Coming This Sunday (Page 4)
The Vision that Changed a Whole Course of Ministry
How many of you enjoy the Prophetic Books in the Bible? If I am honest, the Prophets is not the easiest section in the Bible for me. Much of the time, I find it necessary to also study the history along with the chronological order of kingdoms in order to understand the Prophets, and I tend to get my dates mixed up. In addition, I am also someone who easily gets lost when I read poetry. And since there is…
Getting a Glimpse of God
Hello, LifeWay Family! This week marks the start of Advent! I am super-excited for the Christmas season (maybe equally excited for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving dinner!). I just love the lights, the brisk air, and a hot tea between my hands! The memories this time of the year brings up for everyone are wonderful, and I pray that you’re building those memories for you and your family this year. As we work through the series, “Knowing God,” I want you to meditate…
Preparing for Our LifeWay Thanksgiving Service
This Sunday morning, November 20, we are dedicating our normal 10 a.m. service time to giving thanks: to one another, for our daily provision and, most of all, to God! There will lots of wonderful musical worship, but each of us is also to play an important part in this service. How to prepare for Thanksgiving worship For example… Psalm 106:1 Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. This Sunday morning service will be…
Stand Firm and See the Deliverance of the Lord!
Exodus 14:13 (NIV) “Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.” In 1998 my wife, Patty, and I had accumulated a bunch of airline miles, so we took our two children on a wonderful adventure to Europe for four full weeks! We did a lot of camping and last-minute, drop-in bed and breakfasts. We’ve got lots of fun stories; our kids to this day refer to this as the most memorable family trip we…
Escape from a Trapped Life
Knowing God the Deliverer For Christmas a few years ago, our kids bought us one of those escape room events. The whole family went into a locked room, and we had to work together to figure out the clues on how to get out. It was very fun, but I found it very frustrating! I can promise you that if I had been put in that room by myself, I would likely still be in that room even now. I…
Knowing God—The Great Deliverer
The Denzel Washington movie from 2000, “Remember the Titans,” portrayed the true story of an underdog high school football team coached by an African American man who took them to the state championship. It is an inspiring story and worth a watch, for sure. But the center of the movie was that they, as a whole team, had to have confidence in what the new head coach was doing with them and where he was leading them. They had to…
Global Impact Celebration: A historical review
Where have we been and why do we do this? Eleven years ago at LifeWay Church, we began dedicating one week of the year to a Global Impact Celebration, or GIC. It is a week on our calendar, but if that is all the annual GIC is for you, then you’ve totally missed the entire point. Let me explain. Why did we start this, and what’s the history of GIC? To be honest, most churches, when they are involved in missions,…
A Global Mandate from Our Global God
If you had a dream of going somewhere in the world where you have never been—seeing something with your own eyes instead of seeing just tourist photos—where would it be? It’s a bit of a “what’s on your bucket list?” question. A cruise through the inside passage to Alaska? The tropical islands of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean? The fjords of Norway? The glaciers and penguins of Antarctica? The Gobi Desert of Mongolia? The Great Wall of China? Machu…
The Global Need
What’s the greatest need in the world today? Clean water? A secure food supply? Access to education? Each of those needs is significant, and they are also universal—meaning that everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, has these needs. But the greatest need we all have is a Savior. The Bible tells us that every person is dead in their sin until they accept the gift of Christ as their Savior. He is the solution to our…
Global
Have you ever met someone who is constantly focused on themselves? Maybe they aren’t actively mean or uncaring; they are just simply too occupied with their own lives to notice the people around them. They don’t notice if someone needs help or care if someone is celebrating a milestone. Their lives are about themselves. Sadly, a lot of churches and a lot of Christians can be inward-focused as well. We get caught up in our own church activities and issues,…
Asking “What If…?” of the Great I AM
Exodus 4:1Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” Does God—the Great I AM, YHWH—take questions? In the classic 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy and the band of misfits that she had collected along the yellow brick road finally come into the throne room of “Oz the Great and Powerful,” she begins to ask him basic questions. The first questions are met with anger, fury…
Awed, Not Overwhelmed
Be in awe of God more than overwhelmed by anything else that comes your way! This was the essential theme laid out last Sunday as we launched into a year of study we are calling, Knowing God. Just contemplate that for a minute: Be in awe of God. The story from which we are launching our year is Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush (Exodus 3). Essentially, Moses was just minding his own business, tending the sheep. He…
Knowing God: The Great I Am
This Sunday, September 11, we are launching into our third year of study and sermons to help us grasp the whole of Scripture. To remind you… Year 1 (2020-21) — The Book of Jesus We explored the idea that ALL of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is ultimately about Jesus and God’s rescue plan. Do you remember our memory verse? Colossians 1:15Christ, the visible image of the invisible God… Year 2 (2021-22) — Building His Church We sought to…
Christians in Conflict
Hello, LifeWay Family! It’s Edwin, and I wanted to take a moment to say how excited I am for this Sunday! For those of you who may not know, this Sunday will be my first opportunity to preach to the church as a whole! I am so elated to be able to share something that God has really been placing on my heart this year. Have you ever had a conflict with an unbeliever? Has a conversation and attempt to…