Jesus, both fully God and fully man, is the victorious and perfect atonement for our sins. Because Jesus became and remains fully man, He has the unique ability to join two worlds and to break the power of sin and death through the shedding of...
The basis of Christianity centers on the Resurrection. The fact that Jesus was raised from the dead tells us about who God is and how powerful He is. If we have faith in Him and believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, it means...
Many of our members are benefitting from participating in our Care Ministry groups. We asked Deb Fowler, from our Powdersville Campus, to share a little bit about her experience in this past fall’s GriefShare. Hear Deb’s experience in her own words. "Initially, I was hesitant to...
This week, Matt taught from Esther 7. In this passage, Esther finally asks King Xerxes to spare the lives of the Jews, and Haman is punished for his evil actions. This story demonstrates the big idea that you can control your actions, as Haman did,...
As a church, we've learned a lot about death over these last 6 weeks- how we should look at death as gain, embrace aging and suffering, the importance of grieving, and how to live our lives in light of our future death. It's been a...
This past weekend, we wrapped up our winter series, A Theology of Death. Along the way, there was a great deal of content to take in from the various teachings. We learned that rather than being a great unmentionable, death provides us opportunity to glean...
In this final week of the Theology of Death series, Matt Williams began by recapping where we’ve been regarding the topic, reminding us that death is not a matter to be ignored, but rather one that should be integrated into our daily thinking. This week,...
Hope is a glorious grace to which blessed effects are ascribed in the Scriptures, and is effective in the support and consolation of believers. By it, are we purified, sanctified, saved; to sum up the whole of its excellency and efficacy, it is a principal...
Losing someone you love can be difficult. You may feel like there aren't many people who can understand the deep hurt you currently feel. This can be a confusing time when you feel isolated and have many questions about things you've never faced before. If you've...
Paul is writing 2 Timothy from prison knowing that his death is imminent. This weekend, as we discussed what it looks like to live in light of death, we turn to what Paul has to say in 2 Timothy 4:5-8. He begins by reminding Timothy...
"A good reputation is more valuable than costly perfume; and the day you die is better than the day you are born" (Eccles. 7:1). The day of a godly man's death is better than the day of his birth. This is as contrary as possible...
In the course of the last one hundred years, perhaps no one has had a more profound impact on our culture’s understanding and treatment of grief than researcher and psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Having researched the grieving process through the experience of family members and patients...
Death is a dramatically spiritual and critically important topic to address and each of us will become personally acquainted with it at some point in our lives. In the midst of the great confusion, fear, and pain around this topic, Scripture offers us guidance for...
Bereavement is a universal experience. Grieving is not a fault or a problem; it is a healthy process. Cultures accept it as normal, creating mourning rituals to help people deal with death. Christians, like others, should expect to grieve, just as godly people in biblical...
Comfort is not desirable only as it pleases us, but also as it strengthens us, and helps us in our greatest duties. And when is it more needful than in sickness, and the approach of death? I shall therefore add such directions as are necessary...
In week three of our continuing series on A Theology of Death, Matt Williams taught through the often difficult reality that none of us are getting younger. How do the ideas of aging and suffering couple with our call as believers to grow in a...
By Chrystie Cole “It’s my body and no one has a right to tell me what I can or can’t do with it.” This is the foundational argument behind many of today’s most heated topics such as abortion, suicide, and death with dignity (the right to...
You who are in Christ, who are true Christians, have hope in your end. And such a great hope that it may comfort you against all those fears which arise from the consideration of your dying hour. Case 1: Some believers say, “The idea of death...
by Ken and Doris Bickel In the recent past, both of us have lost our mothers – Ken in April of 2013, and Doris just this past fall. Both of our fathers had died at a much earlier age (largely due to poor personal health habits),...
Staring down the sobering possibility of the approach of his own death in a prison in Rome, the apostle Paul declares that for him, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21, ESV). Widely known and recited, this statement presents Christians with...
Death is ours — and for our good. It does us more good than all the friends we have in the world. It determines and ends all our misery and sin; and it is the suburbs of heaven. It lets us into those joys above. But...
Since every one of us must one day depart this world, we must turn our eyes to God — for it is towards God that the path of death ultimately leads and directs us. Here we find the beginning of the narrow gate and of...