Early Church of Christ

Luke 7 begins with Jesus having just spent some time teaching the crowds, and now has returned to Capernaum, a fishing village on the northern end of the Sea of Galilee that served as a base of operation for much of his ministry (this is already the second time he has been there in Luke's gospel). With Jesus' reputation growing, and his familiarity in Capernaum, perhaps it's not too surprising tha...

At the foundation of everything we believe as Christians is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. As we continue our study of the Gospel of Luke, we will look at how Jesus wrapped up the Sermon on the Plain. We will also see how it, too, is built on the same foundation of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus' Sermon on the Plain that is recorded in Luke, while much briefer, has some of the same turn-the-world-on-its-head themes as the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. You may be familiar enough that the things he says seem "normal", but they were--and to the majority of ears in the world today--earth-shattering and counter-cultural. Truth is, even if they seem too familiar to be shocking, they...

"On a certain Sabbath Jesus was walking through a field of ripe grain. His disciples were pulling off heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands to get rid of the chaff, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, 'Why are you doing that, breaking a Sabbath rule?' But Jesus stood up for them. 'Have you never read what David and those with him did when they were hungry? How he entered the sanctuary and...

As Jesus starts to preach what is known as the "Sermon on the Plain" in Luke 6, we immediately see some common themes to the "Sermon on the Mount". Don't let the familiarity fool you. These four blessings and four warnings were were like an earthquake and its aftershocks as Jesus taught, each saying turning convention and tradition on their heads.

Ever since the fall of man, there have been constant divisions among humanity. The haves and the have nots, the powerful and the pawns, the snoots and the uncouth, the popular and the unpopular, the clean and the unclean. If you are one who is on the "right" side of these divides, you may be able to pretend there is no harm done. But if you are on the "wrong" side of these tracks, you know the tru...

This message was part of a gospel campaign in Guatemala City at the Iglesia de Cristo en Centro Historico, and is in both Spanish and English. Three men--Peter, Pilate, and Jesus. Three lives potentially crushed by the weight of public pressures, others' agendas, and pointing fingers. How would you handle pressure? How does God respond when we, like Peter, blow it? Tres hombres: Pedro, Pilato y Je...

This Sunday, Jim Hackney of Fort Worth was our guest speaker, and shared a great message on the love and grace of Jesus. God loves us and takes us in where we are, but he doesn't leave us there, he leads us to newer and greater heights.

This message was given at the Iglesia de Cristo en Centro Histórico in Guatemala City, and is in both English and Spanish. He had quite a life--he was young, rich, powerful, and a generally great guy. But the day he met Jesus, he found out that there was one thing he still lacked, and that one thing was all that stood between him and the new kingdom of God to which had called him. Tenía una gran v...

"It's a hard day's night, and I've been workin' like a dog..." If The Beatles had been a 1st Century Jewish rock band, Peter might very well have been whistling that tune when Jesus saw him on the shore that morning. He and his partners had been fishing all night, and...nada. Stressed, disappointed, and tired, Peter was nevertheless drawn to what this rabbi was teaching as he listened in while cle...

A Day in the LifeWhen I was a child we had a set of the LIFE Magazine "World Library" books that showed what life was like all over the world. They provided a fascinating look into what life was like in far away places (and now, a far away time). Again the 1990s, photographers all over the planet took photos for 24 hours to get as comprehensive a look as they could at what life is like for a day o...

Jesus' trip to the synagogue in Nazareth really ought to be a "hometown boy does good!" kind of story. By now his reputation is spreading, and he is known for his powerful teaching, healing the sick, and giving sight to the blind. But something went off the rails that Sabbath day, and it became anything but a celebration.

"And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil." Luke 4:1-2, ESV

Have you noticed how often Luke mentions the Holy Spirit? 11 times in from Luke 1:1-4:1, and the trend continues through the books of Luke and Acts (aka Luke I & II). If the Gospel is that full of the Spirit, should we be paying more attention to him as well?

This Sunday we had a presentation on the ministry of Orphans Lifeline, Int'l by Kelvin Hoover. "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you." James 1:27, NLT

Could the world use more men and women of God who... ...are full of the Holy Spirit, convicted and convicting? ...have a clear vision of God's design for life, and a heart for restoring people to it? ...will bold speak the truth of sin, grace, and redemption? "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There ar...

Have you ever meditated on what Luke 2:52 is saying? "And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." "And JESUS GREW..." Can God, or God's son, grow? What does that mean? How would an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent being experience anything new?

"No matter who or where you are, the story of Jesus, from the feeding-trough in Bethlehem to the empty tomb and beyond, can become your story. In becoming your story, it will become your vocation. Everybody has their own role in God’s plan. For some, it will be active, obvious, working in the public eye, perhaps preaching the gospel or taking the love of God to meet the practical needs of the worl...

It's not just the song the angels sang announcing Jesus' birth that is significant. God had chosen, repeatedly, to use people that were the opposite of our expectations to announce the coming of the Messiah, and the Messiah himself came in the most unexpected way. But this is not just about a drama that catches us off guard, there is purpose and a message here to the broken, poor in spirit, and th...

What do we find when we give up our sense of offense, anger, and bitterness? We find what so many in the gospels found in Jesus Christ--love beyond compare, compassion beyond belief, and peace beyond understanding. That's a pretty good trade if you ask me. ;-)

"So many others have tried their hand at putting together a story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us, using reports handed down by the original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives. Since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story’s beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most honorable Theophilu...

“Acting out of love, to show mercy, to correct injustices, to set things right...is beautiful. Love should be motivation enough to do the right thing. And not 'love' as a fuzzy abstraction, but love as a gutsy, willful decision to seek the best for others. What the world really needs, I think you’ll agree, is not a group of people patting themselves on the back for being angry. We need people who...

“This gavel, the one I awarded myself—who knows why?—is really, really heavy. I can keep pronouncing everyone else guilty for the rest of my life, but I’m not sure why. I don’t want this anymore. Maybe you know what I mean. So let me ask you… Ain’t you tired?” ~Brant Hansen, Unoffendable, p. 61

When I was learning to drive, my grandparents' neighbor gave me some advice: "Always assume every other driver is an idiot." What he meant was that you can't assume other drivers are going to do the right thing, but could there be a problem with launching out into the world assuming everyone's an idiot but me? Can we even do Jesus work at all in the world with that outlook? Is there a better way,...

This week we kicked off a new series: "UNOFFENDABLE". It's inspired by Brant Hansen's excellent book by the same title, that challenges us to question the myth of "righteous anger" and learn to react to offenses with love, patience, and humility.