Change is Here, Now

This week I had the opportunity to make my way down to the National Mall for the 56th presidential inauguration. One of the principle reasons that I went was because we live in a country that is experiencing radical change and not the kind that came up in the campaign speeches. Observing the skeptical and sometimes angry way that many of the 2 million people responded to the invocation prayer made me very sad. Talking about God in America is quickly becoming the one acceptable intolerance.

I believe that Christians should become students of culture in order to effectively communicate the Gospel . What I observed on Tuesday was that American culture has dramatically shifted. We must also be willing to change for the sake of the Gospel.

Not once, but twice

Not once, but twice – This week our study of Matthew has brought us to chapter 11 where we celebrate the triumphant entry of Jesus as He enters Jerusalem humbly on the back of a young donkey. This scene is depicted 500 years before the birth of Jesus in Zechariah 9:9. When you read this verse please continue to the end of the chapter. You will notice that the remaining verses describe what is still to come, the day when the people of God will sparkle like Jewels in a crown. Jesus comes as a savior not once, but twice.

The Church

The Church – This week I had the opportunity to fly back to Dallas and take one last theology class. Appropriately the class was all about the doctrines of the Church. The definition that we settled on was the “New Covenant community of the Spirit”. We are a people under a New Covenant (Jeremiah 31). The Father normatively relates to His people within the context of a community. The Church was inaugurated on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was sent to indwell all believers as a fore taste of what is yet to come.

- Aaron