Category Archives: Church

Your Mission, Should You Decide to Accept It

Posted on February 20, 2025 by salooper57

But our mission is more complicated than just bringing news about God to people who have never heard it. We are bringing news about God to people who have misheard it. They think they already know about “God and those Christians.” Continue reading →

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The In-Betweeners

Posted on February 8, 2025 by salooper57

They live in that strange land between the already and the not yet, between what is and what should be. The pressure here is like that of gravity. Often it goes unnoticed, but sometimes it slams you to the ground. Continue reading →

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Time for a Change

Posted on February 4, 2025 by salooper57

Do you know what it means if you do what everyone else does and desire the same things they desire? It means you have been assimilated…. if you are pursuing the same goals, valuing the same stuff, and spending time the same way as everyone else, you’re not living here as a foreigner. Continue reading →

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Holy Communion: What Is All It About?

Posted on December 12, 2024 by salooper57

“For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself” (1 Cor. 11:29, KJV). If that verse has ever scared you (or some pastor has scared you with that verse), you might want to read this sermon. Continue reading →

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What Are We Doing When We Worship?

Posted on December 5, 2024 by salooper57

Some people think of church as if it were a spiritual or emotional filling station. I’m running low, so I’d better go to church, or I won’t make it through the week. But that makes it all about me, which makes worship impossible. Continue reading →

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Created to Worship

Posted on November 28, 2024 by salooper57

The Fall of Adam shattered us. It broke our relationship with God and with each other. It damaged our ability to think. Our mind and will and emotions are all out of order. Humanity suffers a kind of spiritual PTSD to this day. If you think there might be something wrong with you, you are not mistaken. You are suffering from “The Fall.” Continue reading →

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A Poster Child for the Jesus-Way of Life

Posted on November 23, 2024 by salooper57

Everything Christians do and say reflects on Jesus and on his Father. We are all influencers. The Christian is a poster child for Jesus’s way of life. Continue reading →

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He Is Able (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Posted on November 22, 2024 by salooper57

You want God to get you out of a tough spot. He’s planning on getting you into heaven. You want to avoid embarrassment. God is planning on bringing glory down on your head. You want your kid to be okay. He wants your kid to be amazing. Continue reading →

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God Wants to Empower You (Ephesians 3:14-17)

Posted on November 14, 2024 by salooper57

I’ve met parents who do not empower their children, even when they are twenty or thirty years old. I could almost believe they preferred their children to remain weak so they could control them. God is not that kind of parent. He wants his children to become strong. Continue reading →

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Incomparable Power (Ephesians 1:19-23)

Posted on October 23, 2024 by salooper57

What are “the believing” believing? In my experience, many people who profess belief in God have little more than a blur or smear of religious thoughts – some quite pagan – about a God who is generally nice and will look after us and take us to heaven when we die. Continue reading →

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