The church of Christ on McDermott Road

While God was working in the life of Cornelius, he was also working in the life of the apostle Peter. While Peter was staying the city of Joppa, God showed Peter a vision. Peter saw all kinds of animals, many of which the Jewish people considered common or unclean. The Lord told Peter to kill and eat these […]

Rome was the latest in a long line of foreign powers to dominate, control, and oppress the Jewish people. Around 39 BC, the Romans crowned “Herod the Great” as king of Judaea and sent him to control and tax the Jewish people. Among Herod’s many building projects was the city of Caesarea; which was intended to highlight […]

Jesus cares about the whole person, not just their disembodied spirit. Every time a human body is healed in the book of Acts, it points forward to the redemption of our mortal body on the Day of Christ. This should tell us how much God values our bodies and how we ought to reject any philosophy or doctrine […]

People can be mean and cruel. If we are not prepared to suffer insult and injury, then we might forfeit our inheritance for a moment of vengeance. We must prepare our families to persevere meekly through insult and injury, trusting God to vindicate us. (Scripture: Psalm 43)

When Jesus was on the cross, he quoted Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus voluntarily experienced the pain and disappointment of feeling abandoned by God. If we live a life of faith, our family will also experience that feeling. Will they have the words and perspective to persevere through that experience? (Scripture: […]

Our culture’s definition of the word “blessed” and Jesus’ definition are related but different. How should we change our focus to better love and serve others? (Scripture: John 13:12-17)

Guilt can be overwhelming. Psalm 32 describes it as feeling like your bones are wasting away or all your strength is dried up. When we feel guilty, we often feel like giving up. We must teach our family how to persevere through guilt to confession and forgiveness.

At some point in our spiritual journey, we will likely hear the taunting words, “Where is your God?” This may come from outside voices or even from our own thoughts. We must prepare our family to persevere through the painful feelings of doubt that accompany these words.

Temptation is inevitable. Are we helping prepare our family to persevere through temptation and not surrender to it? Psalm 119 gives us the ABCs of keeping our way pure, teaching us how to persevere in obedience. (Scripture: Psalm 119:9-16)

Christian families must help one another expect trials. So that when trials come, no one will be surprised and everyone will persevere by taking refuge in the Lord. When God inevitably proves his faithfulness through the trials, Christian families must teach one another to sing his praises. (Scripture: Psalm 57)

Mission Sunday 2022 (Scripture: Romans 10:11-15)

Luke describes the church as, “walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:31). This is rather paradoxical. How can someone experience both “fear” and “comfort” simultaneously? Oswald Chambers said, “The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear […]

The resurrection of Jesus means Jesus is alive today and actively reigning in his church. He is intimately connected with everything that happens to his people. When Saul was persecuting the church, he was also persecuting the Messiah. The resurrected Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus and recruited him to be a follower. It’s […]

The Gospel of Luke focuses a lot of attention on Jesus’ ministry to marginalized and disenfranchised people (women, the poor, Samaritans, moral outcasts, etc.). Luke continues this theme in the book of Acts. When Jerusalem rejected the Gospel and persecuted the church, Jesus recruited people like Philip to proclaim the Gospel to the disenfranchised (Samaritans, the demon possessed, practitioners [...

During the earthly portion of his ministry, Jesus recruited people to be disciples by telling them to take up their cross and follow him. We’ve diluted the idea of “cross bearing” into a metaphor for simply enduring difficulties. However, Jesus’ audience understood that taking up their cross meant accepting martyrdom. Stephen was the first disciple to truly experience […]

One of the first internal problems the church faced was ethnic tension between Hebrew-speaking and Greek-speaking Christians. The Greek-speaking widows were being overlooked during the daily distribution of food. When their situation was exposed, the apostles shepherded the church wisely by appointing Greek-speaking men to oversee the fair and equal distribution of food. One of the reasons the chu...

Peter, as all elders must be, was a teacher. He taught about Jesus “in season and out of season,” when people wanted to hear and when they didn’t. Even after he was told to stop teaching about Jesus by the Sanhedrin, he continued to do so. When the Sanhedrin asked why he disobeyed their orders, Peter said, “We […]

Peter was an apostle and at some point he was also an elder in a church (see 1 Peter 5:1). It’s easy to read about the miracles Peter performed and dismiss them as having little to no significance for the church today, because such miracles no longer happen. However, ministering to those who sick and hurting is still […]

The story of Ananias and Sapphira is one many of us would rather skip over, but we must not ignore the parts of Scripture that make us uncomfortable. This Christian couple conspired and lied about the money they were giving to the church community. Because of their lie, they both died immediately. This story might remind us of Nadab […]

After their first arrest and being threatened by the Jewish authorities, the early church did not try to seize political power or rally the people in rebellion. They did not even pray to be spared the pain of persecution. They recognized the weakness of their enemies’ threats and prayed, “Grant to your servants to continue to speak your […]

The Jewish council of rulers, elders, and scribes arrested Peter and John and eventually told them to stop speaking and teaching in the name of Jesus. Peter and John’s response was, “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). No matter how much the council threatened to punish them, Peter and John were […]

Scripture: James 5:13-20

Peter and John were asked by a lame beggar for money. But rather than money, Peter healed him in the name of Jesus. This act of doing good in the name of Jesus led to even more opportunities to spread the name of Jesus. Though you and I do not possess the power to make the lame walk, […]

Scripture: James 5:7-12

Luke describes the early church as having all things “in common” (Acts 2:44; 4:32). By sharing their possessions generously, they made sure there “was not a needy person among them” (Acts 4:34). Seen from a spiritual perspective, this is nothing less than the kingdom of heaven breaking into the world, eliminating poverty and hunger amongst those who received […]