Grace & Peace PGH

Gospel of transformation of relationships

"Romans 8 teaches us that believers have two intercessors, the Holy Spirit and Christ. Christ performs his intercessory task in Heaven . . . ; the Holy Spirit, on Earth. Christ's intercerssion takes place outside of us, the Holy Spirit's within us; that is, in our very hearts. . . Christ prays that the merits of his redemptive work may be fully applied to those who trust in him.

Radical Prayer goes to the root, the heart, the center. The word radical itself comes from the Latin radix, which means "root." Radical Prayer refuses to let things stay on the fringes of life's great issues. It dares us to believe that things can be different. Its aim is the total transformation of persons, institutions, and societies." Richard J. Foster, Prayer, 243.

"Radical Prayer goes to the root, the heart, the center. The word radical itself comes from the Latin radix, which means root. Radical Prayer refuses to let things stay on the fringes of life's great issues. It dares us to berlieve that things can be different. Its aim is the total transformation of persons, institutions, and societies."- Richard J. Foster, Prayer, 243.

"There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to vbelieve, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors."--C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 15.

"If we are not harder than iron, this exhortation ought to soften us, and render us disposed to forgive offences. Unless God pardon us every day many sins, we know that we are ruined in innumerable ways: and on no other condition does he admit us to pardon, but that we pardon our brethren whatever offences they have committed against us. Those who refuse to forget the injuries which have been done to them, devote themselves willingly and deliberately to destruction, and knowingly prevent God from forgiving them."--John Calvin, Commentary on the Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Vol. 1, 330.

"The event of the resurrection, the empty tomb, and the risen Lord breaks every mold that would imprision God in the rationalism of a fallen world. But it is the starting point for a new kind of rationality, for the possibility of living hopefully in a world without hope, for the perpetual praise of God who not only creates order out of chaos but also breaks through fixed orders to create ever-new situations of surprise and joy. "The church's witness among nations is at heart the overflow of a gift. The boldness and the expectancy are the marks of those who have been surprised by joy and kinow that there are still surprises to come, because God is great."--Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks: the Gospel and Western Culture, 150.

"These words remind us that, unless God feed us daily, the largest accumulation of the necessities of life will be of no avail. Though we may have abundance of corn and wine and everything else, unless they are watered by the secret blessing of God . . . we shall famish in the midst of plenty.'--John Calvin, Commentary on the harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Vol.1, 325.

Open Discussion, April 6, 2025

"We are constantly under pressure to conform to the self-centredness of secular culture. When that happens we become concerned about our own little name . . . about our own little empire . . . and about our own silly little will . . . But in the Christian counter-culture our top priority concern is not our name kingdom and will, but God's. Whetyher we can pray these petitions with integrity is a searching test of the reality and depth of our Christian profession."-John R.W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, 147-148.

"The name of God is not a combination of the letters G, O and D. The name stands for the person who bears it, for his character and activity. So God's 'name' is God himself as he is in himself and has revealed himself. His name is already 'holy' in that it is separate from and exalted over every other name, but we pray that it may be hallowed, 'treated as holy,' because we ardently desire that due honour may be given to it, that is to him whose name it is, in our own lives, in the church and in the world."--John R.W. Stott, _The Message of the Sermon on the Mount_, 147

"This address lends a twofold character to the entire prayer. On the one hand it pervades it with a childlike trust ("Our Father"), on the other hand, with reverence and an awareness of distance ("in heaven"). Such a frame of mind grants God the honor that is His due and grants the person praying the certainty that he will be heard."- Herman Ridderboss

"We have good biblical and theological reasons for our fasting and abstinence. Through our fasting we are acting as living sacrifices, living memorial stones, asking God to heal our world, a world that we can surely see is in desperate need of His healing touch."--Tim LeCroy, _And When You Fast_

Encouraging believers to more frequently consider God's holiness and mercy.

“The issue is not the method or frequency of prayer… but the attitude of faith which underlies and inspires it.” – R.T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, 240-241.

“I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time – waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God, it changes me.” – Quote from Shadowlands

“Christians should daily remember their baptism as a seal of the promises God has made to them.” – Rodger M. Crooks, Salvation's Sign and Seal, 39.

This is a sermon from guest preacher, Derek Bates.

“A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who go blithely through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person's faith can collapse almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long consideration. “Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts – not only their own but their friends' and neighbors'… Only if you struggle long and hard with objections to your faith will you be able to provide grounds for your beliefs to skeptics, including yourself, that are plausible rather than ridiculous and offensive. And, just as important for our current situation, such a process will lead you, even after you come to a position of strong faith, to respect and understand those who doubt. “But even as believers should learn to look for reasons behind their faith, skeptics must learn to look for a type of faith hidden within their reasoning. All doubts, however skeptical and cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternate beliefs. You cannot doubt Belief A except from a position of faith in Belief B… Every doubt, therefore, is based on a leap of faith.” – Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.

This is a sermon from guest preacher, Joseph Bianco.

“Mary was a mere Palestinian peasant girl, but God chose her as an agent through whom the divine promise would be fulfilled in the person of Jesus, the Son of God… She is blessed, not because she is pregnant, or because of any intrinsic holiness or merit but because God's salvific purposes are being accomplished through her. Mary thus becomes one in a long line of recipients of God's grace and mercy in salvation history.” – C.J. Martin, “Mary's Song” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, 525-526.

“Christmas highlights for us the failures and the futility of all our kings, all our heroes, and even our own lives; which would make for a sad holiday if it weren't about the coming of a greater King, a greater David, Jesus Christ the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings; everything David should have been and was not.” – Joshua Reitano

“The forward-looking character of faith lends solidness to the realm of Christian hope. Faith celebrates now the reality of future blessings which are certain because they are grounded in the promise of God. For the Christian it is the future, not the past, that molds the present.” – William L. Lane, Hebrews: A Call to Commitment, 158-159.

“Despite the vicissitudes of history, God is keeping his promise to provide a seed to destroy the serpent.” – Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis, 101.

“The final verses of the book tell us that the mark of those who have been immersed in the grace of God is compassion and love, not contempt, for people who aren't like them. God challenges Jonah for confronting profane, ungodly people without weeping and compassion. Certainly error and evil must be denounced. However, God is both just and loving, and he rebukes Jonah for preaching to the city without loving the city.” – Timothy Keller, The Prodigal Prophet, 224.

“A Jonah lurks in every Christian heart, whimpering his insidious message of smug prejudice, empty traditionalism, and exclusive solidarity. He that has ears to hear, let him hear and allow the saving love of God which has been outpoured in his own heart to remold his thinking and social orientation.” – Leslie C. Allen, The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah, 234.

This is a sermon from guest preacher, Gavin Breeden.

Sunday's open discussion.

“Man must completely despair of himself in order to become fit for the grace of Christ. The proper preparation for the grace and goodness of Christ is the awareness that I need them.” – Martin Luther

“Jonah had come face-to-face with death, had experienced God's grace toward an obstinate rebel, and had affirmed that ‘salvation comes from the LORD.' Yet he still had the audacity to deny certain groups,… faced with the same reality of death, that same mercy. Thus chapter 2 plays a vital role in the author's characterization of Jonah by showing, in the larger context of the book, just how inconsistent his double standards really made him.” – Robert B. Chisholm, Jr., Interpreting the Minor Prophets, 126.

“… if there is a God who cares about us, and who wants to reveal himself to us, and to use supernatural events as a pointer to his revelation (which is the most common purpose of these events in the Bible), it makes plenty of sense to suppose that he did so in such a way that there would be testimony, and there is no need to suppose that he would do it afresh in each generation.” – C. John Collins, The God of Miracles, 150.

"God is love. This means more than ‘God is loving' or that God sometimes loves. It means that he loves, not because he finds objects worthy of his love, but because it is his nature to love. His love for us depends not on what we are, but on what he is. He loves us because he is that kind of God, because he is love.” – Leon Morris, “1 John”, in New Bible Commentary, 1406.

“If we say ‘I believe in Jesus' but it doesn't affect the way we live, the answer is not that now we need to add hard work to our faith so much as that we haven't truly understood or believed in Jesus at all.” – Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God, 124.

“…individualism is a cultural system with many advantages. Yet recent culture seems to have crossed the line from individualism to hyperindividualism. For example, the self-focsued phrases are not just individualistic – they're also, well, wrong. ‘Just be yourself' sounds like good advice at first, but what if you're a jerk? What if you're a serial killer? Maybe you should be someone else. ‘Believe in yourself' is fine, but ‘anything is possible'? No, it's not. Expressing yourself, respecting yourself, and being honest with yourself are somewhat tautological but not usually directly harmful. But ‘you have to love yourself first' has a crucial flaw: people who really love themselves are called narcissists, and they make horrible relationship partners.” – Jean M. Twenge, Generation Me, 65.

“Time is what we want most, but... what we use worst.” – William Penn

“Money is like sea water. The more you drink, the thirstier you become.” – Roman Proverb

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” – John Bunyan

This is a sermon from the guest preacher, Gavin Breeden.

Today's open discussion.

This is a sermon from the guest preacher, Rodger Woodworth.

This is a sermon from the guest preacher, Rodger Woodworth.

“A Christian life in which we simply orient our lives around the teachings and example of Jesus with no real expectation of his bodily return to this earth is not the Christian life at all. The orientation of a Christian is leaning forward in anticipation of the next big event on the calendar of redemptive history: the second coming of Jesus Christ." – Nancy Guthrie, Blessed, 241.

“This picture of the new creation as a garden keeps us from expecting that this world is ever going to fully satisfy us. We're thirsty for the living water. We're hungry for the fruit of the tree of life. We long for the full and complete satisfaction that awaits us in the new and greater garden to come.” – Nancy Guthrie, Blessed, 237.

“…to be heavenly minded is to live in light of the age to come. To maintain a heavenly orientation is not to withdraw from the earthly creation but rather to view the earthly in light of the heavenly.” – Michael D. Williams, Far As the Curse is Found, 301.

“God is portrayed in Revelation, not as uncontrollably angry, but as inexorably just. God's faithfulness to the creation, all humanity, and the church leads to the divine war against evil, Empire, and their lies, represented by the unholy trinity and named ‘Babylon.' The three members of that unholy triumvirate together meet their final fate, along with those who ultimately refuse the mercy of God, as well as Death and Hades themselves… In other words, God wins: ‘It is done!'…." – Michael J. Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly, 158.

“Evil must be destroyed, not only for the sake of God's justice, but for the sake of the purity of the new world.” – Vern S. Poythress, The Returning King, 175.

“Brides who are in love can't stop talking about the bridegroom. This is how we know we are really prepared for the wedding: we find that we can't keep from talking about our bridegroom.” – Nancy Guthrie, Blessed, 200.

"The proper response to the vision is not fatalism but 'an altered life'... When readers become aware of their own complicity in the practices of the empire portrayed as Babylon and distance themselves from its ways, the vision has the effect for which it was written." —Craig R. Koester

"Revelation as a whole is a call to patient endurance as we wait for our king, the Lamb, our bridegroom, to come. And inherent in that patient endurance is faithfulness. To wait is going to require that we refuse the advances of any other lovers who seek to seduce us." —Nancy Guthrie