Salty Zebra

  But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.   1 Peter 2:9-10  Some people enter into the faith as a transactional relationship. God gives them forgiveness and salvation and they give him allegiance and try to obey. What they don’t realize is that unlike other transactional relationships, like the ones we have with our cellphone or internet providers, this one is permanent. When I became a Christian I didn’t just become a God client, like a T-Mobile user or a Comcast customer, I became a member of God’s family. This verse expresses it in three ways: a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.   In Jesus, we are chosen to be God’s people. In fact, we couldn’t come to Christ if we hadn’t ...

  Classic picture of a Southern Baptist potluck, the epitome of fellowship! They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.   Acts 2:42  What does it mean to be a part of a church? Now, I’m not talking The Church, God’s global body of believers that are joined together in Him. I’m talking about a local church where you meet together regularly in person. Why did God give us this design for how we are supposed to live together and grow in Him? We already have the Holy Spirit and our call is to the lost ( Matthew 28:19-20 ) who are typically not found in churches. So, why did God establish local churches in the New Testament?   In a local church, we have the opportunity to receive regular teaching. I know that these days we have so very many teaching platforms available to us from books to podcasts, YouTube videos to Facebook groups. But sitting in church on a Sunday morning (or Sunday evening, or Saturday...

  Wordle courtesy of CoPilot But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”   Acts 1:8  God has no limits, and when we serve Him, neither do we when it comes to doing His will. In our reading today, Acts 2:1-13 , the disciples spoke in languages they didn’t know when they were indwelt by the Holy Spirit. They didn’t take a quick DuoLingo course or attempt to gesture their way through explaining things, no, they spoke clearly, fluently in a language that they had never spoken or understood before. The people in the city were amazed. The passage lists out 15 different people groups, though these could certainly represent far more than that and tells us that they were God-fearing Jews from all over the world staying in Jerusalem. Had they come to Jerusalem for business? To worship God? For a festival? I couldn’t say, but the fact is they all spoke differen...

 A week ago, our pastor's father, who himself is a retired pastor of over 35 years, spoke at our church on what he called, "The prayer of importunity."  Now that's a word I'd never heard before and I was fascinated by it. Over the last week this message has been brought to my mind more times than I can count and when it returned to my mind this morning, after reading today's LGG blog post , I decided it was time I shared my musings with you.   The biblical prayer that this message, and my subsequent musings, were based on can be found in Luke 18:1-8 . In this passage, Jesus tells a story, a parable, about a widow who had a great need. She sought out the local judge who, unfortunately, was a person who feared neither God nor man, to get the justice she so desperately required. Being this type of person, he had no intention of granting the widow's request, but she didn't give up, and so eventually he gave in, not because he had had a change of heart or ...

  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20  People’s last words are given great weight and value. When you know you’re dying, what is that most important last thing you want to convey to the world? Jesus’ last words to us on earth, the Great Commission, are so important. They sum up our call to action, His will for us in our lives for the rest of earth’s timeline. So what is it that Jesus wants us to do?   Make disciples. What is a disciple and how does one go about making one? Here’s what Webster had to say: DISCIPLE, noun [Latin , to learn.] 1. A learner; a scholar; one who receives or professes to receive instruction from another; as the disciples of Plato. 2. A follower; an adherent to the doctrines of another. Hence the constant attend...

  And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”   Mark 15:39  What was it the centurion saw that convinced him that Jesus was God’s Son? This scripture tells us that the centurion confessed this after he saw how Jesus died. I don’t think it was the moment of Jesus’ passing* that impressed this truth on the bystanders, but all that they had witnessed leading up to it. So, what was different about how Jesus died?   Perhaps the centurion first saw Jesus as He was led to Pilate, bloodied and bruised from the beating He had received from the high priest’s guards and compatriots. Perhaps he was in the room when Pilate questioned Jesus and Jesus remained silent before him, as a sheep before the slaughter ( Isaiah 53:7 ) except when He was asked outright if He was the king of the Jews and Jesus confessed only that Pilot had said it was true. Scripture tells us that Pilate was amazed that Jesus re...

  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26  Who am I? I am a wife, a mom, a follower of and believer in Christ. I am a traveler, a writer, a lover of coffee. None of these are necessarily physical attributes, and yet, when I think of death, the first thing that comes to mind is a natural, physical death. That is what has made these verses so difficult for me to grasp.   From the moment I wake up in the morning, I feel the reality of my physical body. I spend the better part of most days taking care of that body – feeding it, cleansing it, trying to decrease it’s pain. I use my physical body for so much, even writing this post. And yet, my physical body does not represent all, or even most of me. Who I am, like I mentioned before, is made up of relationships, interests, thoughts and dreams. None of these are...