We said last week that the atonement doctrines of ransom and redemption are interlinked. This week I will cover redemption. So what is redemption? Deliverance upon payment of ransom. What is the deliverance? Freedom from sin. What is the payment of ransom? His blood.

On Sunday, November 29th, we are holding our next round of baby dedications. Invariably, there are many questions about what it means to “dedicate” and why we do this. This brief article is meant to answer those questions, allay concerns and prepare for this great day.
As your pastors at Mars Hill West Seattle we strongly encourage parents to actively take up their biblical responsibility to raise their children in the knowledge, love and grace of God in Jesus

Extending mercy is an essential mark of the Christian life because it reveals we understand the mercy we’ve been shown by God through the gospel (cf. Mt 18:23-35). So essential is mercy to the Christian life that Jesus tells us its presence, or lack thereof, can be used to test whether true faith is present (Mt 25:31-46).

The doctrines of ransom and redemption are interlinked. However, this week I will talk about ransom and next week about redemption. So what is ransom? The price Christ paid. What is the price Christ paid? His blood. What is his blood for? Redemption. And what else did Christ’s blood do for us?

Francisco Benfeldt is a good brother and new friend is a Guatemalan native who planted Casa de Libertad, a church on the outskirts of Guatemala City. Watch this video to meet Francisco and learn more.

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to consider all that we have to be thankful for, especially for Christians. Jesus’ victory over Satan, sin and death has cleared the way for us to be in eternal relationship with God. This calls for lives of thanksgiving, not merely a holiday. I thought it would help to recount what is now true of all who live by faith in Jesus Christ in order to maximize our thanksgiving in this season. Consider this the appetizer.

Jay Bauman has spent years developing relationships within Brazil as he served as the Executive and Worship Pastor of Crosspointe. A Acts 29 church in Orlando. Recently he moved to Rio de Janeiro and founded Restore Brazil to facilitate church-planting, social justice and cultural transformation through the gospel.

Compassion Connection was our hosting organization in Ecuador. In this video you’ll meet Steve Youngren, founder and director of Compassion Connection, as he introduces himself, explains a bit of what they do and how you can help.

Here, we will see how those roll right into justification, Christ’s righteousness imputed to you. Martin Luther calls this the great exchange:
“This is that mystery which is rich in divine grace to sinners: wherein by a wonderful exchange our sins are no longer ours but Christ¹s, and the righteousness of Christ not Christ¹s but ours. He has emptied himself of his righteousness that he might clothe us with it and fill us with it; and he has taken our evils upon himself that he might deliver us from them.”

One of my goals was to initiate conversation regarding potential partnerships with like-minded churches and organizations to which we send teams to aid in their local mission. Though we don’t believe in “short term mission” (because mission isn’t something you turn “on” and “off”) we are open to sending teams of people who are living on mission in Seattle to Latin America to help those who…