spirituality – Grace Evangelical Society

Is Renewing Your Mind as Easy as Riding a Bicycle?

September 22, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - be transformed, mind renewal, spiritual growth, spirituality

“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12:2). Mind renewal is an essential component of spiritual growth. The principle is easy to understand, but is it easy to put into practice? Scientists talk about “neuroplasticity” to describe the brain’s amazing ability to alter its structure to adapt to changes within the body or

Encourage and Build Up One Another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

September 3, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Church, church life, ecclesiology, one another commands, spirituality

My wife and I bought our house in 2015. It’s our first house. Up till then, we rented—living in apartments and townhomes where we were restricted on what we could do to make the space our own and depending on the landlord to make repairs. Now things are different. The responsibility of maintaining the house

Where All Minister (Ephesians 4:11-12)

August 13, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Church, church life, ecclesiology, spiritual growth, spirituality

Free Grace Theology is exciting. It clarifies the freeness of salvation, and in doing that, it clarifies other areas of theology, too. The Free Grace movement involves a reformation of more than one area of theology. For example, did you know that the NT places spiritual growth squarely within the ekklēsia—the believing community? As Paul

What Can Eternally Secure Believers Lose? Kingdom Privileges

July 14, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - discipline, Eternal Rewards, Eternal Security, Kingdom, spirituality

When eternally secure believers sin, they cannot lose eternal life, but they can lose their eternal rewards. Not many critics of eternal security have a doctrine of eternal rewards and therefore have trouble interpreting Biblical warnings about losing those rewards. Instead, they misinterpret those passages as references to losing salvation. For example, in Jesus’ letters

A Modern George Muller? Charles and Esther Mully

July 1, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - ministry, service, spirituality

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world (James 1:27). What does Jesus want you to focus on in your service to Him? We have enormous Christian liberty to serve God. But Jesus has also given

Love One Another as Jesus Loved (John 13:34-35; 15:12)

June 22, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Christian Life, church life, ecclesiology, one another commands, spirituality

Is it true that “All love is love”? No. Not everything that calls itself love is loving. And what’s more, not all loves are equal. Did you know that non-Christians can be examples of what it means to love others? As Jesus said, “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that

Don’t Be a Snare to One Another (Romans 14:13)

June 17, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - church life, ecclesiology, one another, one another commands, spirituality

What do you do when two Christians disagree over relatively minor points of theology? I love talking theology. I love talking about it passionately! If you’ve studied Scripture for any length of time, you probably have loads of questions for God—questions the Bible doesn’t explicitly answer; hence, all the debate! Speculating and reasoning about theology

Why Christians Shouldn’t Be Klingons (1 Thessalonians 5:15)

June 15, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - church life, one another, peace, retaliation, revenge, spirituality, Star Trek, violence

“What makes a man like Ringo, Doc? What makes him do the things he does?” Wyatt Earp asked. “A man like Ringo has got a great big hole, right in the middle of him. He can never kill enough, or steal enough, or inflict enough pain to ever fill it,” Doc Holliday replied. “What does

Comfort One Another with the Rapture and Resurrection (1 Thessalonians 4:18)

June 7, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - church life, ecclesiology, one another, spirituality

Have you ever noticed that when people panic, they stop thinking clearly? I remember making a short film with some high school friends. We were shooting in a dry field at the edge of a forest. As the director set up his camera, I got bored and started a teeny tiny fire with a handful

Stir Up Love and Good Works in One Another (Hebrews 10:24)

May 31, 2021 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - church life, Discipleship, ecclesiology, one another commands, spirituality

Normal church life is active. Christians should not be passively inhabiting the pews. We live for Christ 24/7, serving Him in all that we do. And that means the churches ought to be actively loving and serving and doing good, often in the face of enormous challenges. But with any activity, people often need encouragement