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Showing posts with the label authentic witness

Why Isn't the Story More Widely Known?

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Photo:  (©️ 2022) Deborah Evans In the last post, I described how Jesus inhabits and transforms our lives as we practice obedience. I ended the post with the question of why  this work of God isn't more widely known or more clearly observed. The question could be expanded to examine why Christianity has been politicized to the point of many in the general public associating Christians with political labels and not with accounts of personal transformation, loving service, prayer and obedience, commitment to justice, or holiness and gentleness. Christ followers are called to be authentic witnesses. This calling is both simple and complex. It's simple enough for everyone to understand. It's too complex to accomplish apart from God. In scripture, we are called to be "in the world, but not of it." There's a tension between being "called out" of the general culture and being commanded to demonstrate a unique and godly life to that culture. We...

The Heart and Soul of the Gospel

**This is the text from a sermon I preached yesterday (October 27, 2019) at Fort Street Presbyterian Church in Detroit, Michigan. The text includes the prayers at the beginning and end of the sermon and a few of my personal notes to enhance the delivery of the sermon. ( Sharing this sermon ("The Heart and Soul of the Gospel") in part or as a full document is permitted. Attribution (credit to the author) will be appreciated. -Deborah) Thank you Lord for calling us into your kingdom, into your power, and into relationship and connection with you. Show us how to live the purposes for which we were created. Show us how to live as authentic witnesses to the truth of your word. Amen. Passage from Colossians 1:9-14 (NIV) 9  For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, [ a ...