Too often, religion is about a new program – seven steps to a deeper faith or four tips to transform your marriage. But the reason Jesus came to earth was because we can’t improve ourselves. We’re lost under the power of sin. The good news is that his resurrection offers us something better than self-improvement. We have been given the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. How can we learn to wait and notice where the Spirit is at work in our daily lives?
Continue readingFear keeps us from risking, from being vulnerable. But confessing that Jesus descended to Hell is an announcement that the power of Death is broken, and that the way of risk and vulnerability truly does lead to life. We can follow Jesus even to the grave, trusting in his resurrection power to bring life where we risk.
Continue readingSin is a word we don’t like to talk about, but we’ve all felt the weight of failure when we miss the mark. In Jesus’ crucifixion, we find a God who responds to our sin not with condemnation but love. We find freedom from our sin and for our calling.
Continue readingWhen we fail, we want to shrug our shoulders and insist we’re ‘only human’. Human means limited, doomed to let people down. But Jesus’ incarnation invites us to consider that we might be meant for more than we could’ve imagined.
Continue readingAwe: we’ve all experienced it. Those moments under the stars when time slows down. The joy of a child’s love. Moments when the sacred seems to burst into our everyday lives. These moments are Jesus, God’s Son, inviting us to join in God’s life. They’re good for us, and we should seek them out more often. How can we find that life?
Continue readingHopelessness has taken root in our culture. Many of us wonder if life truly has any meaning at all. The Apostle’s Creed opens by affirming that God is the creator. This is not a scientific claim, but an insistence that each of us matters, that we all have a purpose.
Continue readingFor many, belief is the beginning of a relationship with God. But many others struggle with knowing what Christians actually believe. Many more have doubts and questions that are not easily quieted. Is belief really a barrier to a relationship with God? Or can we learn to follow as we learn to believe? Can believe be an invitation to a deeper trust in the God who wants to help our unbelief?
Continue reading
For many, belief is the beginning of a relationship with God. But many others struggle with knowing what Christians actually believe. Many more have doubts and questions that are not easily quieted. Is belief really a barrier to a relationship with God? Or can we learn to follow as we learn to believe? Can believe be an invitation to a deeper trust in the God who wants to help our unbelief?
What do Christians believe? The Apostles' Creed is one of the earliest statements of Christian beliefs. How does the Creed shape our church today? How does it shape our every day lives?
What do Christians believe? The Apostles’ Creed is one of the earliest statements of Christian beliefs. How does the Creed shape our church today? How does it shape our every day lives?
Easter celebrates Jesus' resurrection, his victory over death, and our invitation to new life. But in a world where there's no such thing as a free lunch, how can we trust that God really wants best for us? A classic Twilight Zone episode and a Ke$ha song help us see exactly why the resurrection proves God is good and worthy of our trust!
Great Science Fiction offers visions of a utopian future where humans have achieved peace and prosperity through progress. But Jesus' resurrection challenges the assumption that humans can save ourselves. In this series, we'll examine some of the most famous sci-fi visions of the future against the image of the Church we find in 1 Peter and see how the Spirit at work in us is the true hope of the world.
Great Science Fiction offers visions of a utopian future where humans have achieved peace and prosperity through progress. But Jesus’ resurrection challenges the assumption that humans can save ourselves. In this series, we’ll examine some of the most famous sci-fi visions of the future against the image of the Church we find in 1 Peter and see how the Spirit at work in us is the true hope of the world.
We don’t like rules. Especially when it comes to religion, we see rules as God’s way of restricting us, keeping us from living a full, fun life. But the story of the first sin reveals that God’s “rules” lead to life for us. How can we turn to God in faith and find the life God calls us to?
Too often, we think faith is about winning - getting our way in the culture or in our homes. But during Lent, we'll trace the human journey through the Old Testament and see that getting what we want never works out like we hope. We'll see how Jesus enters into our failure and becomes a loser just like us. Somehow, his failure is good news for us. It turns out God is for losers, which is good news for all us failures.
Too often, we think faith is about winning – getting our way in the culture or in our homes. But during Lent, we’ll trace the human journey through the Old Testament and see that getting what we want never works out like we hope. We’ll see how Jesus enters into our failure and becomes a loser just like us. Somehow, his failure is good news for us.