GCAZ Blog

Welcome to the blog! This is our latest step in fulfilling our desire to communicate better. Our Elders want to be able to post here about issues of the day and about developments in the church, and gradually build up a useful resource for people to come back to over time. Email and text messages definitely have a place, but important notes get lost very easily in the ocean of other items in our inboxes! So this should become a great place to look for that post we made on a significant topic, or that update on one of our ministries! Over time, there will be opportunity to interact with us here by leaving comments. These should all be edifying in nature, and to that end, they will be moderated prior to posting.  Enjoy!

Sacrifices of the New Covenant Priesthood

As he closes his letter, the author paints a picture for his readers of the amazing ministry to which they have been called as members of the Royal Priesthood. He wants their lives to be characterized by sacrifices to God (which implies a cost) in the areas of praise to the Lord and ministry to fellow brothers and sisters. LOOKING BACK (July…

Believers still have an altar?

Last time we saw the staggering truth that believers are told to have absolute confidence in – that Almighty God is their Helper! This time we will see another surprising but remarkable and rich truth – that although Christ did away with all the Old Covenant sin offerings, New Covenant believers still have an altar from which they, and only they, may…

Let Brotherly Love Continue!

We’re moving into the final chapter of this amazing letter, and the author begins to give some practical applications to his readers. He is encouraging them to walk worthily of the calling they have received, rather than to be like the pigs in the proverb who, having been washed, return to their wallowing in the mud. LOOKING BACK (July 3, 2022 –…

Our God is the End of the Journey!

If you want to draw near to God, it is absolutely critical that you come the right way, because otherwise what you find at the end of the journey may not be at all what you expect or hope for. LOOKING BACK (June 19, 2022 – Hebrews 12:3-17) We considered fourth main truths that the writer wants to get across to us…

Is God Punishing Me?

Have you ever asked yourself that question, or at least been tempted to ask it when things are going badly for you? In today’s passage (see “Looking Forward” below) the writer gives us an answer that will serve to extinguish this particular fiery dart of the Enemy and in fact will make our hardships more bearable! LOOKING BACK (June 19, 2022 –…

Greasy Slopes, Sticky Goo and Crushing Weights!

The Christian life is like a difficult obstacle race that makes us all want to throw in the towel from time to time. That is what the readers of this letter were finding, and here, the writer continues to urge them to endure to the end, by giving them an insight into the believers’ secret for guaranteed success! LOOKING BACK (June 12,…

Flawed Forefathers, but with Formidable Faith!

We’re going to conclude our survey of the deeds performed by people who have soul-preserving faith, as the writer presents them to us at the end of Hebrews 11. LOOKING BACK (Hebrews 11:23-29) Last Sunday, we considered 5 decisions that were made in faith by Moses’ parents, Moses himself and the newly-redeemed people of Israel: Moses’ parents hid Moses rather than obeying…

Six Fruits of Soul-preserving Faith

We are in the middle of the accounts in Hebrews 11 concerning those who did not shrink back from Christ and face destruction, but rather who had faith and preserved their souls, and we are about to we move on from the era of the patriarchs.  All too often, these people are presented to us in such a way that we can…

The Tested Genuineness of Faith

The writer returns to the example of Abraham’s faith, since this man would have special significance for those brought up under the Old Covenant. Yes even he, the writer is at pains to point out, living before the law was given, lived by faith rather than by the works of the law and in his life, he pointed forward to Jesus, whose…

Graduating from the School of Faith

Last time we looked at one of the scariest passages in Scripture, reminding us of the seriousness of matters of the soul in a world which tends to regard them as being of little significance – “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” But then the writer again encourages the readers that they had shown…