Outside The Box | Behold Him
If I’m being honest, most of the time I think “inside the box.” But occasionally in order to come up with a solution, I have to think “outside the box.” Well 2000 years ago, after the Law and the Prophets had not achieved their desired purposes, God came up with a solution for mankind’s redemption that was outside the box. And His miraculous solution – with the help of an amazing teenage girl – is what we get to look at together this Sunday. I’m excited to share the story with you then. Merry Christmas, beloved!
To Behold | Behold Him
Have you ever been to a museum of some kind and gazed intently at a work of art – just sitting there for a little while and pondering it? The biblical word for “gazing intently” is behold. And, while works of art are often truly amazing and worthy of beholding, nothing is more worthy to behold than the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ (John 1:19-29).
Don’t Lose Your Song | EXILED
The scientific name for mockingbirds is Mimus plyglottos, meaning “to mimic many tongues”. Adult mockingbirds can mimic up to 200 songs (including car alarms and cell phones for those that live in cities). However, their mating call is unique only to themselves. So, if a mockingbird loses its song, it will fail to reproduce. While in exile, the people of God were in jeopardy of losing their song. But in Psalm 137, we’ll see some clues to help us overcome specific adversities that would otherwise rob us of our joy.
A Stone Heart | EXILED
Back in 1993, a dinosaur bone hunter named Michael Hammer (great name for dinosaur bone hunter!) discovered the remains of a Thescelosaurus. The skeleton was almost complete. Inside the dinosaur’s chest, he discovered what looked like a stone heart — the first dinosaur heart ever seen. While finding a stone heart might be cool in the archaeological sense, it’s definitely not cool in the spiritual sense. But God can fix that! He lays out the restorative process in Ezekiel 11; and that is what we get to discuss together this Sunday.
The Purpose And Blessing Of Adversity | EXILED
Are you a competitive person? I’m… in recovery… from my formerly over-competitive self. But this I know: in the realm of competition, it’s the adversity that makes it both challenging and exhilarating, and so it is for us as fully devoted followers of Jesus in this fallen world. We will face adversity; and while that adversity presents some challenges, it also has its purposes and blessings.
Love | Heart of a Healthy Church
Some of you know that I love music. I play a little piano; and during my schooling years my teacher, Mrs. Davenport, would routinely make me practice with a metronome. It keeps the beat, sets the standard, and that’s exactly what Jesus does for us as His Church. This Sunday we’ll wrap up our series on faith, hope and love by discussing the “greatest of these” and how we ourselves can attain to that metronome of love.
Faith | Heart of a Healthy Church
Some of you are aware that I don’t know how to cook. It’s true. But I’m familiar enough with the process to understand that “boiling something down to its essence” is a cooking metaphor. So, if you were to take the Bible – and the Christian life as a whole – and boil it down to its essence, three things would remain: faith, hope & love. That’s what Gene Getz calls “the divine trilogy”, and that’s what we’ll be discussing together over the next few weeks.
Faith in the Final Days | Hot Summer Topics 2020
Without a doubt, this pandemic has stirred greater interest in biblical prophecy – not only in our own country but throughout the world. So, how does this COVID pandemic fit into God’s present and future plan for this world? And, as followers of Jesus, how do we respond accordingly?
Navigating the “Gray” | Hot Summer Topics 2020
Many historians and sociologists would agree that we are now living in what they call a “post-Christian” culture. In other words, we once lived in a society that largely operated on Biblical values; but those days are past. The values that spring from secular humanism are now the norm. So, how do you and I as fully devoted followers of Jesus navigate these new waters?
Social Media | Hot Summer Topics 2020
Do you use any kind of social media? Social media has been defined as “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content, or to participate in social networking.” Obviously, it has become an international phenomenon this past decade. But the biblical guidelines of what we say and how we say it still apply here; and that’s what we’ll be discussing on Sunday.
