Blog Archives

Salvation in a Nutshell

9/24/2017

In the age-old debate between "faith" and "works", we have a problem...we have conflated the answers to two very different questions: the mechanism of salvation (i.e. "How?") and the goal of salvation ("What for?"). But Paul clearly tells us that these are two separate issues: we are saved by faith, even as we are saved for good works!

Salvation is not something to be earned by doing good deeds as though we are building up enough credit in an account. Rather, salvation is about being the kind of human that bears God’s image and reflects God’s image into the world around us. That is salvation. That is what it means to have God’s abundant, eternal kind of life: it is being everything that God created us to be, reflecting God’s image, bringing together the age of God’s rule and the present age!

This week's sermon...from Ephesians 2:1-10.

The Gospel in a Nutshell

9/17/2017

Note: There are a number of interruptions in this sermon due to a medical incident during the service. Our apologies.

Ephesians is Paul's "Cliff Notes Gospel," a relatively brief exposition on everything related to Christian faith, life and practice. And chapter 1 is the foundation for it all! Paul describes God's cosmic purpose in creation, reassuring his formerly-pagan readers that the God of the universe, who was made manifest in Jesus, is not spiteful or capricious or given to flying off the handle like the gods they used to serve, but this God has purposed good for creation since the beginning of time and has deliberately and steadily worked out renewal and redemption for each one of us and for all of creation. And we are invited into that same deliberate and purposeful work as those adopted as God's children. That is the Gospel in a nutshell: God's action, our response.

This week's sermon...from Ephesians 1.

Block Party!

9/10/2017

Yesterday's block party was a success! Thanks to everyone who helped out and to all who came!

Special shout out to Deepwater Music for keeping us entertained, to Rich and Sally Thompson for cooking up the delicious pork, to Dave and Sharon Thompson for the donuts, and to Nels and Carol Hursh for the games and fun!

Next week, we get back into our regular worship schedule (service at 10:30am) and dig into Paul's letter to the Ephesians! See you there!

The Good of the City

9/3/2017

In Jeremiah 29, God speaks to the Israelites in exile in Babylon and tells them to settle in to their new home, to seek it's peace and prosperity, to work for the good of Babylon. But Babylon is the enemy! Babylon is the one that destroyed their home, slaughtered their countrymen, and carried them off to a foreign land!

Still, God tells them to seek the good of that city and those people. Because that’s what God’s People do! It's what God’s People are for: we are participants in God’s renewing and redeeming work. We build the Kingdom everywhere we go, at all times!

This week's sermon...from Jeremiah 29:4-7.

Salvation in a Nutshell

The Gospel in a Nutshell

Block Party!

The Good of the City

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First Evangelical Covenant Church :: 3311 Hammond Ave, Superior, WI 54880 :: 715 392 4051 :: office@firstcovenantsuperior.org