63 results for tag: Letters to My Friends

Self Sacrifice – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from March 2023 Finally, after a long winter, spring is on the horizon. As warmer days arrive and nature comes alive, resurrected as it were, from the cold darkness of winter, we Christ-followers focus on the Cross of Christ and his Resurrection. At the same time many also look forward to the promise of another season of baseball! Baseball, you say?  What does the crack of the bat and a fastball popping in the catcher’s mitt have to do with our faith in Christ?  What in the world does baseball, hot dogs, popcorn and singing “take me out to the ballgame” have to do with the Cross of Christ and his ...

Wrath or Love – by Greg Albrecht

The nature of God – who he is, and how he is – is without doubt the most misunderstood topic within all of Christendom. If God is filled with wrath and retribution, then any number of Christ-less teachings and practices make sense – but God IS NOT wrath. God IS love.  Love is the one-word definition of God. God is love, he is not filled with wrath, therefore: God the Father was not looking for payback from God the Son on the cross;  There is no such thing as eternal conscious torment in hell;  God is not mad at you and me, and  God does not expect us to do the impossible, which would be to earn and ...

Law Enforcement or Healing? – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from February 2023 Let’s start with a quiz:  If you had to choose between two images of Jesus which would it be:  1) someone who serves in the law enforcement profession, such as a police officer or judge, or 2) someone who serves in the healing profession, such as a doctor or a nurse?  When those two images are compared and contrasted, a doctor or nurse is the Christ-centered, healing answer.  BUT – why does the vast majority of Christendom lean toward a depiction of Jesus as an agent of law and order?  More than that, WHY do so many within Christendom feel that any picture of ...

New Creation in Christ – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from January 2023: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation is come:  The old has gone, the new is here!  2 Corinthians 5:17 This New Year of 2023 is a great time to remember that we, as Christ-followers, and CWR/PTM Friends and partners, are friends of Jesus and we are, by God’s grace, New Creations! God creates us as new creations out of what we were. He makes us “something” in terms of our spiritual worth when before we were, by comparison, “nothing.” He finds us and we discover him, in the process we lose “the old” and we gain, by his grace, “the new”! We become new, ...

The Little Stranger in the Manger – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from December 2016 Come down to the manger, see the little stranger  Wrapped in swaddling clothes, the prince of peace. – “Christmas Must be Tonight,” The Band The invitation come down to the manger, see the little stranger announces the arrival of the God who cares, the God who comes near and the God who becomes one of us.  The invitation come down to the manger, see the little stranger proclaims God’s love being born into our story.  Come down to the manger, see the little stranger bids us to come receive the unconditional love of God who holds us near and dear.  When ...

Fiat Lux – The Light of All People – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from December 2022 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. – John 1:1-4 When we think of the birth of Jesus, and then of his subsequent life and teaching here on earth, we often forget the many things that happened at night. We don’t know for certain, but Jesus may have been born at night – if so his first meal at the breast of Mary was at night. He had his last meal at night. A man named ...

Thanks-Giving or Self-Absorption? – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from November 2015: The day and season of Thanksgiving, already celebrated in Canada on October 12, and yet to be celebrated here in these United States on November 26, is much more than turkey and pumpkin pie!  From a Christ-centered perspective Thanks-Giving is aptly named, for giving thanks is one of the most inevitable characteristics evident in those in whom the Master lives and works.  Sadly, it seems giving thanks and being grateful is increasingly becoming extinct in our world. The plight of many today, particularly the younger generation, is that their spiritual senses have been overwhelmed by ...

Now Thank We All Our God – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from November 2022 Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices Who wondrous things hath done, in whom his world rejoices Who from our mother’s arms hath blessed us on our way  With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today At 8:07 am, on the morning of January 13, 2018, an emergency ballistic missile alert was issued over cell phones, radio and television in the state of Hawaii. BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER.  THIS IS NOT A DRILL.  At 8:45 am, 38 minutes later, the state of Hawaii sent a second emergency alert. THERE IS NO ...

Such A Time As This – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from October 2016: “And who knows but you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” – Esther 4:14 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. – 1 Peter 2:9 About 475 years before the birth of Jesus, Esther and Mordecai were Jews living in Susa, one of the four capitals of the Persian Empire. The Jews had been taken into exile in Babylon a century before, and then 50 years after that Babylon was conquered by the Persians. The Persians released the ...

Contentment – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from October 2022 If you are like me, you have had the experience of seeing an old friend your own age, whom you have not seen in “forever,” and thinking how old they have become since you last saw them!Meanwhile, we fail to remember we have been seeing our own aging reflection in the bathroom mirror every day. No one likes to get older. Surgical procedures, injections, creams, lotions and diets are sold, promising to restore what has long since gone down the river of life. Sam went to a new dentist, and as he was in the waiting-room he saw a diploma on the wall —it seemed his new dentist had attended the ...

Law and The Gospel – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from September 2015 The distinction between law and gospel is the highest art in Christendom. – Martin Luther Have you noticed that when you take God’s grace seriously, you start to hear advice, offered with a sweet, patronizing smile, that goes something like this: “Of course God loves you, but his love is not a one-way street – you have a contribution to make as well.”  If you are told you are in charge of activating, purchasing or producing God’s love, that’s law. If you understand that God’s in charge, that’s grace. If you are told that God’s love and grace are produced by ...

Field of Dreams – by Ed Dunn

Friend and Partner Letter from September 2022 Once again Ed Dunn favors us by writing our letter this month. Given the topic of baseball which forms the illustration of the vital spiritual lesson Ed shares below, we might say he has become a regular in our batting order, coming up to bat for our September letter!  As most of you know, as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Ed wears many hats at PTM. Earlier this year he authored “Looking at Life from the Outside In” for the cover of our March Plain Truth. Many appreciated it as a powerful and inspiring account of some of his own struggles in life as he has picked up his own ...

Satisfaction When Others Get Their Comeuppance – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from August 2017 Eternal conscious torment in hell is an unbiblical, fabricated teaching of Christ-less religion designed to effectively keep its followers in line. “Believers” in such teaching perceive hell as having positive results because 1) the fear of being consigned to the fiery coals of hell keeps the followers of Christ-less religion in tow, as they “toe-the-line,” and 2) it gives those who are religiously devout “hope” that God will see to it those who do not seem to faithfully “toe-the-line” as they do will get what they deserve.  This “hope” of seeing others “get what’s ...

His Blessed Hope – Take Heart – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from August 2022 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Anxiety and fear impact our world. Disturbing and horrific news overwhelms us so that when we do hear good news—such as the good news of the gospel—we can have trouble fully hearing and appreciating it. We are now, once again as in so many hundreds of times since Jesus originally said it, experiencing, in our cities, on national settings and international stages, “…wars and rumors of wars…” (Matthew 24:6). Just a few months ...

Gracebut – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from July 2015 One of the most common objections to God’s grace goes something like: “Sure, we have been saved by grace, BUT…” That phrase is used so often within legalistic religion that it seems like it should be spelled as one word – gracebut with no comma. When used as a G-rated term for the hindquarters of an animal or human, the word is spelled b-u-t-t. It is wise to keep not only our BUTS (objections or opinions) out of God’s grace, but our BUTTS as well.  BUT, with all due respect and political correctness, we must admit that though BUTTS can become large, the BUT used to diminish, devalue ...