IBC Blog


eLetter

A Reflection on Black History Month

In recent weeks at IBC, we’ve been discussing the importance of wrestling with our own personal past—our life story—to better understand our present and God’s intentions for our future. This is a vitally important part of our ongoing spiritual growth and development. God has made us who we are through the formative experiences and relationships of our lives: though our heritage, our heroes, our high points, and our hard times.

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    Formed

    Suffering and Glory

    Three weeks ago my wife and I put down our sweet Border Collie, Maverick.

    It has been the darkest day of my life thus far and it was the hardest decision I have ever made. Putting him down reminded me of the sting of death. I hate death.

    Like me, maybe you’ve been acquainted with death of a loved one. Maybe you’ve experienced some type of suffering because of the broken world we live in, because of your own sin, or because of the sins of others.

  • Judgment Persecution cover
    Formed

    Judgment & Persecution

    About two years ago I was able to have a conversation with a cancer survivor. What she shared with me was new to my understanding. Having cancer alone was not painful to her at all. The pain came when the treatment began. She expressed the agony of chemo and its effects on her body as the doctors were seeking to heal her from her sickness. Her testimony is that she was able to endure the treatments and be rid of the cancer. However, she could have made the decision to avoid the pain and skip the treatment. But the result would have been fatal.

  • Realistic Optimism
    Hope & Healing

    Realistic Optimism

    I used to think I could define myself by what our pastor Barry would call a “realistic optimist.” I think those of us who are believers really should live in that space; seeing things as they really are yet being optimistic that God is at work and we have hope. It took walking through some particularly dark times to realize that I’d been living according to the wrong definition of this term my entire life.

  • SPILLING THE TEA TEASER 1
    Formed

    Revelation 7

    It was the summer of 2020 when I discovered a group of people out of Atlanta that I never knew I needed. Like a lot of you, being quarantined at home as a family brought new rhythms and routines in our everyday life. If every screen time rule we had in the Harris house was going to be broken, let’s at least break it with something beneficial. Enter live worship sets on YouTube.

    Max volume. Living room cleared out. Let’s worship.

  • SPILLING THE TEA TEASER
    Formed

    Spilling the Tea

    Red letter words in some editions of the Bible, meaning they are words of Jesus. They are recorded in the gospels of Matthew and Mark. In each of these gospels, they are an answer to a question from a teacher of the law. He was a Jewish religious scholar, and he noted that Jesus had answered other questions wisely, so he asked him, “What is the most important of all the commandments?” He said: