Word of Life Church Podcast

This is the third message in a series of the seven signs John recounts in order to form our faith in Jesus. It’s the story of a man paralyzed for 38 years whom Jesus healed at the Pool of Bethesda. In this story we see that what the healing that the Pool of Bethesda promised [...] The post Jesus At Work appeared first on Word of Life Church.

In order to experience natural, open conversation with Jesus, an openness is required. All conversion results from a moment of spiritual openness. But too often we restrict spiritual openness to a single moment of conversion. An over-emphasis on a single “salvation” event ruins us for future spiritual growth. Often, people have their one moment of [...] The post Spiritual Openness appeared first on Word of Life Church.

If we treat the Bible as a complete catalog of “do’s” and “don’ts”, then we can almost always find a way to justify whatever we want to justify. From slavery to genocide, you can find a scripture to “prove” just about anything you want in the Bible. But if we recognize that Jesus is the [...] The post The Logos of Life appeared first on Word of Life Church.

The kingdom of God is something that happens at a table. The church is not a kind of Temple, it is a kind of Table. The Temple, as understood 2000 years ago in Jewish society, was closed off, restricted to people of a particular ethnicity and nationality. Moving from Temple to Table is part of [...] The post Temple to Table appeared first on Word of Life Church.

At the wedding in Cana, Jesus performs his first miracle, and in doing so, reveals his glory and his beauty. Jesus’ first miracle is not “crucial”. He doesn’t heal the sick, or cleanse the leper, or cast out a demon, or calm a storm, or even raise the dead. Jesus’ first miracle is to keep [...] The post Water To Wine appeared first on Word of Life Church.

To first think of the “Bible” when say “Word of God” is a theological mistake. The Bible is the word of God, but only in a secondary sense. That the Bible is the word of God is true in the sense that it faithfully bears witness to the true Word of God: Jesus Christ. We’re [...] The post Jesus Is What God Has To Say appeared first on Word of Life Church.

The world after Easter is fundamentally different than the world of Good Friday. In the world before Easter Caesar is Lord, because Caesar holds the power of death. But in the world after Easter Jesus is Lord, because Jesus has conquered death. And not by by means of a temporary resuscitation that ultimately again succumbs [...] The post New Creation (Not Evacuation) appeared first on Word of Life Church.

The Old Testament story of Job is one of tragedy. In three thunderclaps of horror Job loses his wealth, his health, and his children. Very quickly following this episode, Job’s friends show up to comfort him, but in reality, they end up tormenting Job’s already shattered soul. These three friends likely intended well, but in [...] The post Windbag Speeches appeared first on Word of Life Church.

The Messiah of the Jews was Jesus Christ. That Christ would be worshiped as King among pagan the Gentiles is the great hope of God! God always intended to unite the whole world as one people, without any division. God had to begin with one person, with one people; the Jewish people. But all along [...] The post Mystery Revealed / Dream Coming True appeared first on Word of Life Church.

Calling things by their names is the way of the God and the first vocation of man. In Genesis, Adam is instructed by God to gives names to all the animals. Humans are the ones who make Creation a community of the named and known and not just an impersonal collection of unknown and disassociated [...] The post Mark of the Beast appeared first on Word of Life Church.

If you want to sum up the Gospel in its most succinct form, this is it: Jesus is Lord! The Apostles actually believed that with the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, the world was now being governed by a new emperor, a new administration. The politics of Caesar and empire had been replaced by [...] The post Jesus Is Lord… and Caesar Is Not appeared first on Word of Life Church.

Pastor Brian Zahnd interviews P.G. Vargis, missionary and founder of the Indian Evangelical Team (IET), a Christian missions organization spread across India, Nepal, and Bhutan, and is the fastest growing missons organization in South East Asia. Today, IET trains hundreds of indigenous men and women to be effective, godly church planters and Christian leaders through [...] The post A Conversation With P.G. Vargis appeared first on Word of Life Church.

In the world after Easter the Apostle Paul is possessed by a radical new vision for the world. This is what compels him to travel unceasingly throughout the Roman Empire. Paul daringly proclaims that the true gospel of peace is not the Pax Romana (Peace of Rome), but the Pax Christi (Peace of Christ). In [...] The post One New Humanity appeared first on Word of Life Church.

The kingdom of God is salvation in its full expression, and it’s all a gift. In the midst of the human catastrophe and civilization gone wrong from the very foundation, God has acted and given to us the Kingdom of God. We cannot build it or fight for it. We can only perceive the kingdom [...] The post It’s All A Gift appeared first on Word of Life Church.

Fighting, arguments, and disagreements are a part of the human condition. Many times our disagreements are over small, insignificant things. We often need to step back and ask, “Does what we are arguing about really matter?” In his letter to the Galatians, Paul put all of our fighting in context by stating emphatically: what really [...] The post What Really Matters appeared first on Word of Life Church.