Glenn Packiam
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Recovering the Lost Purpose of Christmas
The stream of tears would not stop. Standing before the plastic hospital crib, I was overcome by the magnitude of the moment. My wife had just given birth to our first child. We were now more than husband and wife; we were parents. Our little girl had come a week early, and my parents had …
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What Shapes Your Faith?
Why worship styles really do matter (and how they define our core beliefs). What if the way we worship—what we sing and say and pray and do when we gather each week—isn’t just an expression of our faith but also what shapes it? This question has haunted me the past few years. For decades, church …
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Secondhand Jesus
It's fun to hear about a friend's vacation, to see photos, to listen to stories about amazing adventures. And to some extent, we can experience our friend's excitement and joy. But our sense will be somewhat one-dimensional. We can imagine what it would be like to travel; we can feel our friend's enthusiasm and wonder. But our thrill will never measure up to experiencing the trip firsthand, for ourselves.
It's the same with our relationship with God. It's encouraging to hear about others' walks with the Lord, to share our experiences with Him with one another. But that cannot be the basis for our relationship with God. We have to encounter God directly. We cannot rely on others to give us information about God. We must make the effort to engage Him for ourselves.Â
In Secondhand Jesus: Trading Rumors of God for a Firsthand Faith, author and New Life Church worship pastor Glenn Packiam challenges readers to embark on a quest to experience Christ and His power for themselves. "God wants us to know Him deeply and personally," Packiam says. "But there are no shortcuts to God. The Bible tells us that ‘the way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention'" (Matt. 7:14, The Message).
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