Posts by Liberty Church of Christ (Page 3)

This is an article from Wes McAdams’ “Radically Christian” a few weeks ago. I thought it was relevant for us on a number of different levels, as we deeply consider what it means to be a disciple (and how that might mean rethinking some of our practices). It is slightly altered in format for our space. -BP A cultural Christian is someone who identifies as a Christian, but whose religious ideas and practices come more from popular culture than from…

I have printed this article, written by Reuel Lemmons and published in the Firm Foundation several decades ago, every year since I have been here. I suppose it is something of a Christmas tradition in itself at this point. While it seems silly in some ways to repeat it, I get comments every year from those who missed it before somehow about how much they appreciate it; so I make no apologies for running it again—especially on Christmas Day!—and I…

I find historical Thanksgiving Proclamations to be interesting with the insights they provide into the times in which they were issued, and that is why I have shared a couple of them with you in the past. I believe we have reprinted the one issued by George Washington in 1789—the first National Thanksgiving Proclamation—as well as that of Abraham Lincoln in 1863, which ultimately led to Thanksgiving being established as a national holiday. This morning, I have for your consideration…

Thomas Campbell was a Presbyterian minister, born in Ireland and educated in Scotland at the University of Glasgow. When our story begins, he was serving a church in Ireland. But over time, he became dissatisfied with the divisiveness of his denomination: he was an Old Light, Anti-Burgher, Seceder Presbyterian. Each one of those terms reflected a doctrinal split. A reform movement of Independent churches emerging first in Scotland was now sweeping into Ireland. These influenced Thomas to the point he…

Because we are unsure of the events of tomorrow, worrying about them will do us little good. Many Christians struggle with worry. Individuals worry about things that happened yesterday, things that may happen tomorrow. In each instance, their anxiety is fruitless. Rather than worrying about past actions or words, we might seek to make right our wrongs and trust God for forgiveness (1 John 1:9). Instead of worrying about the things happening around us currently, we should resolve to control…

This article was complied a couple of years ago by Jack Wilkie and published on the Focus Press site. I do not necessarily identify with all of these, but many of them are applicable to me personally; it is good food for thought in general for other ministers you have a relationship with. I have edited and abridged it slightly for redundancy and formatting. All italics below are part of the original article and are not my words. BP The…

Our faith in the risen Savior has a past, present, and future importance. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is central to our faith. Paul reminds us, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17 ESV). But Christ is risen from the dead, the culmination of God’s work of salvation. The apostle links the resurrection with our salvation, “who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for…

This past week, I attended a meeting for Liberty County Responds. This is a local coalition of different churches and other entities that work for disaster preparedness, primarily so that we know who has what resources and capabilities and can have a plan when the next hurricane (or plague?) inevitably hits. As we began, we went around the table at the restaurant and talked about what had transpired over Easter. For virtually everyone, it was a big day of events—sunrise…

As someone pointed out recently, we eat together as a church a lot! We have been intentional about doing that more and more since we began to emerge from COVID restrictions. This week, Wes McAdams, the preacher at the McDermott Road Church of Christ, published this article that I thought spoke really well to the deeper meaning of these gatherings. I commend it to your attention, and urge you again to check out his blog, “Radically Christian,” for more deeply…

This morning, we will conclude our study of the Gospel of Mark by looking at the resurrection narrative in Mark 16:1-8. Our focus will be on the meaning of the resurrection in the story rather than on the historical reality of the event. But its significance assumes as a given that it really did occur; the way that Mark and other writers speak about the resurrection will not let us get off the hook with metaphorical explanations that are popular…

A few weeks ago, we began a new adult class on Wednesday evenings where we are studying Christian ethics; more specifically, we are thinking through how we make decisions when we are faced with difficult moral dilemmas. This should be practical for all of us, not only as we grapple with controversial ethical issues that our contemporary culture is struggling with, but also just on a day-to-day basis as we all strive to choose to do God’s will. This past…

Today is Mother’s Day. The holiday was first organized by Anna Jarvis, who held a memorial for her mother at St. Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where she had been a Sunday School teacher, in 1907. An official worship service was observed in the same place the following year, accompanied by a larger ceremony in the store of Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker. By the year after that, it was being celebrated in New York City. Jarvis then launched…