As we find ourselves in the middle of this season of thankfulness, joy, and celebration, I want you to know from the bottom of my heart how thankful I am to have been a part of this church family for the past five and a half years.
Last summer, I read an inspirational book called The Lost Letters of Pergamum: A Story from the New Testament World. It is a book of historical fiction based on Revelation 1:12-13. This biblical passage is part of the letter written to the first century church of Pergamum. It speaks of a man named Antipas who was a faithful witness of Christ that was martyred in the first century city of Pergamum.
I am sure that most of you share my sentiments in hearing the recent news that Ryan and Callie’s time at Calvary will soon come to an end. If you are like me, you are very sad to hear that they will be leaving, but very excited that they will be part of a kingdom focused mission by starting a new church.
As the “dog days of summer” come to a close, I know that you join me in looking forward to September and the fall. Fall is most definitely my favorite time of the year. And this year, the fall will be even better because we will be studying the Gospel of Luke. This is exciting to me for several reasons. First, we can never go wrong when we are studying a book that focuses on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. Second, this Gospel is especially profound because of its author, a man named Luke. Luke is another one of my all-time favorite bible characters. Here’s why:
It’s August and it’s getting hot here in central Arkansas. So, as the weather turns hot, my prayer is that our hearts will get hot for God. I pray that we, Calvary Baptist Church, will catch fire from the Holy Spirit. Remember, in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit came upon the first century believers they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire separating and coming to rest on each of them. When this happened, the empowered church radiated out into missional living for the glory of God. So Calvary, here are several discipleship opportunities that will light a fire under us:
In preparation for our fall preaching series at Calvary, I’ve recently been on a deep dive into the gospel of Luke. Luke’s gospel is filled with Jesus’ teachings that come to us in the form of parables. While we sometimes refer to parables as “earthly stories with a heavenly meaning,” Jesus was doing something deeper than offering an illustration or teaching a moral lesson. Through the parables, Jesus was announcing the arrival of the counter-cultural, upside down kingdom of God and correcting false assumptions about what it looks like and who’s invited.
