All Posts (Page 24)
As It Is In All the World
“. . .the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth; just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf. . .” Colossians 1:5-7 This describes how the gospel came to the people of the city of Colossae. They…
A Letter From Jim | February 2018
I just got off Skype with a pastor in Colorado who has been studying Galatians with me. We’ve had several weeks of study, marking the text in our notebooks, reading and re-reading together and separately, sectioning the book, and discussing the major themes and minor conundrums. We tried to understand everything. We worked about an hour and a half today, and it was pure joy! God is unveiling potent truths in this amazing book. That pastor assured me that he…
A Letter from Jim | January 2018
Dear CCW family, I hope you will take some time to look over the collage of photos in this letter. We can’t begin to show even one photo from each of our ministry experiences this last year, but we wanted you to see some. What a year! Our team spoke hundreds of times in the US and several venues overseas, such as Canada, India, South Africa, Zambia, Colombia (2x), Ethiopia, and Peru. Now we are working on 2018, filling in…
Rebuilding Our Churches with Bible Reading
I’m no prophet, but I believe we may soon see a swelling interest in reading the Bible both together & alone that could rebuild our faltering churches, and improve the good ones. My information is purely anecdotal but substantial. I’m certainly not the only one seeing this tremendous need and trying to do something about it. Perhaps God will use each of us who care about this to repair the crumbling base in these slanderous, corrupt and morally compromised days.…
A Letter From Jim | December 2017
Dear CCW Family, Please take a good look above. This is our main CCW “communicators” team — Jim Elliff (and Pam with Laura. Benjamin and Bryan not pictured), Steve Burchett (and Patty with Katie, Luke and Lilly), Kole Farney (and Rachel with Karter and Russell) and Bryan Elliff (and Joey with Lucas and Zion). Behind these there are several other workers and board members who help us to do our work in strategic ways. Thanks for praying for us, encouraging…
What Does it Mean to Believe in Christ?
To believe in Christ is to whole-heartedly, with mind and life, buy into the supreme value and status of Christ along with the system of truth and way of life He represents. Trust, or faith in Him, who has alone done what is necessary for our forgiveness and complete salvation now and forever, is a main tenet of that system. If a person says he believes in Christ, yet does not demonstrate that he has bought in fully through his…
Tolerance Trouble
The Corinthian church boasted about its tolerance of the incestuous man who was permitted to retain membership and acceptance within the Corinthian church. They were congratulating themselves for such open-mindedness when they should have been weeping. Their tolerance was beyond even what Roman law allowed. “We should note that under Roman law both this man and his stepmother would be sentenced to exile on an island, his possessions would be confiscated, and his social status would be repealed.” (Schnabel: Paul…
He’ll Stand
The following words by Paul the Apostle make for tangible peace between sincerely conscientious Christians who differ in convictions: “Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand” (Romans 14:4). A true believer will ultimately stand justified before God, regardless of differences in those matters about which God has chosen to give no definitive command. In such areas we…
Law Confusion
It is an often repeated mistake for Bible readers to assume that “the works of the Law” means any good work or act of obedience to God. However, Paul appears to mean by this term in his first century context “the externalities of the Mosaic Law”. If someone said, “You have to be circumcised to be saved, and obey Old Covenant separation laws, feast days and dietary restrictions” he would be talking about what hopeful Gentile converts in the first…
April 2017: A Letter From Jim
Dear CCW family, I recently calculated that we’ve had about 2000 meetings in our home over the last ten years, many of them packing out the place. That’s around four per week! When I think about all the times we’ve “cleaned up before they come,” I break out in a cold sweat. Let’s just say, we’ve put out a lot of chairs and swept a lot of floors. But really, think about what a privilege it is to use the…
Living By the Prophet’s Words
Prophets like Moses and Paul, John and Isaiah had amazing encounters with the Lord. But we are to step out in faith without having similar experiences. You should not expect that God has to prove that what has been written is required of us by an additional vision, appearance, voice, or impression. We shouldn’t say, “I won’t take this step unless I have special revelation from God,” but must obey what God has made known to the prophet-writers of the…
Why Is God Angry With Us?
I have at times felt uncomfortable with the idea that God is angry at humankind. I mean that the harshness of it sometimes feels unfair. The feeling comes when I read things like the conquest of Canaan or the graphic predictions of judgments that God would bring on Israel. But most of all, eternal torment is almost impossible for me to think about without real terror and revulsion. Could anything someone does in these moments on earth deserve that? My…
What is the Gospel? A Look at the Message in Acts
What serious Bible reader hasn’t been a bit surprised by the way the apostles in Acts proclaim the gospel message? “Well, that’s not quite the way I would have done it,” he muses, turning the page. That’s at least how I began to reflect on the question “What is the gospel?” a few years ago. Now it seems to me that this is a highly important topic. Christianity (or “the Way,” if we’re going to be Acts-ian) has been very…
Jacob Saw Christ
Jacob, on his flight to Paddam-Aram, had a dream of a ladder leading to heaven with the Lord at the top and angels descending and ascending. This took place at what he would call Bethel, or “house of God.” “And behold, the Lord stood above it and said…” is a phrase which indicates that he was actually speaking with the preincaranate Christ. That it was the preincarnate Christ that Jacob saw that night is made clear later when Jesus met…
Identity Theft: Losing Our Christian Self-Consciousness
When whimpering Gideon hid himself from the Midianites in the winepress while threshing his wheat, the angel of the Lord appeared to him with this striking greeting: “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Man of valor? In Gideon’s mind, nothing could be further from the truth. But the angel continued, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.” Gideon squeaked out a lame response, “O my Lord,…
Ministry Report From Colombia, March 2016
I just returned from a 3-week trip to beautiful Santa Elena, Colombia where I was teaching at the Instituto Bíblico Reformado Nueva Providencia. The teaching format was kind of a cross between a Bible Intensive Retreat and The Muller Center for Biblical Studies in which we studied the books of Titus and Mark for a full 11 days. The official title of the class was “Inductive Bible Study Method – New Testament”. There were 17 students, mostly between the ages…