East Cobb Church of Christ: Recent Episodes
East Cobb Church of Christ
In our seventh part of this series on Ephesians, Paul clarifies how to avoid dangerous behaviors in the Jesus community.
In our fifth part of this series on Ephesians, the core message of the first part of Ephesians is summarized and a truth about God's love is revealed.
In our fourth part of this series on Ephesians, Paul uses powerful imagery to describe our identity.
In our second part of this series on Ephesians, we work to grasp the core concept that will replay throughout the letter.
In our first part of this series on Ephesians, we attempt to get oriented to the author and readers of the letter by asking three context questions.
When reading about the birth of the church of Christ in the book of Acts, you can almost feel the energy just jumping off the page. People were serving each other, giving to each other, encouraging each other, devoted to learning and obeying. In fact, you almost get the sense that they were together all the time! So how do we recapture that energy today?
When reading about the birth of the church of Christ in the book of Acts, you can almost feel the energy just jumping off the page. People were serving each other, giving to each other, encouraging each other, devoted to learning and obeying. In fact, you almost get the sense that they were together all the time! So how do we recapture that energy today?
When reading about the birth of the church of Christ in the book of Acts, you can almost feel the energy just jumping off the page. People were serving each other, giving to each other, encouraging each other, devoted to learning and obeying. In fact, you almost get the sense that they were together all the time! So how do we recapture that energy today?
Just about everyone in western civilization knows Jesus' name. And nearly everyone likes Jesus. The problem is that there are many opinions about Jesus and his message in culture today. This series seeks to clarify who he was, what he's doing, and where we fit in.
Just about everyone in western civilization knows Jesus' name. And nearly everyone likes Jesus. The problem is that there are many opinions about Jesus and his message in culture today. This series seeks to clarify who he was, what he's doing, and where we fit in.
Just about everyone in western civilization knows Jesus' name. And nearly everyone likes Jesus. The problem is that there are many opinions about Jesus and his message in culture today. This series seeks to clarify who he was, what he's doing, and where we fit in.
Jesus calls the church to disciple people and He gives us an excellent model to follow. Practical Discipleship calls people into the story of the Gospel, and encourages them to take personal responsibility in the mission. With church engagement and involvement falling across the United States, Practical Discipleship engages the next generation, and allows us all to see that we have a personal role in spreading the Good News.
What makes us who we are? The authors of the biblical texts wrestle with that question in every book. Today, as we celebrate with our Seniors graduating from High School we want to acknowledge this exciting time of transition and explore our identity and purpose in the grand scheme of life as God’s created people who seek to follow Jesus.
Thanks to the innovations of the Information Age, we now have more faith-fueling resources at our fingertips than ever before. This is great news for Jesus followers. Now we can enjoy consuming a constant flow of “spiritual milk” through online Bible studies, podcasts, audio books and more. But we must remember that hearing the word of God in our lives is not enough for spiritual growth.
Have you ever found yourself going back to some old sins that you thought you had put behind you? Sometimes when we least expect it, they seem to come out of nowhere. (Pride, anger, greed, lust, envy.) And sometimes we just try to just live with them, hoping they will eventually go away. But God revealed in the beginning that sin is more than a mistake; rather it’s like a crouching predator waiting to take its prey. We must master it. So how do we guard against it? How do we experience lasting change?
In this series we focused on why the resurrection of Jesus is worth believing. We looked at the testimonies of Peter and the other Apostles, of 500 other witnesses, of Stephen, of James the brother of Jesus, and of Paul. Friends, estranged family, and even former enemies all later claimed that Jesus had died and come back to life. But there’s more.
In the final message, we considered how – despite strong opposition – the Jesus movement changed the course of history and is still growing globally 2,000 years later. Without the resurrection of Jesus, the movement’s history is a mystery.
This week we were taken through two stories displaying God’s transformative power working through the resurrection of Jesus. We were then called to consider how God wants to continue his transformative resurrection work in and through the church today. Just as God formed a humble young woman into a legendary liberator through whom he saved lives and helped bring down the wicked system of slavery, and just as God formed an adversary of his followers into one of their most influential leaders so God also desires to transform us through the power of the resurrection of Christ.
This week we considered the unlikely turnaround story of James, the brother of Jesus. Can you imagine growing up with Jesus as a brother? Maybe that idea sounds better than what your childhood experience with your siblings was like. Jesus was perfect after all. But James and his brothers weren’t impressed. In fact, their relationship with Jesus got pretty ugly. Yet after the crucifixion, something big happened to James.
This week we considered one of the possible alternatives to the resurrection of Jesus: The idea that maybe the Apostles weren’t telling the truth, but that perhaps they had stolen his body, hid it, and then made up a story about his resurrection. Because our faith is largely dependent on the Apostles’ testimony, this is a question everyone should wrestle with. Were they telling the truth or was the whole thing a fraud?
Thankfully, their claims were investigated. And the report is pretty revealing. The answer to the question lies in how they responded when they were interrogated, how they responded when they gained influence with people, and how they responded when they underwent intense persecution.
This is our second week in the series addressing why anyone and everyone should seriously consider following Jesus. For many Jesus’ resurrection is very difficult to believe. People throughout time have struggled to believe in resurrection. So, in the second part of our series we looked at what caused people to believe the unbelievable.
This week we started a new series to address why anyone and everyone should seriously consider following Jesus. For some, the notion can be confusing and hard to understand. For others, it can be hard to articulate. So in the first part of series, we focused on why following Jesus makes sense.