Seven Mile Road Philly

How do you become a member of the Church? After having spent the last few weeks considering the nature of the Church and the Biblical rationale for membership in the local church, today we turn to consider the marks of a church member. We begin at...

Membership in the universal body of Christ necessitates membership in a local body of Christ. The New Testament assumes that believers will be members of the Church (big "C") by being members of a church (little "c"). The local church is the...

Perhaps you grew up going to church your whole life. Or maybe you’ve never been to one before. Either way, what if church wasn’t a place you went? What if it wasn’t about a religious thing you did once a week? What if it was something different...

Would anyone buy a foundation with no home built on top? Or cuddle up with a head that was disconnected from the body? Would adoption work if you chose to have a relationship with dad but not his other children? Of course not. Yet this is precisely...

When we need a vision for life, we turn to Jesus. When we want to learn to love, lead, give, or serve, it is right to look to Jesus. Yet, what are we to learn from him in terms of parenting our children? Today we dedicate some of our children to the...

Message from Ajay Thomas on September 19, 2010

Jonah has been a book full of surprises and unexpected turns. It ends in the same way. The book concludes with God asking Jonah a question to which there is no response, no reply, no answer. The reader is left wondering, "what ever happens to Jonah?...

If you read the story of Jonah, his failures and flaws leave you wishing for a better prophet to fulfill God's mission. You're left longing for a better Jonah. Though it will take hundreds of years before this longing is fulfilled, it is fulfilled...

Jonah has finished preaching to the great city of Nineveh. Mission accomplished. Now he can finally go home - but he doesn't. Instead he builds a shelter outside the city and waits to see what would become of it. Perhaps their repentance will be...

The last chapter of Jonah takes an unexpected turn. While God is exceedingly pleased and happy with Nineveh's repentance, Jonah is exceedingly displeased and angry. The prophet's heart looks nothing like the heart of the God. Jonah is grateful for...

At the end of Jonah 3, the vilest, meanest, wickedest city on the plant repents and turns to God. Revival breaks out in the city from the greatest to the least, from the king to the commoner. So you would expect that chapter 4 begins with a party...

Picture the man standing in the middle of the city with the cardboard sign. The one who's screaming about the end of the world and the coming judgment and the need for people to repent and turn to God. What do we do with that guy? We ignore him, or...

Jonah's story has three major players. The leading role is played by God. In supporting cast, you have Jonah the prophet and the city that he has been called on mission to. This week we introduce the great city of Nineveh. The city that Jonah, the...

At the end of chapter one, Jonah has been tossed overboard and thrown into the raging sea. He descends to the depths. Sinking. Drowning. Dying. Jonah has been brought the end of himself. He cannot save himself. And in his helpless and hopeless state,...

The story of Jonah begins with a man who runs from God. Fortunately, that's not where the story ends. In God's great mercy, God pursues Jonah. He chases after him, though He does so in a ferocious fashion. God hurls a great storm at Jonah's ship...

The story of Jonah begins with Missio Dei - the mission of God. The merciful heart of God longs to save the sinful city of Nineveh. Nineveh was renown for it's wickedness. Yet God is renown for His mercy. And so God calls Jonah to be His missionary...

Perhaps you’ve heard the story before. A man swallowed by a whale who lives to tell the tale. But here’s the thing. There is so much more to the book of Jonah. In fact, Jonah is not a story about a great fish at all. The whale is just a prop in...

What is truth? Is there meaning to life? Is there a God? These are questions that plague many in our city. Today, Siby Varghese shares how he can sympathize with skeptics, atheists, agnostics, and more because these questions plagued him too....

We conclude our series on the cross of Christ by considering the truth that when Jesus died, we died with Him. Jesus died so that we might live. But Jesus also died so that we might die. The Apostle Paul declares, "I have been crucified with...

Jesus died for the forgiveness of sins. If that's true, how are we to respond? Jesus says that one way forgiven people need to respond is by being forgiving people. Those who have been forgiven a great debt to their king must be willing to forgive...