TwelveTwelve: The Leader Blog of North Wake Church

Read:  John 13:31-35 When I was in college, I took an acting class where the instructor took us through an improvisational exercise.  We had to sit facing another student who would say a word and within two seconds, we were to react with the first word that came to our mind.  I didn't like the exercise all that much.  I highly value people who choose their words wisely, so this exercise seemed to be counter-productive. However, it was an excellent way to expose my own personal biases and depravity. I also think this exercise can serve us in thinking about Jesus' command to us from our passage this week.  So let's play a quick game.  What is the first

Artwork by Alex Levin. Ephesians 2:19-22 describes the people of God, the church, as a temple.  So what does Scripture tell us about the proper role of the temple in the worship of God? God chooses where and how He will be worshiped. In contrast to pagan worship, which could be established on every hill and under every tree, God chose where and how He would be worshipped corporately (Deuteronomy 12:5). Families would regularly travel to the place where God made His name known as they lived a life of worship to their God. The Old Testament teaches

We’ve come to the end of Titus.  Paul gives his final words and, in keeping with Larry’s labeling of Titus “a book of lists,” here we have: Titus 3:9-14 But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned. As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. Do everything

Read: Titus 3:1-8 We’ve all heard the saying, “There are two kinds of people in the world.” The speaker using this statement begins to categorize people by saying something like this: “There are two kinds of people in the world: people who love chocolate and people who don’t have taste buds.” Or they may say, “There are two kinds of people in the world: those who love to sleep and those who see sleep as simply an interruption to their busy life.” No matter who or what is being compared, the two types are always polar opposites of one another,

READ:  Titus 2:11-14 I love microwaves.  Seriously, what did people do before microwaves?  Of all the appliances in my house, there are two that get used everyday: the coffee maker and the microwave.  The microwave has revolutionized the convenience and speed at which we can heat up our food and drinks.  It has saved humanity billions and trillions of hours of cooking time.  The microwave is not alone in the proliferation of technologies that have expedited tasks.  The internet has saved us from having to go to the store for groceries, movie rentals, video games, duct tape, shoes, clothes, music, medicine, and more.  The list is endless!  We have the world

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a

Why ‘Faith’ Dies Without Action How do works of obedience relate to the free, unmerited gift of God’s grace in the life of a Christian? This has been a recurring controversial and confusing issue since the earliest days of the church. If we are justified by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ’s sufficient substitutionary work alone, and not by any work of ours (Romans 3:8), then why are we warned and instructed to “strive . . . for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14)? If our works don’t save us, then how can our not working (like not striving for