Planning
he Bible has a lot to say about God’s “good purpose” (Phil.2:13, Heb.6:17). It seems that on every other page we read of another instance of God working out his predetermined plan…
Service
Conduit
Most of us prefer to live on a cul-de-sac. We tend to like them because they allow us the tranquility of forgoing all the unnecessary traffic running through our lives. After all, the main streets allow way too much congestion coming our way that ultimately…
The Unsettling Concerns of Love
We need to be ready for the challenges, sacrifices, and emotional discomfort that come with truly loving other Christians the way God calls us to.
Serving with Sympathy
To keep a clear conscience before both God and people, we must serve them with love and sympathy as God defines, not as we or they might prefer.
Aiming to Be a Blessing
Our love for God’s people ought to drive us to a purely-motivated loving service and care that goes even beyond what we think is possible.
Help Wanted
God tells us in 2 Corinthians 9 that when we serve, sacrifice, or give for the good of his church there is a cascading series of positive effects that should encourage and motivate us to keep at it. He begins with…
The Grace of God
We need to understand God’s amazing grace and sincerely respond to it with our whole hearts in light of the sinfulness of our sin.
Seizing God’s Opportunities
We should look for every opportunity to be strategic and faithful to serve the needs of those around us, even when we are in difficult seasons of life.
More than a Task
Our work for God’s people is more than our duty, or an expression of our love for Christ, it is also our loving service for the people we have every reason to affectionately cherish as our spiritual family.
When It Motivates Sacrifice
Love and devotion to Christ motivates serious Christians to sacrifice much in their pursuit of being maximally useful to the Lord.
Understanding Women in Ministry
The complementary roles of men and women in ministry seen in biblical descriptions and prescriptions are good and godly, always to be joyfully observed by his people.
Our Christian Fellowship
There are profound and desperately needed Christian benefits that come from being highly committed, selfless participants in your church family.
Work
Working is a gift from God – a pre-fall, pre-sin, pre-curse gift. While sin’s consequence injected obstacles and pain into the equation (“the ground will produce thorns” leading to work “by the sweat of your brow” – Gen.3:18, 19), the commission to work preceded the fall…
Anything, Anyplace, Anytime
God has planned a specific set of purposes for our generation and will personally work to enlist you to accomplish a set of them for his glory.
City of Joppa: Prepared by a Godly Example
We must appreciate and pursue the evangelistic power of a selfless, sacrificial, and generous Christian life.
The Unrivaled Fellowship of His Church
Even with all its current imperfections, Christ’s Church is a unique institution which provides God’s people with unrivaled fellowship, support, protection, joy, and love.
God is Good
Because we are all natural ingrates we, as God’s beloved children, must regularly resolve and diligently work to engage our hearts and minds in giving credit to the abundantly-worthy Source of all good things.
Serving Like the Angels
The angelic beings who directed the shepherds at Christ’s birth provide us with a challenging example of humble service to Christ’s people for Christ’s sake.
Grown-Up Church Life
As Christians mature, spiritually and biologically, they must be decisively to move from a consumer mindset to the perspective of being a selfless and sacrificial minister in Christ’s church.
Loving God’s Challenging Work
We must be continually mindful of the unique and exceeding authority of the Triune God we were created and redeemed to humbly serve.
What You Can Do for the Church
Every Christian must sense the urgent need to give priority to their church by praying, serving, and working to expand its evangelistic impact on its community for Christ.
Workers Who Keep First Things First
When we serve Christ in evangelism (or in anything) we must always see our service as personally offered to Christ and never allow it to become an end in itself.
The Importance of Costly Cultivation
In our evangelism we must do the difficult and often uncomfortable work of exposing sin by presenting God’s holy laws in the context of expressing true compassion and sacrificial love.
Making Our Church Stronger
God requires that every Christian enthusiastically utilize the variety of personal investments that he has made in each of us to advance his cause and care for his church.
Serving Without Pride
As God begins to utilize us as his sold-out servants we need to vigorously fight our prideful tendency and see ourselves and all Christians as products of grace.
A Radically Different Identity
We must willingly incur any and all costs of being identified with Christ and zealously living for him in a culture that is hostile to our values, standards and commitments.
Fortifying the Church to Make a Difference
God has enabled and called every Christian to be actively involved in serving and ministering to their local church body
Our Most Underappreciated Commodity
We should wake up the incredible and precious gift God has given us in entrusting us with his word; and so we should reverentially dig in to our Bibles every day!