The first Friday in June is National Donut Day! Hooray! Go celebrate and eat a donut.
For our LA friends, here are the LA Times' favorite donut places. Blessings. Oh, and for good measure, you should probably exercise after you're done eating.
Does Galatians 4:1-7 confuse anyone as much as it does me? After studying this for some time, I am prone to agree with the words of 2 Peter 3:16. "There are some things in [Paul's letters] hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures." I hope I'm not one of the ignorant and unstable people. But I'm in the camp of folks who can say that Paul's writings are occasionally hard to understand. Let me clarify what I'm having a hard time clarifying. I don't really think it's difficult to understand Paul's point in Gal 4:1-7. The broader context makes it clear. Paul says that the Law of Moses is inferior to the promise previously made to Abraham. Gentile Christians, he writes, are descendants of Abraham because they share the same faith in God (3:6-7) that Abraham had (Gen 15:6). They therefore don't need to obey Jewish rules and customs. That's his point. from Anthony...
Editor's note: Here’s another in our series of guest columns on church decline. During the rest of March, you'll read thoughtful words from church leaders like Tim Spivey, Stan Granberg, Aaron Metcalf, Rick Gibson and more. Articles in April will focus on renewal. Our seventh guest column is from Andy Wall, a native of Southern California. Andy preaches for the Conejo Valley Church of Christ , just 20 minutes from the Pepperdine University campus. Having grown up as a missionary kid in Greece, Andy has the eye, not just of a skilled minister but also of a missionary—a powerful combination in helping understand our role in the unfolding mission of God. The View from Andy Wall Decline and Renewal: A Study of What Former Members Are Saying My journey of wrestling with the decline within Churches of Christ began during the early 90s, when circumstances caused me to reflect on two questions: why were so few of my former youth group members still in the Churches of...
On October 8, 2023, we held our last worship service in our home of 59 years. We're moving on to a temporary location while we wait for God to reveal where our more permanent home will be. It's been a journey for which there is no solid road map, but we feel blessed by what's happening. We formed a giant circle for the final song at our longtime, northeast Fresno home. In late January, our elders announced a shock decision. We would be selling our church building and moving on. Among the elders, it was an uncontentious and unambiguous decision. They 100% believed it was in the church's best interest to put our property on the market and find a new home. Many congregations have hard choices to make about aging properties that are oversized for today's churches. Selling seemed the most desirable option to our board in our circumstances. I wrote about that decision back in January. You can read about it here . I had an inside seat to their decision-making process. As a...
Comments