All Posts (Page 4)
The Unrepenting Repenter
The believer in Christ is a lifelong repenter. He begins with repentance and continues in repentance. (Rom. 8:12-13) David sinned giant sins but fell without a stone at the mere finger of the prophet because he was a repenter at heart (2 Sam. 12:7-13). Peter denied Christ three times but suffered three times the remorse until he repented with bitter tears (Mt. 26:75). Every Christian is called a repenter, but he must be a repenting repenter. The Bible assumes the…
Don’t Just Tweet Your Proverbs: Lessons from Solomon
I don’t quite understand it. Everyone knows that King Solomon was the wisest man in the Old Testament. Yet, he had the most precipitous moral freefall of all the kings. The early Solomon loved God. “Now Solomon loved the Lord” (1 Kings 3:3). But the later Solomon was out of control morally: “Now Solomon loved many foreign women.” “Solomon held fast to these in love” (1 Kings 11:1,2). What went wrong? In fact, the marital alliances he made with the…
Liam Loopert, Faithful to the End : A Letter from Jim
Dear CCW family, Greetings! Think about the following scenario: James, the student: How faithful does one have to be in order to be a true Christian? The wise Mr. Brockton: To church or to God? James: Doesn’t one imply the other? Mr. Brockton: Faithfulness has many drivers, which can be deceiving. But few differentiate. My story will illustrate. Liam Loopert was always there, since his childhood. He was an attender. And everyone in church expected as much since his parents…
You Talk About What You Love
Leading a retreat for men several years ago, I remember being aware of the spiritual immaturity of some men who had been part of their church for years. The first night I discovered that these men were capable of knowing a lot, including much detailed information. They stood in the stairwell and talked a very long time about baseball, quoting numbers of obscure statistics effortlessly. Their knowledge and obvious passion about the game was quite impressive. Here’s one thing you…
When God Used a Stutterer
Must limitations and weaknesses keep us from effective ministry? And how should we think about others in the church who have glaring, limiting imperfections? James Alexander Stewart was experiencing enormous success as an evangelist. By the age of 20, he was so sought after that he was preaching four or five times a day. He also filled his hours with evangelism in the streets and in homes. This was too much for a young man to handle alone. Stewart commented:…
Bread Out of Heaven? Can You Believe John 6: 30-33?
In John 6:30-33 Jesus does not say that the children of Israel were given bread or manna from heaven by Moses. Jesus also does not say that the bread or manna that fell on the ground from heaven came from his own Father, even though the inquirers said correctly, “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it has been written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” However, he does say that bread came from heaven. Confusing?…
The Way to Grow a Church Numerically
The early church grew in numbers. “ . . . there were added that day about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41). “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (2:47). “And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women” (5:14). “ . . . and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem…” (6:7) “ . . . (the church) multiplied” (9:31). Thinking about increased numbers is acceptable if…
The Fear of Death and God’s Grip
Whatever hard thing you are facing may turn out to be more frightful in the projection than the reality of it. Like all things that bring us fear, there is truth behind that fear, however. The truth that chokes us is that all of us will die (unless escaping at the coming of Christ). It is only a matter of time. We’re sure, as well, that our lives could end in an unexpected way. And, beyond this, most of mankind…
My Father Said to Me
My father tried to teach each of his children those great lessons he learned in his long life, some from the crucible of failure. Here is one. His mother, an exemplary Christian, had a weakness in the area of worry. She fought it and worked to turn her worries into prayer. It was a besetting sin, often showing up to hassle her. My father fought against worry also. He considered worry to be a true battleground in his life. I…
The Believer’s NEW Relationship with Sin: Q & A from Romans 6:1-14
Romans 6:1-14 contains encouraging realities concerning who we are as believers in Christ and what we have experienced in union with him. These truths have significant implications for how we think about and relate to sin in our lives. It is the passage that I return to and prayerfully recall regularly to renew my mind and help me in the battle against temptation and sin. This portion of Scripture also contains dense logic. It requires time and careful thinking to…
The Place of Love in Evangelism: A Letter From Jim
Dear CCW family, We were by the water on a lakeside vacation when I was perhaps perhaps five or six years old. The four kids were playing in the water and our parents were on the grass in those kind of beach chairs that looked like hammocks. My father had a special camera around his neck which was called a Rolleicord. It was expensive and “the best.” He really liked that camera. And he liked to develop photos himself. All…
11 Ways to Enliven Group Prayer
We don’t have to settle for cold, lifeless group prayer. Here are some strategies to bring heat and life into those times together. [1] God looks not at the elegance of your prayers, to see how neat they are; nor yet at the geometry of your prayers, to see how long they are; nor yet at the arithmetic of your prayers, to see how many they are; nor yet at the music of your prayers, nor yet at the sweetness…
Qualifications and Duties of an Elder
The following is a list of the biblical qualifications that an elder must possess. No elder will be a perfect man, but if he is clearly and persistently lacking in any of these qualities, he cannot serve in the church as an elder. An elder must be: 1. above reproach (lit. “blameless”) 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:7. This qualification is the summation of all of the rest. It means that there is nothing in his life that would justify a legitimate…
Seeking Assurance?
The “security of the believer” is the unchanging objective reality that God has forgiven us and has accepted us through Jesus Christ forever. The “assurance of the believer” is the sometimes shifting subjective confidence that God has forgiven us and has accepted us through Jesus Christ. Do you have assurance? And do you have good reason to have it? Faith is assurance, true, yet the faith of real believers is sometimes weak allowing doubts for a variety of reasons. An…
“Conversation About House Churches”Podcast
This is the Revitalize and Replant Podcast interviewing Jim Elliff about the basics on house church life. House churches are not the only way to be a church, but we need to be open about churches developed intentionally to replicate what we see in the New Testament form as one clear option for church starts. Enjoy!