Gospel Saturated

Crossing Over

We will make many crossings in our life, and live several lives throughout adulthood, each one connected to the last by moments and memories, intersecting and joining together like the gossamer thread of a spider’s web. Sometimes we will recognise the echoes of ourselves from another time, another place, but in other moments, our glances backward will both bewilder and astonish; who is that stranger that carries our face?
We will perhaps begin to understand, too, that all of this life, this experience that humans share, is another kind of crossing, a change from this to that. 
Yet it is also a journey through a world that, at its core, will fail to satisfy us, deep within our soul.
We realise we were always meant to change, it’s in our DNA. But into what we wonder. Is all of this life meant for something more? Who am I really meant to become?
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/crossing-over/
Music excerpt: C S Lewis Song (Brooke Fraser)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4RzmlWZ5fU

When God Moved Into The Neighbourhood

The glory of the Lord returns to dwell among His people. But this time it was wrapped in a perishable, temporary covering of flesh and bone.
 
All the narratives of the Old Testament had been simply shadows and markers, one-dimensional illustrations intended to point the world to the real story God had been writing all along, to the reality that God had intended from the beginning. God would dwell, as He has always intended, among people, in people; in a kingdom of priests ransomed to Him by the precious blood of the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
 
“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” | John 1:14 (MSG)
 
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/when-god-moved-into-the-neighbourhood/

An Easter Tale

The resurrection of Jesus is one of the great theological truths of the Christian faith taught by the early church and written into the earliest Christian creeds. Resurrection underpins the entire gospel narrative, without which all of Christian life is rendered futile.
As author Craig Blomberg comments, “As wonderful as Jesus’ life and teachings and miracles were, they were meaningless if it were not historically factual that Christ died and was raised from the dead and that this provided atonement, or forgiveness, of the sins of humanity.”
At Easter, Christians all around the world remember and give thanks for what Jesus has done and the abundant life that has been won through his death and resurrection.
Here's a fresh retelling of a tale that began long, long ago...
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/an-easter-tale/

[The Church Series] Will Progressive Christianity Destroy The Church?

I want to talk about something that’s been on my mind for a while. Some time ago, I watched a commentary by a ‘Christian pastor’ (link in show notes) that totally shocked me. In fact, I haven’t really stopped thinking about it since.
I found it disturbing; equal parts ridiculous and horrifying, and I really couldn’t believe it was being presented under the guise of legitimate Christianity.
For me, it highlighted a disturbing and, frankly, heartbreaking direction that modern Christianity, or at least a part of it, has taken; a wild trip sideways down the labyrinth-like rabbit hole of progressive Christianity. And I believe this pervasive ideology, left unchecked, could signal the death knell of the church as we know it.
I think the church is facing one of her greatest challenges yet; not through external persecution as in times past, but through subtle, internal perversion. There is a desperate need for discernment and a deep commitment to the gospel of the Bible, in doctrine and practice.
Will progressive Christianity destroy the church?
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/will-progressive-christianity-destroy-the-church/
Show Notes: 
YouTube commentary by Brandan Robertson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbP7oMte9sk
https://www.bethelbeaverton.org/progressive-christianity
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/05/progressive-christians-abortion-jes-kast/590293/

John Writes A Letter

When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. 
Yet, writes John the Apostle, if anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.”
John tackles this sensitive yet important area of Christian discipleship, showing the connection between our professed love of God and our love for our Christian family. "First we were loved, now we love", he says, pressing into the realities of what a grace-shaped life should look like.
Grace, perhaps one of the easiest concepts to speak about in the enthusiastic language of a born-again believer is, in reality, one of the hardest virtues to assimilate into our Christian lives. John's letter directs our gaze inward, at our own hearts, where, he says, 'faith, expressed through love' must abide and flourish.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/john-writes-a-letter/

By One Man

The Apostle Paul’s influence, passion, and commitment enabled the gospel of Jesus Christ to take root and flourish throughout Asia Minor, and its spread continued long after his death, reaching even to the ends of the earth.
Paul wrote several letters, one of which was the letter to the church at Rome. In chapters 5 and 6 of Romans, he covers some significant theological territory by dealing with the themes of death, life, and resurrection, which came about, he states, ‘by one man’…
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/by-one-man/
(A large part of the inspiration for this article came from the worship song ‘This My Soul’ By The Gray Havens (link below). This song captures Paul’s sentiments from Romans 5 and 6 perfectly and is one of my personal favourites).

The Faith | Works ’Conundrum’

Paul the Apostle was a champion for the need for a grace-led, faith-full life. He had been converted from a life steeped in religious tradition and law, a life in which a man could become ‘more righteous’ before God than his fellow man, simply by achieving greater adherence to law. Yet Paul learned that right standing with God was not to be achieved through law-keeping – and in fact was impossible to be achieved this way – but by faith; personal belief in God’s promises.
What are we to make then of the words of Paul’s contemporary, James, who writes “As you can see, a man is justified by his deeds and not by faith alone.”
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/the-faith-works-conundrum/

Abraham | Father Of The Faithful

Abraham, originally named Abram, was born (c 2000 BCE) and lived in the city of Ur, in what is now modern-day Iraq. Abraham was the son of Terah, ninth in descent from Noah, who was the main character in the Great Flood narrative found in Genesis 6-9. 
Ur was an important Sumerian city-state in ancient Mesopotamia. It was a wealthy, prosperous and advanced city, with culture, religion, and social statras firmly established. This cradle of civilisation was also the seat of a vigorous polytheism, chief of whom was Nanna, the Sumero-Akkadian moon god.
It is with this rich and complex background that Abraham is introduced to us in Genesis 12. God appears to Abraham, telling him to leave all that was familiar and travel to an unknown place. Hebrews 11, the great dissertation on faith, expands further, noting that it was “by an act of faith, [that] Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left, he had no idea where he was going”.
Abraham left everything he had ever known, all on the word and promise of God. He demonstrated that having faith or believing isn’t measured by an exhaustive list of facts we say we agree with but rather the act of entrusting our lives to God and acting and living in a way that shows we believe His promise to be true.
Abraham chose to enter into God’s story and this choice was the turning point in his life...
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/abraham/