3 Messy Miracles To Say “Yes” To This Christmas
3 MESSY MIRACLES TO SAY "YES" TO THIS CHRISTMAS When the angel visited Mary and told her God was going to give her a messy miracle, she said yes. “I am the Lord’s servant,” she responded, accepting the complicated and unexpected grace God was offering her. Her...Exchanging Your Christmas Anxiety for Expectancy
EXCHANGING YOUR CHRISTMAS ANXIETY FOR EXPECTANCY Following that familiar scene at the manger in Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth, we read a story about the infant Jesus being taken to the temple. Although this story follows Jesus’ birth, it teaches us how to prepare for...
Gratitude-driven Generosity
GRATITUDE-DRIVEN GENEROSITY This is a day where it’s easy to “count your blessings.” As we come together with friends and family, to enjoying food and camaraderie, we take the day to offer thanks to God for all he has given us. For most of us in the United States,...
Are You Ready to be Renovated?
ARE YOU READY TO BE RENOVATED? God’s desire is to dwell within us—as a church and as individuals—in his fullness. For this to happen, we have to work with him to make room for his presence. That work starts with each one of us asking ourselves, “Am I assisting or...
3 Ways to Cultivate Compassion
3 WAYS TO CULTIVATE COMPASSION Psalm 103:8 tells us, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious; slow to anger, abounding in love.” We can all agree that we’re thankful that God is compassionate, but what does that mean? Compassion is an understanding of others’...
Servants of a Diverse Church
SERVANTS OF A DIVERSE CHURCH God turned Paul’s whole world upside down when he came to Christ. Paul’s miraculous meeting with Jesus and his conversion to Christianity didn’t only change his religion. It permanently altered who Paul understood the people of God were...
Slavery Isn’t Abolished
SLAVERY ISN'T ABOLISHED As Americans, it can be easy to think of slavery as a “back then” problem. We have a violent national struggle to point back to and the 13th amendment still declaring the abolition of slavery in our Constitution. “We’re past that,” we think,...
Displacing Divisions and Embracing Discomfort
DISPLACING DIVISIONS AND EMBRACING DISCOMFORT Jesus removed the dividing wall of hostility, the rules and regulations of the Old Testament Law, which separated Jews and Gentiles. He did this in order to create a unified church (Ephesians 2:14-16). To further, rather...
