
An Open Letter
I hope that you are doing very well. I know that you, like me, had much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving! Having said that, it was a rough Thanksgiving for me. I began feeling bad on Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving and when I woke up Thursday I felt horrible! It seemed like nothing more than a sore throat and I thought it would pass in a couple of days as it often does. Well, not this time.
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How Do We Avoid Taking Scripture Out of Context?
of faulty interpretation.
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Fast and Faithful
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Don’t Give Up!
by Pastor Billy Chidester
Following Christ takes courage and commitment. It’s not for sissies. It requires sacrifice. That’s why Jesus challenged His prospective disciples to count the cost. Luke records some of Jesus’ words in Luke 14:28-30:
28 “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to make fun of him, 30 saying, ‘This man started to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
So, Jesus wants to make it clear that before deciding to follow Him, one should first decide whether he or she is ready to do whatever it takes to remain faithful to their commitment to His agenda and plan.
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Why Does God Seem So Hidden?
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A Better Plan
A question that has bothered people for thousands of years is the question of evil and God. It goes something like this: If God is all-powerful, He should be able to remove evil and suffering. If He is good, then He should want to get rid of evil and suffering. But the reality is, evil and suffering exist. Therefore, either God is not all-powerful or He is not good. So, how do we make sense of evil and suffering in this world? I can’t adequately answer that question in a short blog, but I would like to offer some thoughts.
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Imitators
by Pastor Billy Chidester
Recently I preached on forgiveness inside the body of Christ. One of the things I really wanted to talk about, but didn’t have enough time, was one of the reasons why we forgive others. “Why” is an important question. It’s how we learn. If you have kids you remember the “why” stage. Why this, why that. Why, why, why. One reason we forgive is because God requires it of us (see my sermon from May 15, 2016). But that isn’t the only reason we forgive. We also forgive because we are imitators of God.
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Speed Zone
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A Church for the Nations
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