Gifts of Grace   In Romans 12:6-8 Paul lists seven spiritual gifts. Though this is not an exhaustive list, it does provide us with an idea of the different ways in which God’s people are gifted. These gifts are one of the best ways that the body of Christ can demonstrate both our unity and diversity, reminding us that all followers of Christ are unified through the same Spirit, but that the Spirit...  Read More

If I am being honest, I would have to confess that I have struggled in the past five months. Really struggled. It is kind of like a weird mixture of wearing shoes that are way too tight and grief. With every step comes the awareness that things are off…and my heart is heavy and feels the loss of meaningful things. In the midst of the struggle and seeking the Lord, I have discovered one of the sour...  Read More

One of the attacks often made on the reliability of the New Testament is that Paul’s teachings differ greatly from the teachings of Jesus. In actuality, many of Paul’s teachings in his letters can be traced back directly to the teachings of Jesus recorded in the gospels, and Romans 12-14 is a great section of scripture to see that. Below I have provided a list (taken from John Stott’s commentary o...  Read More

The "One Another's" of Romans   There are a number of “one another” verses in the New Testament that help us understand how the Lord desires for us to live toward others. Below are nine “one another” verses from Romans that we will be considering over the next few weeks: “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one ...  Read More

In his book 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You, Tony Reinke outlines specific ways in which our increasingly digitized lives are negatively impacting us. The eleventh way, according to his book, is that we are becoming more harsh toward one another. It does seem, for some reason, that there are statements we would never say face to face that seem to fly from our fingertips when we start typing on ...  Read More

Little Parts of a Larger Story   In Exodus 6 the Lord is working with Moses and the Israelites in their discouragement, encouraging them to trust in him in the middle of their increasing hardship in Egypt. Then, smack dab in the middle of the chapter, there pops up a long genealogy, an endless series of seemingly trivial names that don’t seem to have anything to do with anything. So, why would the...  Read More