Monday, June 20, 2011

Conversion

At the Last Supper, Jesus said to Peter, "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:32). This was after about three years of apostleship. Peter had left his livelihood and followed Jesus. He had declared his witness that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He had been persecuted. But still, after all of that, Jesus suggested that Peter had not yet been converted.

Am I reading this correctly? If that's true, what does it mean to be converted? Can we too go through the motions without really being converted? What's the difference between a converted life and a life of going through the motions?

Saturday, June 4, 2011

What is worship?

We read in the scriptures that we should "worship the Father in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23). What does that mean? My church is pretty conservative in a lot of ways, and our services are generally quite restrained.  I know that some of your church functions are markedly different than mine. As I've attended worship services in a variety of churches, I've been surprised at the different ideas about what all worship entails. What are your thoughts? What does it mean to worship God and how should we do it?