Jesus gives us our purpose in today’s Bible reading: bear fruit. He is the true Vine. And Believers are branches attached to the True Vine. The responsibilities of the branches are to stay connected with the Vine and let the life of the Vine flow through them. Union and Communion. As long as a Believer…
Five hundred two years ago today, a young man aired his ninety-five grievances against the church. The resulting Reformation turned Christianity upside-down. Or, rather, it turned Christianity rightside-up.
In today’s Bible reading, John tells us about Jesus’ first miracle. Jesus and His disciples have been invited to attend a multi-day wedding (as was common). Mary, Jesus’ mother tells Him that they ran out of wine. She doesn’t tell Him what to do. John doesn’t tell us what she expected Jesus to do. Jesus…
Several months ago, we read through Paul’s letters to the Church at Corinth. We saw that one of the Corinthians’ biggest problems was their focus on themselves. They were consummate narcissists. As a result, the Corinthian church was extremely dysfunctional in the way it ministered to itself. In today’s Bible reading, Peter echos Paul’s concerns…
John concludes his first letter in today’s Bible reading telling us that, “this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden, because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world.” (1 John 5:3-4 CSB) The world was able to see this play out on…
Similar to what Paul did with Timothy in 1 Timothy 3, he spells out qualifications for church leaders in today’s Bible reading. Again, I don’t believe he’s giving a checklist as much as he’s giving guidelines and pointing out that being a church leader is more than just being well-connected in the community. Character is…
