Archive for the ‘Gospel’ Category
Guest Sermon: I Can See Clearly Now
Filed under: By Richard Andrews, Gospel, Ministry, Perichoresis, Trinity |
Leave a comment I Can See Clearly Now by Richard Andrews
This message includes a full version of the song ‘I Can See Clearly Now'” and was used to help proclaim the Good News of Who Jesus is and Who we are in Him, and particularly through the New Life Fellowship Mission Statement, which is To Know Jesus, and to Know who Everyone is in Him, as the Father’s Adopted Children who Understand, Embrace, Enjoy and Freely Share this Good News with the World, in the Spirit’s Multiplying Grace!
Kingdom Lessons from the Table
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Evangelism, Gospel, Ministry, Perichoresis, Trinity |
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For over a year now my congregation in Nashville, TN, has been providing a meal to the community every Sunday after worship services. We call it Community Cafe and our denomination’s weekly update had a short article about it yesterday. There are several lessons about the Kingdom of the Father, Son, and Spirit that have been reinforced in my mind as we have participated with Jesus in this ministry.
1. Sermons can be preached without words. Every Sunday our Community Cafe offers a powerful message about the Kingdom because anyone who attends will see young and old, from different races, and from economic backgrounds ranging from homeless to upper middle class, all gathered around the table eating together.
2. Mission means incarnation. We have tried other approaches to ministering to our community – from having one day events to going door to door, but we have seen much better gospel experiences from allowing ourselves to be sent as the Father sent the Son (John 20:21). The Father didn’t send the Son for a one day event or to just hand out some care packages with salvation medicine in them. The Father sent the Son to become incarnate forever in humanity – living, eating, and sharing life with us. When we sit down at the table with people from our community and eat with them, week in and week out, we are building relationships and beginning to live out the mission of the Kingdom in an incarnational way.
3. The gospel has no strings attached. When the Holy Spirit first called us to create Community Cafe he called us to a very simple mission statement: “Feed hungry people.” They can be church members or outsiders, rich or poor, believers or atheists – the only thing they have to have in common is that they are hungry and want to eat with us. Sometimes gospel conversations happen around the table, and guests often ask for prayer. Some of those who come to the Cafe have also started coming to worship services on Sunday and bible study on Tuesday. Some have only come for the meal and nothing more – so far. The point for us is that the simple act of accepting others to our table of fellowship, eating with them, and talking with them, is – in and of itself – an expression of the gospel and needs no strings attached to it in order to be a participation in what Jesus is doing in the lives of our guests.
~ Jonathan Stepp
Sermon: What it Means that Christ is King, Part 2
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Gospel, Perichoresis, Sermons, Trinity |
Leave a comment What it Means that Christ is King, Part 2 by Tim Brassell. This sermon was simply a Celebration of the Shockingly Good and Gracious Good News proclaimed on “Christ the King Sunday” to the congregation and visitors at New Life Fellowship (GCI) in Baltimore, MD.
Eucharist
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Christian Living, Church, Gospel, Perichoresis, Trinity |
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To all our readers in the United States: Happy Thanksgiving!
Do you ever feel that you are not as thankful as you should be? We have all been blessed with so much in life – with food, and salvation, and family – but we often don’t give thanks as much as we know that we should.
As members of the body of Christ we cannot think of giving thanks without thinking of the Thanksgiving Meal of the Church – the Eucharist. Taken from the Greek word meaning “to give thanks” (eucharistia), the Eucharist is our sharing in the thankful, joyful, gift of the Trinity’s life given to us through the Son of God’s humanity as the man Jesus Christ.
In the bread and wine of worship the Son lifts up the Thanksgiving of humanity before the Father, in the grace of the Holy Spirit, and he includes us in this offering of himself and his faith on our behalf. When we share in this Thanksgiving meal of the Eucharist by our eating, drinking, and saying “Amen!” we are participating in Jesus’ Thanksgiving on behalf of the whole human race. We share with him in thanking the Father for adopting humanity as his own children and for pouring out the Spirit on all people. Jesus is both the one for whom we are thankful and the one who offers up the sacrifice of thanksgiving on our behalf.
That ought to encourage us when we sense that we are not as grateful as we wish to be. Even when we do not know how to express our thanksgiving, and even when we fail to do so out of forgetfulness, laziness, or simple distraction, we know that Jesus our High Priest lives forever before the Father to offer up our thanksgiving for us. It is for this reason that the Eucharist – the breaking of the bread – is the heart and soul of Christian worship. We are a fellowship of Thanksgiving, led by the High Priest who is both offerer of the Thanksgiving offering and the offering itself.
May the Thanksgiving offering of Christ our High Priest fill you and those you love with the joyful life that he shares with Father and the Holy Spirit – one God, faithful and true, now and for ever.
~ Jonathan Stepp
Sermon: The Return of the King
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Perichoresis, Sermons, Trinity |
Comments (2) The Return of the King by Jonathan Stepp. When the Son of Man comes in his glory he will separate the sheep and the goats – but don’t worry! This is good news for everyone, even the goats.
Sermon: What it Means that Christ is King
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Gospel, Perichoresis, Sermons, Trinity |
Comments (2) What It Means That Christ Is King, Part 1 by Tim Brassell. This sermon was simply a Celebration of the Shockingly Good and Gracious Good News proclaimed on “Christ the King Sunday” to the congregation and visitors at New Life Fellowship (GCI) in Baltimore, MD.
Nascar Prayer
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Gospel, Prayer | Tags: Jesus, Perichoresis, Prayer, Trinity
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As I read Nan’s post on prayer last week I was reminded of three of my favorite prayers. These prayers speak clearly to me of how included our humanity is in the life of God the Father, Son and Spirit RIGHT NOW, in the humanity of Jesus the Son. They provoke me to remember that it is not so much that we have received Jesus into our lives but, in His Incarnation, was receiving us into Him and His Father’s Life in the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit. (2 Cor 13:14)
I hope they are of Gospel encouragement to you! I also hope that you will be able to see with greater clarity how included all people and every part of our humanity is involved in the rich and overflowing conversation of the triune God in our adoption.
O God, our Father, we remember at this time…
how the eternal Word became flesh and dwelt
among us. We thank you that Jesus took our
human body upon him, so that we can never again
dare to despise or neglect or misuse the body,
since you made it your dwelling-place.We thank you that Jesus did a day’s work like
any working-man, that he knew the problem of
living together as a family, that he knew the
frustration and irritation of (being in the public eye),
that he had to earn a living, and to face all the
wearing routine of everyday work and life and living,
and so clothed each common task with glory.We thank you that he shared in all happy social
occasions, that he was at home at weddings and
at dinners and at festivals in the homes of ordinary
people like ourselves. Grant that we may ever remember
that in his unseen presence he is a guest in every home.We thank you that he knew what friendship means,
that he had his own circle of men whom he wanted to
be with him, that he knew too what it means to be
let down, to suffer from disloyalty and from
the failure of love.We thank you that he too had to bear
unfair criticism, prejudiced
opposition, malicious and deliberate
misunderstanding.We thank you that whatever happens to us,
he has been there before,
and that, because he himself has
gone through things, he is able
to help those who are going
through them.Help us never to forget that he knows life,
because he lived life, and that he is with
us at all times to enable us
to live victoriously.This we ask for your love’s sake, Amen.
—From Prayers for the Christian Year, by William Barclay
“We are always praying, when we are doing our duty and turning it into a work for God.” He added that among the things which we should regard as spiritual in this sense are our household or professional work, the social duties of our station, friendly visits, kind actions and small courtesies, and also necessary recreation of body and of mind; so long as we link these by intention with God and the great movement of his Will.
—From The Spiritual Life by Evelyn Underhill
And this is one of my favorite modern prayers that you just have to see and experience in living video action:
Feel free to share other creative prayers like these with others of our brothers and sisters in this world as you have opportunity in the bubbling over love of the Trinity!
In the name of the Name of the Father, Son and Spirit,
~ Timothy J. Brassell
Fathers And Their Kids
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Evangelism, Gospel, Perichoresis | Tags: Evangelism, Gospel, Jesus, Perichoresis, Trinity
Comments (5) 
Every evening I kiss my kids goodnight and tell them that I love them. They know they’re mine.
Can you imagine if they didn’t believe me? What if my seven-year-old laid there in bed after I left the room thinking “Daddy doesn’t love me, he hates me – in fact, I’m not even sure there is a Daddy, maybe I just came into existence by spontaneous generation and Daddy is a figment of my imagination.”
What hell that would be for him! To doubt my love would leave him adrift in a dark world of loneliness. So, I am very passionate and determined about convincing my kids to believe in my love – but they are my kids whether they believe in my love for them or not. They don’t become my kids when they believe in my love for them. They are my kids, first and forever, and then they become believers in my love for them.
What’s my best strategy for convincing them of my love? Will they be more convinced of my love if I am constantly, on a daily basis warning them about the dangers and suffering that will come from doubting my love? Will my seven-year-old be reassured if I go into his room tonight and say “I love you, and I hope you believe that because if you don’t then I’m going to throw you out of the house and let you die in the street.”
Or, will he be more reassured by hearing day after day a consistent message about his true identity? A message that says “you are mine, I love you, and nothing – not even your own doubt – will change the reality of who you are: my beloved child.” My seven-year-old will be far more reassured if I go into his room tonight and say “I love you.” Period, end of discussion, no qualifiers and no “ifs”, “ands”, or “buts”. That’s my best strategy: to focus on the unequivocal declaration of their inclusion and status as my beloved children.
I believe it is the same with the good news of our adoption into the Triune Life. The Son of God has gathered up humanity into his relationship with the Father and the Spirit (Eph. 1:5, Col. 1:19-20, Rom. 5:18). We don’t become the Father’s children when we believe in his love, instead, Jesus has made us the Father’s children and now the Spirit is calling us to believe that we are loved and included in the Triune Life. To doubt this gospel is hell and to believe it is heaven, so we are passionate about convincing people to believe that Jesus has made them children of his Father.
What’s our best strategy for that?
I think our best strategy for telling the world about the Father of Jesus is the same as the strategy I use with my kids every night when they go to bed: to tell them “you belong to the Father, he loves you , and nothing – not even your own doubt – will change the reality of who you are: a beloved child of the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.”
No “ifs”, “ands,” or “buts” about it.
~ Jonathan Stepp
Why I am Sure Jesus Loves to Dance
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Church, Gospel, Perichoresis, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity | Tags: Celebration, Dance, New Life Fellowship Baltimore MD, Worship
Comments (6)
For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities -all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. ~ Colossians 1:16-17
Because, based on this verse, there is no sacred/secular divide! Inside, I’ve always known this, and primarily through music and dancing. Whether it was watching my God-loving, fiery-evangelist dad boxing and jumping rope to KC and the Sunshine Band’s song “Shake Your Booty”, or listening to Chicago’s “If You Leave me Now” at my 92 year old grandfather’s funeral, I’ve always known the presence of God in it all! In fact, when it comes to songs around major relational memories in my life, the songs that come to my mind are an even mix of both “secular” and “spiritual”.
In fact, and to be honest, I had to be told by the deacons at Church not to “do that dance, or sing that song here” in order to begin believing there was some kind of sacred/secular divide! Interestingly enough, the deaconesses never seemed to have a problem with it and were often encouraging of it!
Fortunately, and because of Jesus, His Father and the Holy Spirit encountering me and my Church with Himself and with more clarity about Who He is as the Creator and Sustainer of all things, I no longer divide life up like that anymore. In fact, thinking back on it, I can see how hypocritical and ridiculous it is to do that kind of thing. Never was I encouraged to only admire Christian trees or wear Christian shoes. No one urged me to avoid the secular sun and only swim in Christian water under a Christian sky. I am also pretty sure that no one I’ve ever known, Christian or otherwise, has questioned whether or not their home was made of secular vs. sacred wood! I’m sure you are getting the point.
And, lately, because of experiencing the godly freedom that comes from holding the sacred and secular together as they are in the Person of Jesus (God as a fully creaturely, human being!), I am helping my local congregation to experience this freedom, and boy is it fun! We always begin our services with a 5 minute dance that includes music from yesterday and today, including everything from Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” to Frank Sinatra’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, to Kirk Franklin’s “I Smile”! You can be sure that the future of our dancing music will include Country, Island, the Blues and other wonderful varieties!
End result? What a multi-cultural/generational and congregational bonding experience it is to sing and dance to all of those varieties of songs; especially in a culture where we constantly proclaim the Inclusion and Adoption of all humanity into the relationship of the Father, Son and Spirit! How fantastic to PARTICIPATE IN AND OBSERVE IN LIVING, DANCING ACTION that everyone REALLY loves to dance to those songs anyway – we’ve just been pressured to hide it but are now pleasantly and joyfully EXPOSED! Ha-Ha!
Drop in and visit us anytime you are near New Life Fellowship, and bring your “dancing shoes” (which is “code” for any pair of shoes you feel free to dance in that won’t put you in jeopardy of twisting your ankle and breaking your neck!) As an aside, even though we play all kinds and styles of music, the ONLY music we try to avoid is that music which has lyrics that don’t line up with who humanity is in Jesus (and that means we have to exclude even MANY types of “Christian” songs from our dancing!)
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete. ~ Colossians 2:8-10
~ Timothy J. Brassell
Martyrdom
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Christian Living, Church, Gospel | Tags: Jesus, Martyrdom, Perichoresis
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I believe that the stories of the early martyrs of the Church show us something profound about Christian theology: the fact that the early Christians did not fight back when faced with violent persecution is an acknowledgement of humanity’s inclusion in Christ.
In order to respond to violence with violence you have to regard the other person as somehow something different than yourself, somehow less than human or excluded from the humanity in which you are a participant. No officer ever tells his soldiers “go murder your brothers in the other army.” He says something like “wipe those @#!% off the face of the earth!!” Responding to violence with violence requires thinking like a roach exterminator, not thinking like a child of the Father in relationship with humanity in Jesus.
When Jesus said “Father, forgive them” and when the martyrs of the church have echoed his words, they were acknowledging that we are all in this together. The persecuted and the persecutor, the perpetrator and the victim, both share together in the life the Son shares with the Father and with humanity.
Thus the prayer for forgiveness. What the perpetrators of violence and persecution need is not a repayment of their violence in kind or even a transformation from being animals to being human in Christ. They are already human in Christ, they just aren’t acting like it. What they need is a change of mind – a repentance. To stop believing lies about themselves and start believing the truth: that they, like the ones they are persecuting, are already forgiven and included in Christ. In some of the stories of the martyrs the ones assigned to carry out their persecutions failed to do so. Sometimes in the martyrologies the persecutors stop, repent, and end up going to the death with the very ones they were told to kill (e.g. St. Alban’s executioner.)
In the end the Christian response to persecution in the ancient Roman world brought about the repentance and conversion of the Empire itself. With one voice the early church for three long centuries said of their Roman persecutors “They are human; they, like us, are part of the new humanity created in the Son’s incarnation; Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”
And the truth of this good news won the day. Perhaps it’s time for the church to return to the truth of humanity’s adoption in the Son and find again the power that comes from praying for those who persecute us and loving those that hate us.
~ Jonathan Stepp