A gospel which proclaims acceptance without repentance is all about me – rather than Him.
Category Archives: Faith
Which Gospel?
No other gospel works, except the Gospel proclaimed by Jesus.
Crossroad Nugget
A Sunday morning thought:
How did ministry gifts – given by God so we could serve, equip and edify one another – become titles, offices and corporations?
Crossroad Nugget
I admit: I have a high tolerance for redemption, a low tolerance for BS, and enough sense to understand the difference.
A Story of Redemption
Among our simple, participatory churches, we keep it real.
We have to. We have no choice.
Continually, people are coming to the Lord through us from places of deep bondage and despair.
Crossroad Nugget
The key to effective ministry is becoming less and less indispensable.
Generations
Treasures from the Past
This old-world clematis goes back at least three generations in my family.
It originally grew in my grandmother’s yard in Maryland, then was transplanted to my parent’s home when I was a young man, and finally came with me to Virginia when I moved here with my own family many years ago.
In all, I figure it has been cared for by a Wright, in one place or another, at least sixty years.
Crossroad Nugget
Perverted Grace: Using God’s love to rationalize vice.
Cheap Grace
Christ’s finished work of the Cross doesn’t mean that the work of the Cross is finished in us. Although grace is freely given, without merit or condition, it costs us everything to fully accept. Forget this, and you pervert the gospel.
Crossroad Nugget
So, on Sunday morning, will church be about what happens at some front podium, or about being active participants in living community?
The Many Languages of God
God is a polyglot: He speaks to different people different ways.
Some primarily hear Him through the language of their heart and feelings, some analytically through their mind, some through the dynamics of action, some through the identity of relationships, and some through the passion of mercy and justice – among other ways.
Problems often arise among His people, however, when we think that our primary language for hearing God is His only language, or is superior to other languages He uses with others.
Crossroad Nugget
When grace become the ends, and not the means, we create yet one more religion – built around yet one more doctrine taken out of context to validate our own agendas.
Crossroad Nugget
Cultish movements grow by co-opting emerging leaders through carefully orchestrated attention and recognition that feeds their need for validation.
Freedom from Anxiety
Redemption
When we think of redemption we usually think about Christ’s atoning blood which delivered us from our sins. Yes, on the day we personally
surrender ourselves to the Lord and ask His forgiveness, He redeems us and we become His children.
Christ’s sacrifice was vital. We can now partake in His kingdom here on earth and when we die join Him in eternity. However, I believe that Christ’s act of redemption is far more encompassing then simply making a way for us to enter heaven.
Pursuing Love and Spiritual Gifts
Tim Day, a fellow elder here in Virginia, is co-teaching a Biblical Foundations discipleship class with Sheri Warren and me on Sunday evenings.
That class pulls together folks from indigenous, participatory fellowships that are relating together in our county. Through it, the three of us – with help from other local elders – are helping to lay a foundation of sound doctrine in those churches through their emerging leaders.
Over the last few weeks we have focused on spiritual gifts, and the importance of everyone being able to encourage and minister to one another in our local fellowships as we each use the gifts God gives us for our mutual benefit.
Sound Doctrine
Cultivating Culture
Virtue
A Virginia Morning
It’s a beautiful Virginia morning and I’m watching, coffee in hand, creation stir in Marianne’s garden and on into the yard and woods as the sun rises…
“Morning Has Broken”
Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the word
Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dew fall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass
Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God’s recreation of the new day
~ Traditional Hymn
Crossroad Nugget
Authentic love brings truth, and truth is never neutral.
Crossroad Nugget
To claim that “Jesus is the truth”, while denying the full authority of His written Word, is disingenuous. It means that you want your own sensibilities and subjective perceptions to be the standard by which Jesus Himself, and thus “truth”, is defined.
Crossroad Nugget
When you name “your” ministry after “yourself”, who or what are you really promoting?
Growing Up
Might Jesus be saying it’s time to finally start growing up?
See A False Love.
Requiem of Abuse
Thru eyes of hollow darkness,
In the vastness of their stare,
The symmetry of life and death –
the knowledge –
It’s all there.
Crossroad Junction 