Atlanta Westside Presbyterian Church
Why Isn't God More Obvious?
Ever Ghosted Jesus?
Husbands and Wives
Fathers and Mothers
Daughters and Sons
Brothers and Sisters
Hope In The Chaos, pt.2
Hope In The Chaos, pt. 1
Hope In The Chaos, pt. 1
por Walter Henegar
Why isn’t God more obvious? Paul addresses a pluralistic audience in Athens with three broad arguments: 1) Because we interpret the evidence differently, 2) because we are more religious than we think, and 3) because our love is out of whack. Thankfully, God not only makes himself findable but seeks us out through the person of Jesus, whom Paul refers to in v. 31 as “a man he has appointed.”
missing description
Hebrews 13:4 teaches that all Christians, whether single, married, widowed or divorced, are called to “hold marriage in honor” and to “let the marriage bed [sex]” be undefiled. This includes the bracing standard that God designed sex only for the marriage covenant between a husband and wife. Closer investigation of the context around Hebrews 13:4 reveals the surprising genius of God’s design, as well as the surprising grace of Jesus for all of us who repeatedly fail to meet his standards.
Paul’s charge to children and bondservants applies to spiritual children as well: We should honor and obey our spiritual parents as if they were the Lord himself. Knowing how easily this challenge can be abused, however, God places firm limits on the authority of mothers and fathers. At the same time, Paul commends the limitless blessings of honoring and obeying them.
Every Christian has both the responsibility and the privilege to build up people who are spiritually downstream from us. Paul's example of how to do that is characterized by God's Gospel proclaimed with God's energy, humble accountability, God-pleasing, gentleness, self-giving, sacrifice, integrity, and muscular mentoring — exactly the way Jesus builds us up!
Faith in Jesus adopts us into his family, giving each of us a vast number of brothers and sisters with whom we will spend eternity. Whatever additional roles we may have, this is the fundamental way that men and women should see each other in the church. Paul’s final greeting to the Roman Christians models ways that we: 1) commit to each other’s adoption, 2) celebrate each other’s differences, 3) respect each other’s accomplishments, 4) delight in each other’s names, and 5) honor each other’s gender.
missing description
missing description
missing description
missing description