The Power of the Priesthood of Christ
What Jesus Is Doing Right Now & Why It Matters
Be Swift to Choose Peace
November 20, 2016 • Graeme Sellers
Peace is everything which makes for another’s highest good. Anything that is not God’s highest good for your neighbor, co-worker, countryman is an enemy of peace! So when circumstances and the enemy of our souls conspire to steal the peace of those around us, we must aggressively pursue peace by being with and standing alongside them.
Faith Matters
November 6, 2016 • Graeme Sellers
Faith is believing that what God says and who God is, is the most real thing, the truest thing. As we saw last week, God takes pleasure in the simple fact of us; and at the same time there are actions, qualities, things we do that please him. Having faith is one of them, and it’s easy enough to see why, especially in light of our identity as sons and daughters: because faith is an indicator of our love relationship with God. No wonder he loves faith—not because it’s a badge of spiritual accomplishment but because it opens the door for us, as children, to receive the love of our Father.
God's Pleasure
October 30, 2016 • Graeme Sellers
If we, as sinful and selfish parents, take pleasure in our children why would we think it odd that the Father takes pleasure in us, his sons and daughters, not because of anything we do or achieve, but for the simple fact that we are his? You’re his son, his daughter—he takes pleasure in you! What else would he do?
Better Together
October 16, 2016 • Graeme Sellers
59% of Americans agree “Worshiping alone or with one’s family is a valid replacement for regularly attending church.” But here’s what the author of Hebrews knows: much strength arises from being together and worshiping together. Even if the sermon is poor and the worship shoddy, the church service gives us chance to be together, and that, more than any pleasure we take or approval we give of the sermon or worship, is the real point The author know this, too: community increases love. How can it do otherwise if Jesus is there with us? As 1 John 4:8b tells us, “God is love.” And where love increases, the things of God must follow
The Intercession of Our High Priest
October 9, 2016 • Graeme Sellers
We turn to one of the most striking images of Jesus as High Priest in Hebrews, one that gives us remarkable insight into what he is doing right now. Hebrews 7:25-26 “So he is able to save fully from now throughout eternity, everyone who comes to God through him, because he lives to pray continually for them. He is the High Priest who perfectly fits our need—holy, without a trace of evil, without the ability to deceive, incapable of sin, and exalted beyond the heavens!” [Passion Translation]
Can Sons & Daughters Lose Their Salvation?
October 2, 2016 • Graeme Sellers
Is it possible first to become a genuine Christian and then to lose everything after all? To this question Paul, in Romans 5-8, gives the emphatic answer “No!” Jesus himself says in John 10:27-29, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand." In the end it is going to come down to the central fact of our identity. We are sons and daughters. No one and nothing can steal us from the Father. No one and nothing can make us not sons and daughters.
