cross

If you turn on any Christian radio station or Christian television channel or browse online for Christian books, it won’t take you long to find someone who promises that if you follow Jesus you can have a problem free life.  That message is known as the “Health and Wealth Gospel.”  If you follow Jesus you can have health and wealth.  Time magazine recently profiled this in an article entitled “Does God Want You to Be Rich?”[i]  The article opened with the story of George.  George lost his job in Ohio.  So, he moved to Houston, TX because he knew of a large church there and a preacher there who promised that he could not only get a new job but live the carefree life he’d always wanted.  George took a job selling Fords and in four days sold a Ford F-150.  He exclaimed: “It’s a new day God has given me! I’m on my way to a six-figure income!” He’s already got his dream house picked out: “Twenty-five acres,” he says. “And three bedrooms. We’re going to have a schoolhouse (his children are home schooled). We want horses and ponies for the boys, so a horse barn. And a pond. And maybe some cattle…Why would an awesome and mighty God want anything less for his children?”  Health and wealth.Read More »The Cross: Victory

A few weeks ago in February a 46 year old woman went to sleep in her home in Bartlett, just a few blocks from my home.[i]    A few hours later, a fire started in the home.  The two story house filled with smoke.  A neighbor noticed and called the fire department.  When firefighters arrived, they searched inside and found the woman unconscious in her bedroom.  They carried her out and doused the fire.  Though it may have been a typical rescue for the fire crew, I’m sure it was anything but typical for that poor woman.  She owes her life to that crew.  She would not be alive today were it not for that rescue.Read More »The Cross: Redemption

Who will bring any charge against [us]?  Who then can condemn?  Paul asks these two questions in Rom. 8—a text which was our focus last Sunday and will again be our focus this morning.  Who will bring any charge against [us]?  Who then can condemn?Read More »The Cross: Justification

 “The Matrix” is a science fiction movie which uses Christian imagery.[i]  In the film, most of the people on earth are blind to a terrible evil oppressing them.  A living computer has enslaved every human on earth.  But it keeps humans in a virtual world where everything seems normal.  One character named Morpheus is a prophet who tries to wake others to the shocking reality of their enslavement.  In one scene Morpheus meets with a man named Neo.  He explains to Neo that something is wrong with the world: “Let me tell you why you are here.  You are here because you know something.  What you know you can’t explain.  But you feel it.  You’ve felt it your entire life.  That there is something wrong in the world.  You don’t know what it is.  But it’s there.  Like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.  It is this feeling that has brought you to me.  Do you know what I’m talking about?” Read More »The Cross: Propitiation