Category: Wesleyan Accent
Elizabeth Glass Turner ~ The Dismembered Body of Christ
July 25, 2015
Are we willing to present our bodies as a living sacrifice? To discover what it means to live in the freedom of holy sexuality? To fight for our cardiovascular health so we can continue to be Christ’s hands and feet to others? To step out in deep courage and faith and bear a child we may raise or may put in the care of someone else to raise when the pregnancy represented chaos or uncertainty or crisis? To swab the inside of a cheek so that we’re entered in a database of potential bone marrow donors?
Ken Loyer ~ Infant Baptism and Beyond
July 23, 2015
Another factor in baptism pertains to ongoing spiritual instruction and development after the actual baptism. While not limited to infant baptisms—since post-baptismal nurture is important for any person regardless of that person’s age at the time of baptism—this factor has particular significance in the case of infants who are baptized.
Jean Watson ~ The Power of Thanksgiving
July 22, 2015
Though I didn’t understand at the time, out of reluctant obedience, I began to thank God instead of complaining. Each day, I determined to find something to be thankful for rather than complaining. I even started to thank God for the things I didn’t like in my life like the snow and cold! As I chose to give thanks regardless of my feelings, a miracle happened inside my heart. I discovered that the place I had resented was becoming a place where my desires were fulfilled. The land where I did not want to be was becoming the land of my blessing.
Harley Scalf ~ Secular and Sacred
July 20, 2015
Jesus does not divide the sacred from the secular. Instead, He takes the secular and redeems it, thus making it sacred. There is no divide as we understand it, because Jesus stands in the gap reaching with one nail-pierced hand to each side, uniting all of creation into one holy Kingdom.
Mark Trotter ~ How to Be a Blessing
July 18, 2015
Jesus did not come to give us answers. He came to give us himself. And Bonhoeffer says that that’s what it means to live in the penultimate as a Christian, to live in it the way Jesus did. It means that we are to join others in their suffering, to try and understand what other people have to put up with in their lives.
Elizabeth Glass Turner ~ The Prevailing Sin of Evangelicals
July 13, 2015
How did we get here? We thought we were strong, faithful, and following where God led. But what if we weren’t?
Jeff Rudy ~ Simplicity: For Richer, For Poorer
July 11, 2015
The redeemed, the serene, the peaceful ones who are reconciled with God will find our God-aimed identity not in what we buy, accumulate, save, or consume, but in how we give.
Tom Fuerst ~ Pastors, Moral Failings, and the Thing Nobody Wants to Talk About
July 6, 2015
The apostles don’t see themselves as CEOs or slaves to the church. They see themselves as fulfilling a specific duty for the church: the ministry of the word of God and prayer. Everything else was dropped from their plate. And not only did the church not look down on them or call them lazy for a desire to emphasize these two tasks alone, but this suggestion “pleased the whole community.”
Michelle Bauer ~ Live Free!
July 4, 2015
Through Christ, we have been set free. Think about what it means not just to be free but also to live in freedom. It is possible to be free but to still live as if you aren’t…
Otis McMillan ~ Whose Voice Are You Listening To?
July 2, 2015
As this man did, you will discover that God’s Word will be fulfilled. Regardless of what others may offer, stay in tune to the words of Jesus. There may be delays, some disappointments, but the promises of God will come to pass. The key is, whose voice are you listening to?