God Is Love, But How?

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God Is Love, But How?

Love is a beautiful and, yet, confusing word. The word “love,” like many other words in English, has a range of meaning. The two most prominent meanings for love are: 

(1) An expression of intense and deep affection for another person (e.g., spouse, child, family, friends, etc.)

(2) an expression of interest and/or pleasure in something (e.g., the Saints, fishing, hunting, gumbo, brownies, etc.). 

Sadly, in today’s society these above definitions have been conflated. Case in point is the common phrase: “God is love.” When I hear someone say, “God is love,” I immediately think, “what does s/he mean by ‘God is love?’” In my opinion, the phrase “God is love” is oftentimes a conflation of the above two types of love and has nothing to do with “love” being an attribute of God. In fact, oftentimes the phrase, “God is love,” says more about the person speaking than the creator of the universe.

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Monday Morning Reflection: What To Do with Satan?

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Monday Morning Reflection: What To Do with Satan?

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to preach from Revelation 12–14 in our Apocalypse Series. One of the key elements of Revelation 12–13 is the presence of evil, in particular the Dragon and his two beasts. The dragon represents Satan whereas the first beast is the anti-Christ and the second beast is the false prophet. Rather than get wrapped up in figuring out the identity of the Anti-Christ and the false prophet, we focused our attention on understanding the Devil and his associates. One of the things I mentioned yesterday was our culture’s inclination to do one of two things: (1) Not believe in Satan and his dominion or (2) to celebrate or be hyper-sensitive to Satan.

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You're Not Joining Your Local Club

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You're Not Joining Your Local Club

For the last few weeks, we’ve been investigating church membership—what it is, why it is important, and other important questions. If you’ve missed the previous posts, you can check them out here:

This week we wrap up our series on church membership by getting very practical—how do we become a member of a church?

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Can You Do It Alone?

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Can You Do It Alone?

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been discussing church membership. In particular we’ve answered two questions. First, we answered, “who is the church?” You can read that post HERE. Last week, we discussed this question: “what is church membership?” That post can be found HERE. While understanding who the church is and what church membership is are important, those two questions really just laid the foundation for where we are going today and next week. 

Today, we are asking this question—“Why is church membership Important?”

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Do You Know What It Means to Be a Member?

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Do You Know What It Means to Be a Member?

Last week, we kicked off a new series on church membership. I answered the question, “who is the church?” In particular, we looked at how the church is first and foremost the people of God saved by Jesus Christ. We also saw how more often than not, the Bible’s understanding of the church is local before universal. Finally, we mentioned how institutional and community are not at odds with one another. The church should be both institutional as well as people-focused. If you missed that post, you can find it HERE.  

After laying that foundation last week, we can now ask this question—“What is church membership?”

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Who Is the Church to You?

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Who Is the Church to You?

Vintage Church unashamedly believes in church membership. We call it Vintage Partnership. We believe the Scriptures teach the importance of being connected and committed to a local church. As a pastor of Vintage Church, I am surprised at how many people don’t understand the significance of church membership or are actually against church membership. It’s my belief that, for the most part, people who don’t understand or are against church membership, simply have not been taught about church membership. Over the next few weeks, we are going to discuss church membership.

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Detox Devotional - Day 12

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Detox Devotional - Day 12

In the end, the ultimate victory goes to the Lord God Almighty. Satan and his followers will receive judgment and shame while God’s children will receive honor and everlasting life. Until then, our job is to be a vessel that God uses to show people the righteousness that is found through faith in Jesus. (v. 3 & Romans 3:21-24) There is an inheritance awaiting the ones who faithfully finish the race. Today direct your focus towards going strong until the end (v. 13).     

Deeper Study: 1 Corinthians 15. Rely on the same power that resurrected Christ.

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Detox Devotional - Day 11

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Detox Devotional - Day 11

In spite of present evil situations, God is in control! He has always been and will always be sovereign. The prophecy given in this chapter is amazing when you read history and see that everything God shows Daniel is fulfilled exactly. God knew and controlled the Babylonians, Persians, Alexander the Great and his four sons. When the Antichrist arises in power and unleashes havoc, God will still be in control. Daniel concluded by saying “Yet he shall come to his end, with none to help him” (v. 45). The infinitely powerful God who guides the events of history also extends His guiding hand daily to each Christian. How do you need God to be your guidance? 

Deeper Study: Compare yourself with Gideon (Judges 6–7).

Ask God for direction in the area of life that you currently need Him most. 

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Detox Devotional - Day 9

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Detox Devotional - Day 9

Daniel’s prayer stands as the model prayer for us to follow as we intercede on behalf of New Orleans, North America and the world. The beginning (v. 4), the end (v. 17-19), and everything in between is primarily focused on God. God-honoring and God-glorifying prayers are ones that have Him placed at the center. God does all that He does because He is who He is (v. 17-18). The answer for accomplishing Vintage’s world vision of reaching the nations must be found in God Himself (v. 19). This type of prayer has an impact upon our daily lives because we realize that God is even more passionate about His interests and purposes than we could even imagine. Today, use this chapter as you pray and, as Daniel did, bring God’s greatness and glory into your prayers for His sake.   

Deeper Prayer: Use Nehemiah 1:4-11 to help you be in continuous prayer today.

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Detox Devotional - Day 8

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Detox Devotional - Day 8

Daniel was so overcome by the visions of the future suffering of his people that he was set back a few days (v. 27). At this point Daniel didn’t fully understand the vision. Further details were to come later, but until then Daniel got on with his work. When you think about the enormity of the task facing Vintage Church in New Orleans, how do you respond? Today let these thoughts drive you to diligently pursue sharing with people how they can become a child of God. 

Deeper Study: Soak up Luke 15. God’s heartbeat is to find that which is lost.

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