Do you doubt if anybody can really change?

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. - Romans 6:9 –11 (ESV)

We doubt if anybody can really change. This doubt is driven not by what we know about others but what we know about ourselves. It seems as much as we try, resolve, plan, and seek help, change is an elusive character.

What Christianity offers however is not resolve or self-control leading to change, but a change that is occasioned outside of us and without us. In fact, in one way you could say it's change that is imposed on us. Read more

How do you grow in your Christian walk?

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. - Romans 6:3 –4 (ESV)

How do you grow in your Christian walk? To answer that question many of us will run to habit, methods, studies, lists, and actions. We see our Christian life as something that comes out of us. When we falter, fail, don't achieve, or just sin we feel like a failure and sense the displeasure of God. We go to the Christian book store and look through the aisles and aisles of books of how to be a better mom or dad, husband or wife, or student or teacher, or employee or boss, or scientist or astronaut (Yes, the how to be a Christian astronaut book exists). All the while, I wonder if we truly understand what sanctification is, where it comes from, and who achieves it. Read more

What would Paul think of the church culture today?

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me." - John 17:20 –21 (ESV)

I sometimes wonder what would happen if the Apostle Paul stepped out of a time machine. What would he think of the church culture? Would he be encouraged or discouraged? What New Testament letter would he demand we go read? Would he wonder how we went from THE church at Corinth or Thessalonica to 6 Baptist, the Roman Catholic church, a couple Methodist, some Church of Christ, a few non-denominational gatherings and more? Read more