The Solid Rock Church

This coming Sunday’s readings assigned through the Revised Common Lectionary will have us reading the first 17 verses of John chapter 3. That passage includes what is perhaps the most well known verse, John 3:16 which reads in the English Standard Version as “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (I do wish the publishers of the Bible would return to the practice of capitalizing the pronouns used to refer to God, in all references to any of the members of the Triune God.) So the important question becomes, “What does it mean to ‘believe’?” The word “believe” comes from a word that can (and perhaps should) be translated as “trust.” So the phrase containing the word “believe” in John 3:16 could read, “whoever trusts in Him…” Many, in my humble opinion, have an understanding of the word “believe” that is not very Biblical. The word “trust” in many if not most cases will likely convey the truth see...

I bring you good news of  great joy that will be for all  the people.  Luke 2:10 Christmas 2016 Dear Fellow Parishioners, members and friends of The Solid Rock Church, When you read in the Bible about the work of the early Church, about the coming of Jesus Christ into this world, and the foundational meaning of all of His life’s purpose, you will see that the topic of salvation, or being “saved” is a constant in the Biblical narrative, although expressed in different ways. That stated purpose is something we tend not to see out in the world. How often do we watch a show on TV at this time of year and we hear someone pontificate that Christmas is all about the family, and getting together, and having a wonderful time together, etc.? There is nothing wrong with those things – they are quite wonderful. But is that what Christmas is all about? The secular culture seems unable, or unwilling, to embrace a Biblical meaning to the birth of Christ. Read through the book o...

John 18: 37 records Jesus as saying, “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world — to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Luke 19:10 records jesus saying of Himself, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” We can see in these two verses, and in numerous other places too, that Jesus’ life, ministry and teaching was a witness to the truth. And in that witness, He proclaimed that we – all people – were lost and needed to be saved. When we look at all that Jesus taught, it’s fairly easy to see that His view & understanding of reality was significantly different than what was the understanding of the people of His day. The same could be said today – of us. Consider the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), in particular the portion where He says, “You have heard that it was said… but I say to you…” (5:21, 27, etc.) He was telling them that their understanding of certain areas of life (and some...

This might make you mad, or glad, but regardless I pray it makes you a more Biblical Christian. Of if you are not a Christian maybe it will help you understand more of the differences between these two things. (If you are not a Christian, please read my blog “The Greatest Question”  here .) Last post I wrote about the continuing “passion” that a professing Christian ought to have, and that is to seek to please God in every area of one’s life. To be sure, let me say again, this is seeking to please God is not to earn your salvation. Salvation is a gift from God we can receive, but can never earn. Seeking to please God is the primary way to express our love for God for His gracious gift and for all that He does for us. I hit on two very big “hot button” issues that face the whole world really. So where might we go next with that same desire… to please God in all aspects of life? I was directed to another blog recently that I want to, in turn, direct you to. I guess you could...

I know I wrote in my last blog that the next blog would be about “communion.” However I feel I need to write about something else before I address that topic. Now that you have committed your life to God in the receiving of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to save you from your sin, it is only natural that we want to express our gratitude to God for doing for us what we needed the most, but could never accomplish ourselves. A life of thanksgiving is the appropriate response for such an “out of this world” gift as eternal life. Thinking of the racing analogy again for a moment, and with the 2016 Olympics in Rio recently concluding, that should give us many examples of how we “pace” ourselves for the marathon called “Life,” it behooves us to know further what we should actually be doing during the “meat” of the race. Need a refresher? See the post Et vous pret, Partez and the following blog post Settle In .  Since we are racing, we do want to give it as much as we can, but n...

Occasionally I hear someone say they have never heard of the Anglican church, or denomination. I usually answer that they likely have, but they didn’t realize it. The Anglican Church, or it’s also called the Anglican Communion, in one sense has been around since the 1500s. It is a product of God through the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s. In the United States it has been primarily, but not exclusively, known as The Episcopal Church. The term Anglican (not an-gel-i-can, as in angels, but ang-li-can as in Anglo of Anglo Saxon) points us to the Church of England. Let me state quickly though that the Anglican Communion traces its beginning all the way back to the days of the Apostles. It would not be wrong to say that because we accept the Old Testament we could be said to trace our beginnings right along with the Jewish people back to the days of Genesis. So we don’t need to understand the Anglican Communion as having begun in the 1500s. It may have been identified as the Anglican ...

In the last post I mentioned about baptism – that if you have not been baptized that you should inquire about that with the pastor of the local parish church you begin attending. Baptism is a very important part of faith in God. Baptism is practiced by every Christian group or denomination – at least I have never heard of one that doesn’t practice baptism. That in and of itself speaks of its importance. The Bible speaks of two kinds of “baptism.” The first kind is water baptism, and the second is Spirit baptism, or baptism in or by Holy Spirit. The type I am addressing now is water baptism. Baptism is important because the Bible points to it as being important. Jesus Himself told His disciples to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,  baptizing  them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Mt. 28:19, emphasis added) The Apostle Peter in his first sermon on the day of Pentecost (50 days after the Resurrection of Jesus) in response to t...