Closer to Christ

God has designed Family Church to function well as each member carries out his or her role in service to the others, seeing it first as service to Christ. To serve is to submit. "Submit" is a welcomed word to the believer in Jesus. It is an approach to living that blessed and changed the world in the person of Jesus Christ. It is an approach to MY living that brings blessing every day to the peopl...

God has designed the Family Church with dad and mom in mind as spiritual shepherds of the family. To be a shepherd takes training and preparation. To be a spiritual shepherd takes training and guidance from God's Word.  In other words, for dad and mom, Family Church is personal--it begins with ME and my relationship with Jesus, my Savior. Are you a mom or a dad? Are you an influencer in your funct...

God has designed the Family Church with dad and mom in mind as spiritual shepherds of the family. To be a shepherd takes training and preparation. To be a spiritual shepherd takes training and guidance from God's Word.  In other words, for dad and mom, Family Church is personal--it begins with ME and my relationship with Jesus, my Savior. Are you a mom or a dad? Are you an influencer in your funct...

A mission statement defines a company's business: whom it serves, what it does, its objectives, and its approach to reaching those objectives. A mission statement is prominent in an organization's daily work, keeping everyone on task and in pursuit of the mission. The Christian family is no different in its purposeful living. We want our family founded on Jesus and his forgiveness, focused on his...

Moses must be lost! Jerusalem was only 25 miles directly north of them. Yet, they were going on a couple of hundred mile detour through barren desert. Do you sometimes feel your God is lost? Is he leading you on this camping trip in a direction you don’t want to go? Is his path to the Promised Land impossible for you? In your suffering, look to the One who suffered for you. There you will find cla...

“Is that a bear?” “No, mom. It is just a stump.” After seeing bear warning signs, all she could see were bears. That happened for the Israelites too. The spies came back with warning signs. The Canaanites were too big. The cities fortified. They wanted to give up and go home. What are the warning signs you see in your life? Does the future look frightening to you?  Remember who is in the camp with...

Camping is work! When one person thinks he or she has to do everything, it is easy to be overwhelmed and want to quit. Everyone on a camping trip has a something to do. When everyone understands their role, bitterness and jealousy disappear. What is your role as you journey through life to the Promised Land? Are you getting bitter? Perhaps you are trying to do too much. Are you getting jealous? Pe...

If you have ever gone on a family camping trip, you have experienced crises. Complaints begin to surface. It’s too hot. It’s too cold. I’m tired. I don’t like the food. I’m doing more than my fair share. Moms and dads get to the breaking point too. How much more of this can they take? The Israelites experienced similar crises. It was too hard. The food was monotonous. Fortunately, the LORD was at...

If you have ever gone on a family camping trip, you have experienced crises. Complaints begin to surface. It’s too hot. It’s too cold. I’m tired. I don’t like the food. I’m doing more than my fair share. Moms and dads get to the breaking point too. How much more of this can they take? The Israelites experienced similar crises. It was too hard. The food was monotonous. Fortunately, the LORD was at...

The Numbers camping trip starts with Moses counting noses. He counts noses again at the end of the trip. Then he explains the arrangement of the camp, everyone’s duties while camping, and the order in which they will hike. There are so many details in this part that we may lose sight of the most important thing – Who and what is at the center of the camp and at the center of their hike? It is the...

We are used to temporary. “All good things must come to an…end.” Those are common words because they reflect our experience—even our experience of love. Conflicts end friendships. Through distance and time people drift apart. And even if the love goes the distance, death stands at the end. Or does it? Jesus speaks of a never-ending relationship. He will never lose or drive away his beloved people....

To love without limit means to love all the way. No “if” at the beginning. No “if” in the middle. No “if” at the end. And that does not make sense to us. It might even be frightening to us. At some point don’t we get to stop? Isn’t there some kind of limit where love ends and hatred takes over? That kind of thinking shows how little we truly understand love, and how incapable of agape we truly are...

To love without expectation means to keep loving. After hearing last week that loving without condition means that we love first, then we have expectations. In our minds, when we love first, then a time should come when we get what we want or need. “I loved first, so now you will”…fill in the blank. Love me back, support me, defer to me, give me what I want whatever that might be, and so on.  But...

To love without condition means to love first. That is hard for us. We would rather approach others more guardedly, with the idea, “I’ll love you when…” No matter what that “when” is, it reveals something about us: we place conditions on love. We put the “if” first. But any condition placed on love makes that condition the operating concept rather than love itself. That condition becomes the main...

In all our earthly relationships love has a beginning. But in our relationship with God, his love has no beginning. He chose us before the creation of the world. In love, he predestined us to be his children. These words of Paul contain not only Paul’s rejoicing, but God’s own joy! Words like “lavished” and “freely” and “pleasure” show the character of our God’s love that depends not on us, but on...

The Scriptures never use the words “Trinity” or “Triune.” They never even summarize in any single place the entirety of this doctrine. Instead, as we read God’s Word from the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation, he gives us hints and glimpses of his Triune nature. Thus, the doctrine of the Trinity can seem very academic, even abstract. It may seem to have little relevance to the...

Jesus ascended into heaven. That does not mean the gospel has ceased to march victorious around the world! Jesus promised to send another advocate to represent God to the world: the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the constant companion of believers in these Last Days. This raises an important question. If God now reveals himself by his Spirit, where is the Holy Spirit found? God has not left the answe...

“But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away.” Can you imagine the disciples’ confusion? How could this be for their good? Jesus did so many wonderful things for them. Why would he leave? Jesus has also done wonderful things for us. By his death and resurrection he has given us forgiveness and eternal life. He has made us a community of convinced people. And he has another...

Today we recognize the importance of mothers in producing the sense of community we enjoy in God’s Church.

“I am convinced!” quickly becomes, “We are convinced!” As God creates and strengthens faith in individual hearts, he also connects us with other believers. The conviction of one person encourages the faith of another. The support that they give each other enhances their ministry to serve more people with God’s Word in new and exciting ways. Jesus lives! And each time the Holy Spirit gives faith to...

In our last series, “My Next Steps”, did you notice that all those steps brought you more and more into community and fellowship with others? That isn’t a coincidence. That’s how God designed it. As we grow stronger in our conviction, as we build our own family churches, as we express our commitment to Christ, all of those things bind us closer and closer to other Christians. Those steps bind us i...

The martyrdom of Stephen was a display of commitment that God used to change the Christian church and the world. It was the watershed moment between a local religious group and a worldwide church. But that commitment didn’t just happen in a moment. And it didn’t come from just one man. Look at all the displays of commitment in this reading. The church was committed to serving the members of its fa...

Doesn’t the description of the Jerusalem church sound wonderful? People eating together, sharing with each other, hanging out together, showing love and respect to each other—people outside the church love it too and want to be part of the group. Where does that kind of community come from? It comes from repentance—the whole process of repentance. The Jerusalem church had a vivid awareness of thei...

Doesn’t the description of the Jerusalem church sound wonderful? People eating together, sharing with each other, hanging out together, showing love and respect to each other—people outside the church love it too and want to be part of the group. Where does that kind of community come from? It comes from repentance—the whole process of repentance. The Jerusalem church had a vivid awareness of thei...

Peter was not content to merely know what he had seen. He repeatedly refers to other witnesses. He reviewed the testimony of the Old Testament. He was determined to not only know that Jesus rose, but to strengthen his conviction with proof after proof.  Let us not be content with knowing that Jesus rose, or hearing about it once or twice. Instead let’s intentionally strengthen our conviction. How?...