Maintaining Unity

One of the best ways to maintain the unity that come about when we first received Christ is the contextual reading and rereading of scripture.

This includes reading all of the New Testament fairly rapidly, four chapters a day. If you are a slow reader it will take you about twenty minutes each day. You will finish the New Testament in about two months.

Concurrent with this, pick a short book of the New Testament (1 John) and read all five chapters each day for a week. This will reinforce what you read yesterday plus you will learn more each day.

Confess as sin any violations of the text. Choose to believe and obey what you read. Add a new book each week to your repetitive reading.

The next post will give you a reading schedule.

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Why Is Obedience So Hard?

There are several reasons why obedience seems hard. I will comment on some of them and then speak positively on how obedience is easy. We think: 1) Obedience is an infringement on freedom. Since we are free in Christ, and obedience is somehow contrary to that freedom, we conclude that obedience is not good. Yet we know it is good. Thus, we become confused about obedience and are not single-minded. 2) Obedience is works. We who have been justified by grace through faith are opposed to works; therefore, we are opposed to obedience. 3) We have tried to obey and have failed—frequently. Therefore, the only solution is to disobey and later confess to receive forgiveness. It is easier to be forgiven by grace than to obey by effort. 4) We confuse obedience to men with obedience to God. Although these are sometimes one and the same (see Romans 13, 1 Peter 2-3, Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3, and Titus 2), sometimes they are not the same (see Colossians 2:20-23, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, a

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Getting Old

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Roots by the River

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