Let God Arise! Devotion of the Month

"Grace must come before sin can be confessed but Christians are not always good at affirming God’s love for themselves or anyone else. The Church, by its nature and calling, attracts people who are aware of their own insecurity, lovelessness and failure. Though religion should be a way to work through these experiences, insecurity may opt for a safer, rigid, discipline of worship and behavior which represses difficulties and drives us to repress others whose openness threatens us."

As we contemplate and participate in the wondrous Cross of Christ by faith, we become increasingly aware of our own indebtedness because of our sin, our disobedience, our pride and folly.  We are ever in need of being broken, and broken again, of facing our finiteness, our weakness, and our inner shadows—those constant, gnawing impulses to love and do the wrong.  To fully participate in the Cross we must be humbled, and humble ourselves.  This allows the Lord to do in and through us the very things that only he can do.  We allow, through our brokenness and humility, the Spirit to continue the work within us to conform us to the image of Christ, and thereby please and honor the Father who has ordained it so (Rom. 8.28-29).  A religious or spiritual life without brokenness is of no value, but rather is empty, useless, futile.  It is acceptable neither to God nor others.  We must walk the way of the Cross before we share in the glories of the Resurrection. Read more.

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New Releases Helping Urban Churches to Rediscover Vital Spirituality!

Jesus Cropped from the Picture: Why Christians Get Bored and How to Restore them to Vibrant Faith, by Don Allsman.  Why are many churches shrinking? Why are so many Christians bored? Could it be that the well-meaning attempt to simplify the gospel message for contemporary culture has produced churches full of discouraged people secretly longing for something more? Jesus Cropped from the Picture describes this phenomenon and proposes a return to our sacred roots as a guard against spiritual lethargy and a way to enhance spiritual vibrancy.

Sacred Roots: A Primer on Retrieving the Great Tradition, by Dr. Don L. Davis.  The Christian Faith is anchored on the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, whose incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection forever changed the world. Between the years 100 and 500 C.E. those who believed in him grew from a small persecuted minority to a strong aggressive movement reaching far beyond the bounds of the Roman empire. The roots this era produced gave us our canon (the Scriptures), our worship, and our conviction (the major creeds of the Church, and the central tenets of the Faith, especially regarding the doctrine of the Trinity and Christ). This book suggests how we can renew our contemporary faith again, by rediscovering these roots, our Sacred Roots, by retrieving the Great Tradition of the Church that launched the Christian revolution.