We've all heard the phrase "tough love", maybe even experienced it in our adolescence as we clumsily navigated through some rebellious patch of our life growing up. Hopefully you are not still stuck there. It can be painful both as a parent and a recipient of tough love. I however, have been experiencing tough love of a different nature lately and this morning took a moment to meditate on it. What I'm dealing with is [...]
For those of you who are a part of The Dwelling Place, here is a great short message by Francis Chan on Freedom in Christ and Grace. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yq8elC_kYs&feature=player_embedded] Francis Chan: "Grace, Grace, Grace" (This and other massages at www.cornerstonesimi.com)
I was reflecting this morning on the effects of revelation on one's life. Paul speaks several places in scripture about the revelation of Christ and His gospel and their impact upon his life. This revelation had a death and life effect on Paul. This revelation is a mystery revealed and cannot be understood by someone who has not experienced it. No one can teach it to you. It is "... the mystery which has been [...]
After the last post concerning the House Church Movement in China, I ran across this article at World Mission Impact: "200 Christian leaders from 40 nations met in New Delhi, India, Nov 11-14th, 2009, to explore the scope and significance of house-based discipling communities and emerging house church movements worldwide. Known best from the history of the underground house churches in China that report by now an estimated 100 million members, a similar phenomenon has [...]
As I sit here in a little coffee shop in Wilmington, NC and reflecting on the last details to finish today for the Christmas Gathering of our House Church tomorrow evening, I am struck with a humbled sense of gratitude. In all the business and planning we do for our churches in the West, we can lose sight or maybe never see the essence of what church really is. We can so easily take the Church [...]
