Sunday Leftovers (4/18/10)

My first semester of seminary, I took a church history course that was taught by a gentle-looking, long-tenured, dry-speaking professor who appeared to be on the cusp of retirement. The required text was as plain, unassuming and dry as the professor. It wasn’t long before I was lost in an avalanche of dates, names, and […]

Sunday Leftovers (4/11/10)

This morning, concluding a message on Ephesians 4:13 — a consideration of how we might work to see spiritual maturity developed in all our relationships — I offered a number of implications of that text. They are as follows — This is going to influence the way we structure ministry — we will always value […]

Deuteronomy and Ephesians

In the first three chapters of Ephesians, there is only one imperative — only one command by God for the Ephesians to obey. The command is in 2:11 — “remember.” Specifically, these believers were to remember their position prior to salvation — separate from Christ, excluded from Israel, strangers to the promise God made with […]

Sunday Leftovers (3/14/10)

We live in an entertainment culture. We go to the gym to exercise, step onto a treadmill and have a TV screen facing us to watch. But most don’t watch – they have their own private entertainment in their own headphones. Or perhaps you prefer an aerobics class — so you exercise there to the […]

Sunday Leftovers (2/21/10)

A short Q & A about spiritual gifts — 1. What do we mean with the term “spiritual gifts?” Spiritual gifts can be defined this way: “Spiritual gifts are received from God and His unmerited grace — and they are diversely and sovereignly given to believers at the moment of salvation by the Holy Spirit […]

Did Jesus descend to Hell?

Interpreters of Ephesians 4:9 have long wrestled with the meaning of the phrase “the lower parts of the earth.” Many have conjectured that phrase means that after the crucifixion Christ went to Hell to proclaim the truth of His death and resurrection to those who resided there. Interpreters base this understanding not only on Ephesians […]

Sunday Leftovers (2/7/10)

How far does one go in upholding the two words “one faith?” God has united believers in Christ into one body and called those members to preserve that unity because they possess only one faith — one gospel that will save and redeem men. To what extent will one travel to uphold that truth? One […]

On theology and practice

With one word, Paul initiates a significant change in his letter to the Ephesians. With the singular (and easily overlooked) word, “therefore,” Paul moves his letter from theology to practice, from instruction to application. It is Paul’s regular habit to make such transitions (see the transitions between Romans 1-11 and 12-16 and Colossians 1-2 and […]

Sunday Leftovers (12/13/09)

As a child, I was taught what you might call “formula prayers” for bedtime and meals — a prayer that was repeated at each meal and another at each nightfall. The same words were given with the same intonation at the same time each day. It was many years before I felt liberated to pray […]

Sunday Leftovers (11/15/09)

Do we know the strength and power of God in our lives? Do we know the strength and power of God in our praying? Much of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is concerned with the matter of strength for living for the Ephesians (e.g., 1:19-20; 3:16, 20; 6:10ff). Among the truths exposed by Paul are: […]

Sunday Leftovers (11/8/09)

When we do not pray, there are a multiplicity of reasons that we offer for our waywardness: busy-ness weariness apathy and distractions lack of knowledge about what (or how) to pray sin May I suggest also that one primary reason we do not pray is because we either do not know or do not believe […]

Sunday Leftovers (9/20/09)

As we think about the early church, even though reading the epistles, it is still sometimes tempting to be idealistic about the world in which those believers lived and the manner in which those churches functioned. “If only our church could be like those early New Testament churches…,” we suggest. Yet in such longings we […]

A final thought about reconciliation

Sunday’s sermon continues to resonate in my mind as I ponder the effect of God’s reconciling work in believers. From the first weeks of my pastorate, many years ago now, until today, I am burdened by those in the church body who are not reconciled to one another. In sincerity (and sinful foolishness) I have […]

Sunday Leftovers (9/6/09)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a 19th century poet whose works not only were influential in her day, but still continue to be widely read today. She grew up with 10 siblings and had an apparently happy relationship with her father. Yet that relationship soured when she defied a life-long admonition from her father that she […]

The Fight

On June 28, Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield fought a rematch of a previous boxing match. Holyfield had won the first battle, but some questioned whether he could withstand the powerful punches of Tyson again. It wasn’t the punches of Tyson that floored Holyfield, but the biting of Tyson that shocked the world. Tyson bit […]