545 results for tag: blog

Grace Without Reservations – by Greg Albrecht

And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, then grace would no longer be grace.—Romans 11:6 Have you ever had an altercation, a conflict or misunderstanding with your wife or husband, adult child or a good friend and wondered how in the world you could patch things up? We've all been there, haven't we? Perhaps we are "there" right now. Let's suppose (and it's a safe supposition, isn't it?) that the mess we are thinking about is a mess that is our fault. We are to blame. After all, at some point in our lives, we have all been in the wrong, haven't we? At some point in our lives we have all been the major factor or cause behind a ...

Mercy Drops – by Ruth A.Tucker

I was a senior in high school, focused and driven. A Mozart French horn solo was all that seemed to matter.  I will never forget the phone call with the news that I had won first prize in the northern Wisconsin regional brass competition. It was a feeling of sheer ecstasy—a landmark in my life. We all have experiences like that.  Maybe it’s that long-awaited phone call that the adoption has finally come through.  There are no words to describe our joy.  Or maybe we’re biting out nails in the third row back of the darkened auditorium when daughter Katie spells “masseuse” and wins the spelling bee.  Or, perhaps ...

Scandalous Grace – Part 2 – by Greg Albrecht

Genesis 27:1-45 - Jacob deceives Isaac for his blessing   The story of Jacob's deception centers on God promising a reversal. God essentially told Rebekah, Jacob and Esau's mother, that Jacob would receive the blessing the older brother, Esau, should have had.   Amazingly, the life of Jacob after he had deceived both his father and his brother was an ongoing saga of deceit and conflict. When Esau realized that he had been duped and deceived, Jacob had to run for his life to escape Esau's anger.   The story of Esau and Jacob is an illustration of God's scandalous grace, a grace that reaches into the murky ...

Wins and Losses Don’t Matter – by Greg Albrecht

Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. – Matthew 10:39 The purpose of a Christ-centered life is not to gratify or satisfy the self, but to lose ourselves in the cause of something bigger and more important. When we lose ourselves in the service of Jesus, we find life – he gives us his life, and he lives his life in us now and forever. The primary purpose of life that motivates Christ-followers is far beyond merely consuming, acquiring and possessing. The purpose of life for those who walk with Jesus is to lose ourselves in the service of those who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, ...

Scandalous Grace – by Greg Albrecht

Keynote Passage: This is the account of Abraham’s son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean. Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. The LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, ...

Reforming Grace – by Greg Albrecht

For this is what the high and lofty One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite."—Isaiah 57:15 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.—Matthew 23:12   Over 490 years ago, on the day now known as Halloween—October 31, 1517—a young Roman Catholic priest named Martin Luther posted 95 theses, or statements, on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. These 95 issues were a summary of what this ...

One Day at a Time? – by Ed Dunn

As you the reader know, I am fortunate to write a regular column for the Plain Truth Magazine entitled, One Day at a Time. I’ve been thinking more and more about why I titled this column as I have. What does, One Day at a Time really mean, and why is that title, and perspective in our lives, important? Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom states Psalm 90:12  (NIV). As I read what the Psalmist wrote of the work and wisdom of numbering, I believe that beginning with the number one may well be the best place to start. Living our lives simply and deliberately, one day at a time, can offer us a gift of perspective. ...

News or Good News? – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from October 2023 “If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. ‘Nothing in the paper today,’ we sigh.”  Paul Valery, French poet, 1871-1945 Long before the advent of cable news, with its 24-hour news cycle – long before our frantic and frenzied culture where “news” is immediately reported (never mind the factual details, because networks and “news” sources want to say “you heard it here first”) Paul Valery commented on the oh-so-human tendency to love hearing and reading the horrifying and the sensational.  “If it bleeds, it leads” was ...

Confronted by Christ – by Ed Dunn

Acts Chapter 9 tells us the story of Saul (soon to become Paul) on a path from Jerusalem to Damascus with a mandate in his hand. Charged and empowered by the High Priest, Saul was set to hunt down, arrest and bring the followers of Jesus to Jerusalem. Once in Jerusalem, it would seem Saul’s intent was to question, persecute and quite possibly, execute, the followers of Jesus, as he had done with Stephen (Acts 7:4 - 8:1). In telling this story, the book of Acts paints a picture of Saul as a man who was, in a word, diligent, in following his path, and in seeing his commission through to its end.     Not far from the gates of ...

How Free is Free Will? – by Greg Albrecht

Red Pill or Blue Pill? How much choice does any individual human actually have? We speak of "free will"—but how much of a choice to accept God's grace does anyone have, given the brainwashing and propaganda to which they are subjected? How much of a choice to accept God's grace does a young boy in a radicalized Muslim school have? How much of a choice to accept God's grace does someone have who is ensnared by some ultra fundamentalist church, where performance-based religion rules?   Being in Christ is a divine invitation to an eternal relationship, open to everyone. But being in Christ is not an automatic, ...

Prophetic Hope or Partisan Megaphone? Kenneth Tanner

If you are involved in the care of souls please avoid and flee the ever-present temptation to enter the partisan fray of contemporary life in America.  If things get *actually* horrendous (I know things are not well) those who look to men and women of the cloth for comfort and direction and wisdom need to be able to trust you. They will not be able to trust you—even if they cannot consciously perceive or articulate a lack of trust—if you have been a shrill and (more or less) unending megaphone for the left or right or whatever cause célèbre replaces Jesus Christ.  Trust is earned by consistently elevating the person of Jesus Christ (as much as ...

The Master’s Voice – by Greg Albrecht

by Greg Albrecht "I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was ...

Worries and Fears – by Greg Albrecht

Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. – Arthur Somers Roche A study conducted about why people worry revealed: 40% of the things people worry about never happen. 30% of the things people worry about already happened.  12% of the things people worry about concern their health. 10% of the topics that people worry about are somewhat trivial. 8% of the worries that people have are legitimate.  One man summed up his philosophy of worry like this: “I only worry about two things. The two worries I have right now are ...

I Want to See (Mark 10:46-52) – by Greg Albrecht

By Greg Albrecht— For the last time during his earthly ministry, Jesus was en route to Jerusalem. He had only a few days left in his earthly life—with every step he took toward Jerusalem he knew he was that much closer to the awful pain and suffering that awaited him. The road took him through Jericho, a city located about 17 miles northeast of Jerusalem. It was just before Passover—one of the three times in the year when pilgrims traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts of the old covenant. So the road was crowded with travelers, and as a result there were many others alongside the road—small businessmen and entrepreneurs, as well as ...

The Girl with the Goat – by Ruth A. Tucker

“Countless verses have been written on the puppy and the kitten.” These are the first lines of a poem written by my eighth-grade Latin teacher who was hands-down the most popular poet at the middle school located high on a hill in the small town of Spooner, Wisconsin. He would often read one of his poems before he put on his stern face and ordered oral exercises in declining nouns and conjugating verbs. Students repeatedly asked him to write a poem for them. He knew better. Do it for one, you’ve got to do it for all. I was very specific in my request, however, begging him to write a poem about Buzzy. Finally, after months of refusal, he ...