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Articles by Alex Early
The Reckless Love of God
And just to be clear who this is for…. The gospel is for those who have been crushed by the weight of legalism. For those who have tried and tried to earn the favor of God by relentless church attendance, diligent Bible studies, unbroken prayer, and tithing. The gospel is for those who have been content to warm themselves by the fire of God’s love but never had the faith (or nerve) to actually step into the fire and be utterly consumed.
You Are Cleansed, Clothed, and Comforted - Key Life
“Shower! Clean clothes! Right away!” This is something we say quite often around the Early home now that the Big Dark has settled back in here in Seattle. Yes, the sun goes down at 4:45 and it is completely dark by 5pm. Most days the weather will change from dark grey to a lighter grey, then back to dark grey, then fade to black. Our kids don’t seem to mind. They were outside yesterday at 5:30, in the rain, under the Christmas lights strung up in the backyard, kicking a soccer ball for over an hour.
Does God Like Me? - Key Life
My life of faith has been just that – a life of faith. I have soared at the mountain tops, and I have lost all hope in a valley of despair. I’m willing to bet that if you’ve been a believer for more than a year or so, we can relate to each other. Like you, my valley-moments are ugly. Though we may not struggle with the same things in the valley, we still need the same Jesus who is committed to us regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves.
God Seriously Loves You! - Key Life
The entire message of the Bible is a message of grace, hope, forgiveness, and love – all unearned, ill deserved, and completely without condition! The love of God is reckless, pervasive, and unstoppable. The love of God has yet to meet its limit, boundary, or match! Thus far, though billions have tried, none have been able to stop the work of God, Satan couldn’t destroy the Son of God, and what prevails in the end is the Church of God.
Who is Christmas For? - Key Life
Every year the two holidays that mark the shattering of time are marked with an unholy consumeristic, commercialization that confuses anyone willing to ask questions like, “What in the world are we actually doing here?” The birth of the Son of God and his resurrection from the dead is presented in contexts that include a fat man delivering presents via reindeer and a rabbit dropping off processed sugary treats. Dylan was right.
Yes, God Still Wants You! - Key Life
One thing I enjoy most about being a pastor is being with people. Yes, the study is a sacred place. But that’s not all there is to pastoring. Not by a long shot! The study exists in order to best serve the people. In the study, I prepare, I think, I pray, I ask questions, and I sit very still. In the study, I train my soul to enjoy being unhurried and my mind to be completely present. These things are invaluable when it comes to being with people.
A Quick Lesson in Hermeneutics - Key Life
There are various approaches people take when it comes to reading, interpreting, and applying the Bible. They are engaged in what is known as hermeneutics, the science of interpretation. As soon as you open your Bible and begin reading, you are engaged in the art of interpretation. And to be fair, one act of interpretation has transpired even before you picked up your English Bible. That’s right. You picked up a translation of the Bible.
Keep Swimming in the Love of God for You - Key Life
/ Articles / Keep Swimming in the Love of God for You The entire message of the Bible is a message of grace, hope, forgiveness, and love—all unearned, ill-deserved, and completely without condition! The love of God is reckless, pervasive, and unstoppable. The love of God knows no limits or boundaries! Thus far, though billions have tried, none have been able to stop the work of God. The love of God is not reserved for just the rich or just the poor.
Keep Swimming in the Love of God for You - Key Life
/ Articles / Keep Swimming in the Love of God for You The entire message of the Bible is a message of grace, hope, forgiveness, and love—all unearned, ill-deserved, and completely without condition! The love of God is reckless, pervasive, and unstoppable. The love of God knows no limits or boundaries! Thus far, though billions have tried, none have been able to stop the work of God. The love of God is not reserved for just the rich or just the poor.
Jesus is Not an Entertainer, CEO, or Grump - Key Life
CHARACTER OF GOD JESUS RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD / Articles / Jesus is Not an Entertainer, CEO, or Grump When Jesus says “Come to Me and I will give you rest,” you’ve got to make sure not to confuse the Jesus of Scripture with the carnival Jesus that gets paraded around in popular evangelicalism today. The Son of God is not an entertainer. He is not selling snake oil. He is not performing magic tricks to wow the crowd. Jesus offers your soul rest.
This Mother's Day - Key Life
Enjoy this classic blog by Alex we’re reposting for Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day is not in Scripture but rather was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and it was recognized as a holiday in 1914 in the United States. Long before 1914, Moses commanded the people of God are to “honor your father and mother” (Ex. 20:12). This Sunday is Mother’s Day and I plan to be honoring my wonderful mother, Bevy, and my beautiful bride, Jana, of 13 years who partners with me in the raising of our two precious children.
Come to Me - Key Life
Come to me, and I will give you rest. — Matthew 11:28 Some of us grow up unchallenged; enjoying certain privileges that result in delaying the command to come and receive rest until some other day. Money, health, and a sense of belonging to your people are all wonderful gifts that are not to be despised. At the same time, those luxuries can establish a profound distance between the Man of Sorrows and those who enjoy our comforts.
Going On and On About the Love of God - Key Life
Over the past couple of years I've often been asked whether or not I believe in repentance or the pursuit of holiness because I talk so frequently about the love, grace, and compassion of almighty God. Questions about whether or not I’m being faithful to the entire witness of Scripture pop up, and I find myself giving the same answers again and again. I thought it might be helpful to put a few thoughts down here.
Church: More Like a Pub and Less Like a Country Club - Key Life
/ Articles / Church: More Like a Pub and Less Like a Country Club The Church is not a gated country club, surrounded by rolling green hill golf courses, adorned with perfectly manicured ponds, dotted with foliage, landscaped to perfection - filled with members sipping cocktails at happy hour because they have paid their dues to be there. The Church is more like Chuck’s Hop Shop in Greenwood with the food truck parked out in front.
Friendship: Real Wealth - Key Life
Over the summer at Redemption Church, we decided to take a focused look at a few selected Proverbs. This week we learned a few things about what Solomon has to say about the ever so important subject and experience of Friendship. Friendship is a gift that God has given to humanity and obviously isn’t something unique to the Church alone. Regardless of faith, age, race, gender, and so on – the gift of friendship is available to be had by all human beings.
Silence in Seattle - Key Life
Silence in Liturgy Nearly every week in our corporate worship gatherings at Redemption Church we intentionally place a time of silence into our liturgy. Yes, a moment of to be completely silent, with no agenda before Almighty God. Why on earth would we do this? Isn’t church already the most awkward hour of our lives?
Practicing the Presence of God and Finding the Heart of Hospitality
If I invite you into my home, I am a host. Only when I also invite you into my heart do I become hospitable. If I care more about the smudge on the wall than the thing on your mind, I miss the point of “us.” If I braise the duck to perfection but am distracted by my phone, I am absent. People who are becoming wholly human in Christ do not see those we invite into our homes as supporting actors in the drama of our own lives.
Jesus: Friend of Sinners & Saints - Key Life
A look to our Lord Jesus and the friends he kept and keeps. JESUS: FRIEND OF SINNERS In two places in the gospels (Matt. 11:19 and Luke 11:34) we read that Jesus was a “friend of sinners.” Jesus introduced an upside down Kingdom and part of the upside down-ness is the fact that he befriended the last in line, the least of these, the not-good-enoughs, the throw-aways… the sinners. Of course, as God incarnate, he didn’t have any options.
Ask Jesus Your Question - Key Life
Nicodemus was an educated man who held incredible power in his religious community. His knowledge of the Scriptures surpassed everyone around him and he would’ve been considered a model citizen in every way. Yet, there was Somebody Else on the scene. Somebody Else was turning heads because he was turning water to wine. The Apostle John tells us Nicodemus “came to Jesus at night.“ We don’t know why he preferred to talk with Jesus in the dark any more than we recognize the face of the man in the moon.
Why I Quit Praying for God to "Use Me" - Key Life
I grew up in the church and for that I am eternally grateful! I have given my life to the planting of churches and raising up leaders within churches. I simply cannot imagine my life without the local church and the invaluable role it has played in my life. Though often messy, it is clear to me that God has not given up on but rather loves and inhabits his Church. The Church is what Jesus gave his life for and therefore, the church is what I am giving my life to.
Three Keys to Authentic Friendship - Key Life
Below are just three things that the Proverbs has to say about friendships. Love is the Ground A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. – Prov. 17:17 When Solomon speaks of friendship, he does not speak in terms of economics, contracts, or score-keeping. He doesn’t think of competition or nit-picking. He uses the language of love. This is so counter-intuitive in a world that uses one another in order to get something.
Yelling at God - Key Life
Christians are to turn first and most often to God to declare, complain, and pour out our troubles. The Bible gives us many examples of God’s people laying it all out on the table. The best place to go in Scripture to see examples of this is the Psalms. Look at just these few verses: With my voice I cry out to the Lord; with my voice I plea for mercy to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before him; I declare my trouble before him.
Who is Christmas For? - Key Life
Every year the two holidays that mark the shattering of time are marked with an unholy consumeristic, commercialization that confuses anyone willing to ask questions like, “What in the world are we actually doing here?” The birth of the Son of God and his resurrection from the dead is presented in contexts that include a fat man delivering presents via reindeer and a rabbit dropping off processed sugary treats. Dylan was right.
The Pharisee and Tax Collector (or the Sunday School Teacher and Skateboarder)
You know when Scripture just sinks down into your soul a bit deeper than other times? I had one of those this week. Jesus’ beautiful words recorded in Luke 18 have been on my mind a lot. Yesterday I took some time to work through the text and decided to write some reflections.
Thinking About God - Key Life
The Bible says that after making the land and water and plants and animals and all the things, God wasn’t finished. He saved His best work for last. He made humans! When we look at people around the world, we see God’s creativity on display. We have different skin colors, various eye colors and nose shapes, and unique hair textures. We speak thousands of languages and have different accents.
Jesus and Me - Key Life
I have a daily battle with a false Jesus who is the result of my own self-projections and the actual Jesus of the Scriptures. Today I decided to write these out for myself. Maybe they’ll be of help to you as well. I have a daily battle with a false Jesus who is the result of my own self-projections and the actual Jesus of the Scriptures. Today I decided to write these out for myself. Maybe they’ll be of help to you as well.
It’s Never too Early for Kids to Start Thinking About God
The church is instrumental in coming alongside kids and families to help them begin rightly thinking about God early in their lives. By Alex Early Theology’s not just for grown-ups. It’s for kids, too, ya know! How we think determines what we say and do throughout life. Why not start sooner than later with Who and what matters most, namely, God.
Why and How to Go to Church - Key Life
A post on Why and How to Go to Church may seem like a silly thing to write on. However, after serving as a pastor over the last ten years, I’ve seen that it’s the simple things that matter. Just as Jesus emphasized the power of faith even as small as a mustard seed (Matt. 17:20, Luke 17:6), a simple thing like a lack of church participation will grow into stagnated disciples.
"Distractions" - Key Life
Distraction. Distractions can be good or bad. They are welcome or unwelcome. They can usher in sudden unexpected beauty or they can bring a productive life to screeching halt. If you’re paying attention to life, you’ll allow the good distractions to be just what they are you’ll savor them, straining out every last drop that they have to offer because it is precisely in those moments God’s stoking the flames of joy and wonder within you outside of the local church.
Healing our Image of God as Father - Key Life
Many people grew up with an abusive father, negligent father, or an absent father. For some, tragedy struck and our fathers died way too early leaving some questions unanswered, conflicts unresolved, and memories never made. Thus, for countless squirming saints in the Church, the idea of having or even wanting an intimate relationship with God as “Father" is not only incomprehensible; it is altogether repulsive.
Why, O Lord? - Key Life
We have a God who is not only aware of great suffering, in Scripture we are reminded that he entered our great suffering. “Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
Trinity: Persons, Not 'Parts' - Key Life
The very first course I had in Systematic Theology was in 2001. I was a student at North Greenville University in Tigerville, South Carolina. My teacher was a gentleman named Walter Johnson. Dr. Johnson was a tall man, well-bearded, and wore round glasses. (Standard theologian attire). He was very bright and had a wonderful way of helping us students really grasp the content of what we were studying day in and day out.
You Are Cleansed, Clothed, and Comforted - Key Life
“Shower! Clean clothes! Right away!” This is something we say quite often around the Early home now that the Big Dark has settled back in here in Seattle. Yes, the sun goes down at 4:45 and it is completely dark by 5pm. Most days the weather will change from dark grey to a lighter grey, then back to dark grey, then fade to black. Our kids don’t seem to mind. They were outside yesterday at 5:30, in the rain, under the Christmas lights strung up in the backyard, kicking a soccer ball for over an hour.
Cul-De-Sac - Key Life
The place in which you live can become one of the greatest spiritual formation teachers of your life if you’ve got eyes to see. The in which you live can become one of the greatest spiritual formation teachers of your life if you’ve got eyes to see. Five years ago we bought our home in Seattle and it sits on a cul-de-sac. Living in a circle is hardly a dead end; we’re living life with both our houses and our neighbors facing each other.
God Seriously Loves You! - Key Life
The entire message of the Bible is a message of grace, hope, forgiveness, and love – all unearned, ill deserved, and completely without condition! The love of God is reckless, pervasive, and unstoppable. The love of God has yet to meet its limit, boundary, or match! Thus far, though billions of tried, none have been able to stop the work of God, Satan couldn’t destroy the Son of God, and what prevails in the end is the Church of God.
Shame, Charlatans, and What to Do About It - Key Life
/ Articles / Shame, Charlatans, and What to Do About It Pay close attention to the nature of shame and how people use it in the world. Though it is everywhere, those that find themselves in religious work will often use shame to control and manipulate outcomes because the results are almost immediate. Grace takes longer; grace requires presence. Shame produces short stints of manufactured obedience. Why? Because shame is not just about actions; shame is concerned with identity.
Creek-bed Hermeneutics - Key Life
/ Articles / Creek-bed Hermeneutics I grew up in a small farm town in Georgia called "Woodstock." We had a big wooded back yard and a creek that ran through it. I would play by the creek; jumping across back and forth back and forth. I’d climb to the top of the hill where Eubanks Road butted up to our property. There was a stop sign there and that’s the spot people would throw their beer cans and coke bottles out into our woods.
Pray Like Children - Key Life
"I find your lack of faith disturbing." – Darth Vader Jesus said, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). Not theologians. Not missionaries. Not rabbis. Not church planters. Not millionaires. Not geniuses. Not famous. Not scholars. Not busy bodies. Not know-it-alls. Not power-hungry authorities. Not grumpy nit-picky religious folks. Children. Let that sink in. “Become like Children.” Isn’t that what you always wanted anyway? To be a child.
Prophets: Cowboys in the City - Key Life
Prophets are the unwelcome cowboys of God who make their way into the city. They come into the world as a most peculiar bunch. The grit that naturally accompanies them seems almost other-worldly. They have dirt under their fingernails because they’ve got their hands in the earth like Yahweh. They snarl at a Thomas Kinkade painting because his paintings don’t tell the truth. Prophets are storytelling folk artists – bending copper, wire, rebar, and sheet metal into roosters who crow at 4:00 AM – “WAKE.
The Vice of Busyness - Key Life
"How are you doing, Alex?" My response? "Busy." This was the standard answer I’d give people from 2008-2015 working as a pastor. That’s right. Typical busy pastor. After all, there were sermons to be preached, classes to be taught, pastoral care appointments to attend to, disciples to be made, funds to be raised, buildings to be acquired, the mission to be advanced, and on and on it goes.
Where is God Calling Me? - Key Life
MARCH 10, 2022 / Articles / Where is God Calling Me? Calling. Oh that oft-used word in the evangelical circles that I was reared in that brought about such anxiety, fear, and constant second-guessing. My faith, if it can actually be called that, didn’t amount to much. I discerned God’s calling on my life much like the way I handled the magic 8-ball toy I played with as a 9 year old.
Grace Hangs Around - Key Life
Don’t waste time dillydallying around with theological precision, humming another song, or endless religious activity! The only thing Jesus insists on is coming straight to him. What does it look like to come boldly before the throne of grace? I, for sure, don’t have it all figured out but what I have learned in my 40 years in the Church is that Jesus has a strong distaste for religious pretense. The flowery rhetoric, church clothes, and petty bashfulness doesn’t pull the wool over his eyes.
Coming to Jesus - Key Life
FEBRUARY 2, 2021 Coming to Jesus is as hard as telling the whole truth about the worst thing you’ve ever done. Coming to Jesus is as difficult as admitting to someone else that what was done to you actually happened. Coming to Jesus requires the fearless resolve of a five-year-old to get out of the bed and shut the closet door on the monster that lurks in the dark between the hangers. Coming to Jesus is serious business because your soul is no laughing matter.
Next Steps For Regulation Of The US Telecom Sector
Law360 (May 7, 2020, 6:44 PM EDT) -- On April 4, President Donald Trump issued an executive order creating the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector.
Why Does Social Distancing Make My Soul Ache? - Key Life
APRIL 14, 2020 / Articles / Why Does Social Distancing Make My Soul Ache? On Friday morning, March 6th, we decided to postpone our traditional Sunday worship gathering at Redemption Church, following the recommendations of the CDC. I had some friends from around the country reach out and ask “Really? Do you really think that’s necessary?” I felt challenged by religious tradition on the one hand and listening to the CDC on the other.
Melting Anger into Compassion - Key Life
Identity: “I am exchanging my anger in order to truly love people.” Scripture: If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? – Matthew 5:46 Loving those who are like us or those who potentially could become like us isn’t nearly as difficult as loving those who don’t resemble us in any way. They look different. They smell different. They think different. They don’t laugh at the things you think are funny.
A Ragamuffin's Prayer - Key Life
CHARACTER OF GOD CHRISTIAN LIVING PAIN & SUFFERING RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD / Articles / A Ragamuffin’s Prayer Jesus, you have no idea how bad I’ve been. Yes I do. In fact, I expected worse out of you than you expected out of yourself. Jesus, what if I don’t ever get any better? I’ll always love you. Jesus, what if I do it again? We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. I’ve got a plan. Jesus, what if I just give up on you? I’ll never quit on you.
I’ve Got 99 Problems, But Karma Ain’t One - RJ Grunewald
Guest Bloggers Thursday March 5, 2015 grace 101 • If karma were true, we’d all be screwed. While some of us might not suggest that we actually believe in Karma, there are many of us who do believe it. Because the idea that you’ll get what you deserve is an appealing way of looking at the world. People, regardless of their faith background, like to think that if they do something good, something good will happen in return.
Jesus is Not - Key Life
Today... Jesus is not surprised by my failures. Jesus is not annoyed with my quirks. Jesus is not wavering in his faithfulness to me. Jesus is not about to change his mind on me. Jesus is not regretting having a relationship with me. Jesus is not hiding from me. Jesus is not withholding anything good from me. Jesus is not gambling with my life. Jesus is not about to walk out on me. Jesus is not lying to me. Jesus is not out to steal from me. Jesus is not going to manipulate me. Jesus is not coercing me.
I Still Need You, Jesus - Key Life
JANUARY 3, 2019 / Articles / I Still Need You, Jesus I still need you, Jesus. That’s something I find myself saying several times throughout each morning, afternoon, and evening. These simple breath-prayers are not merely cognitively acknowledging my place in creation as one who is finite, dependent, and completely “prone to wander.” They’re a confession. I simply can’t do it on my own. I can’t lead myself. As much as I’d like to think I can, I just can’t.
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