Posts with the tag “discipleship”

In the movie The Intern, a 70-year-old man who had done everything the world told him to do — retire, travel, take up golf — was miserable. So he applied for an internship, walked in with a briefcase and a pocket square, and said: "Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them. Well, I still have music in me." That line did not belong in a movie. It belonged in a sermon. Because Psalm 92 says the righteous will still yield fruit in old age. Full of sap. Very green. And God has never once called anyone to retire. Read the full post.  Read More

Every graduation season somebody reads the Dr. Seuss book. The one with the winding road. And the words land the way they always do: "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose." Beautiful. True. And not enough. Because Jesus did not say follow your dreams. He said follow Me. And the generation standing in cap and gown right now is about to discover that the direction they choose matters more than any commencement speech told them. Read the full post.  Read More

There is a seat at your grandmother's table that nobody sits in anymore. The chair that was always his, always hers. The empty place that represents a meal that is not finished yet. Every family has a version of that chair. And if you listen closely, the Lord's Supper is the Church's answer to it. Because on the night before He was crucified, Jesus did not just start a memorial. He made a promise. He said: the next time I eat and drink at this table, it will be in the kingdom. The meal is not over. The guest of honor is still coming. Read the full post.  Read More

Most of us have spent our whole Christian lives with a vague picture of what we are actually waiting for. Heaven. Something nice. Something far from here. But the prophets were not vague. They described a capital city, a real table, nations stopping their wars, the blind seeing as a matter of course. Not escape from this world but the best possible version of it under the best possible King. The question Monday is asking: are you building your life on something that survives the trumpet?  Read More

There is a moment in every swimming lesson that nobody talks about honestly. The moment the instructor says let go of the wall. Everything in that child says no. The wall is solid. The water is unpredictable. Baptism is that moment. And it is one of the most prophetically loaded things a believer can do in a world that is desperately afraid of what comes next. Because when you went under that water, you were not just getting wet. You were practicing dying. And when you came back up, you were declaring something that death itself cannot argue with. Read the full post.  Read More

Yesterday you went somewhere and handed something to someone. You showed up for someone who needed it. And Jesus says you were looking at Him the whole time. The righteous in Matthew 25 were surprised. They did not know they were serving Jesus. They were just showing up. The service project is over but the posture does not have to be. Resurrection living is not an event. It is a direction you keep walking in.  Read More

Peter said he loved Jesus three times. Every time Jesus responded the same way. Not good, I forgive you. He said feed my lambs. The restoration and the assignment arrived in the same moment. You are loved and you are sent. Most of us have accepted the love and are still sitting on the beach. Love for Jesus always has a direction. And it always moves toward someone else.  Read More

The prophet Ezekiel saw a river flowing out from the Temple in Jerusalem. A trickle at first. Then ankle deep. Then deep enough to swim in. And everywhere it went, things came back to life. Even the Dead Sea turned fresh. Jesus stood at the Temple during the water ceremony and said: that river is Me. And everyone who believes in Me becomes part of it. The question is not whether resurrection power lives inside you. If you belong to Jesus, it does. The question is whether it is moving. Because the river was never designed to stay at the source. Read the full post.  Read More

Want to go deeper? This blog expands on the message preached on April 19 at GracePointe. Watch the full message at https://gpnaz.church/media. There is a character in C.S. Lewis' The Magician's Nephew named Uncle Andrew.He is present at the creation of Narnia. He is standing there when Aslan, the great lion who represents Christ, opens his mouth and sings the world into existence. Stars appear. Mo...  Read More

Want to go deeper? This blog expands on the message preached on April 19 at GracePointe. Watch the full message at https://gpnaz.church/media."He told them, 'The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and b...  Read More