen people see people. Resources consulted: - Making Room, Christine Pohl - Secular Creed, Rebecca McLaugh...

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The entire book of Colossians

Paul closes his letter to Colossae with personal greetings that illustrate what grace looks like in community. It includes humbling the exalted and exalting the humble; sharing ordinary life together; a deep desire to reconcile with people who hurt or disappoint us; gratitude for those who "get" us culturally and above all for those who "get" the Gospel; inconspicuous service and persistent prayer...

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Healthy faith involves talking to God about others—steadfastly, watchfully, and thankfully—and talking to others about God—wisely, graciously and saltily. All of these behaviors flow out of a firm grasp of the Gospel of Jesus, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Resources: - Molly Worthen on the Gospelbound podcast: https://open. spotify.com/episode/0CwAeiZm4EasJfNFJxikh5...

Sometimes we follow, sometimes we lead; in every relationship, Jesus is King. United to him in his death and his life, we build up all others, and him glorify.  Resources: Westminster Larger Catechism , questions 123-133 PCA Report on Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault Walter’s August 2022 Sermon on Ephesians 6:1-9

Paul's positive vision of Christian transformation in community is incredibly attractive—and incredibly hard. Qualities like meekness, patience and forbearance are not natural to us, nor are forgiveness, sacrificial love, peace, admonishing one another, and thankfulness. It is possible, however, to "put on" these qualities because of what Christ has done: choosing us, making us holy and beloved, f...

One of Paul’s favorite metaphors for growing as a Christian pictures change like clothing: putting off the rags of our old life and putting on the robes of our new life in Christ. Verses 1-11 focus on putting off, which involves situating ourselves in God’s past-present-and-future story, agreeing on death’s address (that is, why we should put off certain behaviors and dispositions), and killing th...

Spiritual elitism, or legalism, attempts to exclude Christians based on religious performance. Paul names three specific forms of it here: majoring on the external, pretending to transcend the physical, and being known by your don'ts. The true Gospel opposes all of them, training us to distinguish shadows from substance, not to fight flesh with flesh, and above all to hold fast to the Head, Jesus...