Embodied Souls, Suffering, and Bowling

April 25th, 2024
by Alex Gailey

My final point from Sunday’s message about “The Preciousness of God’s Embodied Souls” was about how the Biblical vision of humanity should propel the church into holistic care in all areas of human suffering. What I mean is a point that John Piper made in a message he preached to the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 2010: “The church should care about all suffering, and especially eternal suffering.”

Preaching the Gospel while not embodying an ethic in the world that alleviates suffering is disingenuous.
Working to alleviate suffering in the world without the public proclamation of Christ is baseless.

Human Embodiment and the redemption that Christ is ushering in to the world necessitates both. It is a message of total and real transformation. The Gospel is good news that aims at a practical outworking of what we believe about where the world is headed and what that future looks like.

Consider for a moment what it would look like for a church to not only boldly preach Christ but to live in a way that gave tangibility to the inbreaking Kingdom of God. Here are maybe a few observations of what that church would look like:

That church would experience the peace of Christ in a world of chaos.
That church would model to the world what it would look like for Christ to transform our emotional lives.
That church would be ready and willing to speak much of Christ in everyday, normal conversations because of how much His redemption is permeating their lives.
That church would be working in justice and mercy ministries through its community.
That church would be willing to step in to the complexity of human experience and problems because they know that Christ speaks to all of our brokenness.
That church would preach and portray the wonderful mysteries of Christ.

Love you Church,
Alex Gailey

P.S. - One of our very own, DJ Kerns, wrote a capstone paper regarding the sermon topic from Sunday. If you are interested in reading more, DJ has a lot of good thoughts on what it means when the Bible says that we are made in the image of God as embodied souls.

P.S.S. - Sunday, Sam Barber is going to be preaching on the next part of our statement of basic beliefs on Sin. Here is the Statement:

We believe that Adam forfeited his original blessedness for himself and all his progeny by falling into sin through Satan’s temptation. As a result, all human persons are alienated from God, corrupted in every aspect of their being, and condemned finally and irrevocably to death. Sin has fractured not only humanity but the entire creation, leaving the world in desperate need of redemption.

P.S.S.S. - Tomorrow, Sola City is going bowling! Dont miss it!

P.S.S.S.S. - On Saturday, June 22nd the Sola ladies are invited to the London home to partake in worship, a short teaching, and some creative activities. This will be a fun and casual space for connection and friendship. Be sure to stay up to date on details to come.

Posted in A Note From Alex