Posts Tagged "bible"

God Stories: The Hypocritical Characters & the Beautiful Endless Loop of the Gospel

Note: This short post introduces a new “column” at Christian Marriage Spice called “God Stories”. The first “God Story” will be posted next week.

God Stories = Crazy, Unbelievable Insanity

I love God stories. God stories are crazy, joyful, hilarious, non-traditional, painful, confusing, wild, unbelievable, exhausting, frustrating, emotional, overwhelming… and often lead us far beyond the perceivable end of sanity. The counter-intuitive beauty is that this “insanity point” is often where many of us experience God in a uniquely pure, more real, more whole, and supernatural way. This insanity point is where God makes Himself and His provision known profoundly.

These insanity points are where we are challenged with the Truths of the Gospel… and equally  importantly, where the Good News is NEEDED, EXPERIENCED, and PREACHED. Most of us are careful to try and never actually get to these insanity points. We do everything we can to ignore God and indulge complacent comfort.

Life stories are God Stories because they show us how great God is, how deficient we are, and excellently proficient we are only in Him. They occur far beyond our capacities, imaginations, personal provision, abilities, and capabilities. They depend on God. Afterwords (and hopefully sometimes during), we look at God and think… “How in the world can this be reality?” or “I can’t believe that happened or that we were able to endure that… Praise God”. [… continue reading]

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Sandals Church Sermon / Small Group Notes: John 13 – Love & Servanthood

We have a stupendous church with amazing teaching and a fantastic small group. Every week my wife and I lead a small group bible study, and I figured since I take lotsa’ notes and actually spend time preparing for it every week, I might as well post them for you. I’m going to make it easy on me by posting them in information “note” format. Hopefully you find this both useful and helpful. Please give me feedback and let me know.

When I create posts like these, I will try to include the following:

  • A quick overview of the sermon
  • My notes / thoughts from the sermon in bullet point format
  • Discussion questions
  • Paste the scripture we read aloud in small group
  • Provide a link to the sermon

This week’s sermon was on John 13… which was about Christ taking on the position of a lowly slave and washing the gross, dirty, horse-manure caked feet of his disciples.

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The Book of Eli Movie Review – How Deeply Is the Bible Part of Your Life and Marriage?

Tonight I saw “The Book of Eli” and left with a full smattering of conviction and deep thought that refuses to escape my heart. I know this may sound a bit wacky, but I need you to bear with me through this explanation. This post is NOT a movie review, but a little context is important, so we will offer a quick summary.

How would your life and marriage look if you really appreciated and respected the Bible as the literal and eternal Word of God?

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Devotional – 1 Corinthians 13 – Love is Patient, Love is Kind, Love is…

This passage from 1 Corinthians 13 is one of the most often used scriptural references in weddings. The Bible provides a direct and elegantly simple outline for answering this question: How do I love my spouse?

LOVE is patient, kind, not envy, does not boast, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no records of wrongs, does not delight in evil but rejoices with truth, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.

This should be easy right? […]

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