Weekly Messages

by Doug Hammack We continue thinking about the spiriutality that is built on the foundation we've been looking at for many weeks.  In those lessons we did some rethinking of the  unquestioned assumptions that often goes into the doctrines of our faith.  

by Doug Hammack For many weeks, we've been thinking about the theology of our faith, and how our unquestioned assumptions, and the things taught us often betray us and lead us into a sickened spiritual state.  Today we begin to look at how rebuild a healthy...

by Doug Hammack In the lesson we did before the summer break, there were two Stories about how we think about Jesus "dying to save us," that we couldn't fit in.  I thought they were beautiful enough stories that they needed to be retold, so in this lesson I tell them...

We conclude our lesson on thinking about what the words "Jesus died for our sins" mean.  Today we look at other stories that frame our understanding besides the "penal substitution" theory of salvation.  We consider the Ransom Theory, the Christus Victor Theory, and...

In this lesson, we look at some of the problems with the most common way Western Christians think about salvation.  The "penal substitution" theory of salvation was advocated in the 11th century by a man named Anselm, and while it was an excellent way of seeing things...

Having laid two weeks of foundational concepts, we turn in this lesson to some introductory remarks about what we think the words "Jesus saves us from our sins" mean.  In this lesson, we begin looking at some other ways of thinking about this than the familiar...

In this continuation of last week's variation on our “Two Views” series of lessons, we continue laying the ground work for how we think about Jesus. by Doug Hammack   Christians say that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was about more than just a good...

by Doug Hammack This would be a continuation of the "Two Views" series of lessons, and we would call it "Two Views of Jesus."  However, over the course of this lesson, we'll encounter at least five historical views of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We...

by Doug Hammack In this lesson, we conclude our look at two views of people.  We see that the common view of ourselves as foreigners on the earth, waiting to go to heaven to find our heart's true home tends to make for a version of Christianity less engaged with the...

by Doug Hammack There is an old-time hymn titled, “This World is Not My Home.” The sentiment behind the hymn, and behind a common Christian view of humanity, is that we (ie the followers of Jesus) are resident aliens on this earth. We’re just waiting to get snatched...

by Doug Hammack We’re doing a series of lessons called “Two Views.” The last lesson we looked at Two Views of God. This week, and for the next couple of weeks, we’ll look at Two Views of People, and after that, Two Views of Jesus. In these introductory remarks before...

by Doug Hammack How we think about God profoundly affects how we think of the Christian journey. Today, we continue examining how our image of God as King, creates a different version of Christianity than does an image of God as Lover.