Recently I was talking with someone who was new to Orlando, and I invited him to Lake Baldwin Church. He appreciated the invitation, but said, “I can’t come, I’m not a Christian.” I quickly replied, “You can come to our church even if you are not a Christian. We always have people come to our church who are simply exploring the faith.”
Looking back. Looking ahead.
They say that “hindsight is 20/20” . . . that you can see the past with much more clarity than the present. We see in these verses from Philippians that Paul is indeed looking back, remembering the church at Philippi with joy and giving thanks to God, not just for the Philippians themselves but for the gospel progress that their “partnership” is producing. This kind of hindsight is good for the church. As 2017 draws to a close it is especially poignant to reflect on the past year in the life of the church—to celebrate milestones, to remember the many people who work together week after week to bring LBC to life, to tell our story to one another all over again, and to give thanks to God every step of the way because we know that every good thing comes from Him.
Last month the elders of Lake Baldwin Church sent a letter to the congregation, penned by Bart Johnson. He mentioned many reasons to be encouraged about the growth and health of the church, but he also shared concerns and information about a shortfall in giving. This post is a follow-up to that letter, to answer questions that might be on your mind.
The Christian life is about growth and change. Grace takes ordinary people just as they are and begins to bring about hopeful change. How does that happen? Change happens through our union with Christ, which Jesus explains through the metaphor of the vine and branches in John 15. If you ever feel stuck, read on. Learning to abide in Christ will give you fresh hope.
The sermon this Sunday will be from Daniel 9:1-19, which contains Daniel's intercessory prayer for his people. This prayer is characterized by confession and repentance. The prophet begins: "O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. . ."
What is the "covenant and steadfast love" to which Daniel refers? What is the nature of this covenant relationship between God and his people? Let’s take a look at Covenant Theology in three parts: What is a covenant? What covenants did God make with his people? How can a covenant be fulfilled?
God’s grace transforms our hearts as it flows to us through the means of grace. In the past two days of blog posts we have seen how prayer and the Word of God are channels of God’s grace and power. Now we see from 1 Peter 4:10 that grace flows to us in community. What do we learn from this passage about the community of grace?
In Paul’s farewell words to the Ephesian church in Acts 20, he knew of the demands that would surely press in upon them, to wear down their faith and steal their joy. So he commended them to God, and to the “word of his grace,” which would be able to build them up and strengthen them. The word of grace is one of the means by which God floods our hearts with his favor.
When Jesus says in Revelation 21:5, “Behold I am making all things new,” He’s not talking about the kind of "new" that replaces the old. Bible scholars have pointed out that every time the writer of Revelation, John, uses that word "new", he’s not referring to something fundamentally different, but to the restoration of something that has fallen apart.
