Messages

If you are in Christ – you are a new creation.

The rich young ruler and Zacchaeus had something in common: they both wanted salvation. One got to hear "salvation has come to you today" and the other heard "it's so hard for a rich person to get into heaven." Why did they hear such contrasting responses from Jesus?

In Luke chapter 12, Jesus gives us a stark warning about building bigger barns. Where are you storing your treasure?

Jesus continues to make the connection between our money and our hearts with this parable in Luke chapter 16. The shrewd manager leverages the resources he has available to him to invest in his future home, and is commended by his master. What can the church learn from this? How can we leverage our resources to invest in eternal dwellings?

In his sermon on the mount, Jesus makes it very clear that we will store up treasure somewhere. The act of storing treasure isn’t condemned, but we should pay close attention to the location in which the treasure is stored. Jesus makes a concise statement, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” So the question is, as Christians, where are we storing up our treasure? On earth or in Heaven? It’s gotta be one or the other.

In a world where sex outside of marriage was expected for all men, the early Christian ethic of sex only between a husband and a wife was counter-cultural. The early disciples also saw sexuality as an equal gift and responsibility to both husbands and wives. The needs of women were never taken into consideration like this before. Early disciples saw sex, not just as a physical activity, but a spiritual one as well.

Everyone is willing to do for those who can do for them, but what set Christians apart from the very beginning was their care for those who could not care for themselves. Building on the foundation laid in the Old Testament, the early Christians took seriously the call to take care of the poor and the marginalized in their midst. Today, we are called to do the same.

In a world where children were literally thrown out with the trash and left to die or to be picked up and sold to slave traders or sex traffickers, it was the early Christians who would take in those kids to raise them as their own. Knowing that all humans were made in God's image meant that all life was worth saving.

Slave and master, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, and men and women, were all invited to be a part of the kingdom of God. The multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and economic diversity in the church was unmatched in its day. Everyone was welcome. Since all people are made in the image of God, all people are invited to be a part of the body of Christ.

As Christians we often read and hear that we should forgive one another, but is there a limit to the amount of forgiveness we should give? At what point is it okay to stop forgiving someone? The answer to these questions is actually a matter of life and death.