In Luke 4 Jesus goes into the synagogue, reads a portion of Isaiah concerning the coming Messiah. He then turns to the congregation and basically says “Surprise, It’s me.” At first everyone is cool with it. Luke 4:22 says “all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.” But […]
Category Archives: The Church
On February 28, 2015 at 4:00 P.M. the College Drive Church launched a new church in Clinton MS called The Ridge. What started as a vision years before had finally become a reality. The process began when I sat down with my head elder, Mike Whatley, and he shared with me the vision the church […]
Throughout the bible thankfulness is always associated with giving. Thankfulness for a gift + the sharing of that gift = Thanksgiving. However, we live in a world that is obsessed with “what’s in it for me?” Maybe this why, in our modern culture, Thanksgiving is mostly reduced to over-eating and football. This type of inward focus […]
1 Corinthians 3:5–11 (ESV) What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who […]
John 4:32 (ESV) But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” We live in a consumer society. We put a price tag on everything. You know the saying, “if they could put a price tag on air they would” The other day I was in the airport […]
Matthew 9:9 (ESV) As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. Matthew was actively participating in his crooked business when Jesus came and said, “Follow me.” therefore the only preparation we need to […]
Luke 10:37 (ESV) He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” Jesus says this right after He tells the infamous story of the Good Samaritan. It is a response to the question from a religious leader asking how he might be saved. Jesus responds essentially […]
Isaiah 53:4 (ESV) Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. Throughout the gospels we see Jesus reveal a God that is accessible. Matthew 8:16 (ESV) says that evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out […]
Since the fall in paradise we have been a species obsessed with differences rather than similarities, a people bent on drawing lines. We have classes for our classes, groups for our groups. We have upper class, upper-middle class, middle class, lower middle class, etc. How quickly we try to elevate ourselves above anothers. “I’m not […]
C.S. Lewis once said “The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ.” If this is true do you think some of our churches have become something other than church? If drawing people to Jesus is the sole purpose of the church. What are we if we have great programs, nice buildings, […]
Richie Halversen 