All for your consideration.
The Christian life often feels like being a sheep wandering in the desert, with little sustenance and dangers all around. Left to ourselves we have no guarantee of safety. For those of us charged with leading our fellow believers—whether we be pastors, ministry volunteers, mentors, parents, older siblings, or any other leadership role—we often feel unequipped and overwhelmed. The good news is, we have a Good Shepherd leading us.
Many people expect righteous people to look strange, but Jesus’ righteousness was a strange kind of strange. Jesus kept company with fisherman, tax collectors, and sinners. He flipped tables in the temple courts. He publicly criticized religious leaders—and they publicly executed him.
One of the wealthiest, highest educated, and hardest working cities in America; work is at the core of our culture. So, DC friends, what does the gospel of Jesus Christ have to do with your work? Our passage shows something beautiful: the gospel frees us to work for the glory of God and the good of our brother.
Jesus has become a polarizing figure. People either love or hate him. In the face of that, Jesus is not making his message more digestible for a broader audience. He himself is drawing sharper lines. Teaching in parables is the next development in that separation.
The almighty King, Jesus Christ, took on all the guilt of sin we incurred and all the weight of its brokenness we suffered under. No longer driven by self-preservation, Christians forfeit their pursuit of oppressing others to follow a new paradigm.
Jesus teaches us that he brings a new kind of religion—one that is rooted in mercy and celebration.
Christ established the foundation of his church through the definitive work of the apostles, who then set up a structure of overseers who would steward the apostolic foundation. Apostolicity, then, is defined by our faithfulness to the apostolic doctrine, structure, and mission.
The Bible speaks both of heaven as a paradise where God dwells and where his people go at death, and of the new heavens and new earth as God’s ultimate plan for creation. What’s the relationship between the two?
Just as Jesus comes to the disciples in the storm and reaches out to save Peter, Jesus has come to us. Jesus, the Son of God, met us in our storm. He came from heaven to earth to reach us in the form of a man. He plunged the depths of death by dying on a cross to rescue us from spiritual death, and then he rose from the dead to bring us with him into everlasting life.
There are no lengths he has not gone to find you. Not just sweeping the house, not just searching the hills for a sheep; God came from heaven to earth. The Son of God Jesus Christ took on flesh to find his lost. He came from glory and bliss to homeless rags. And even that wasn’t far enough.
Take Note Of This 