From the Blog
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A Transformed Life
Romans 12 tells us to "be transformed by the renewal of your mind." But that naturally raises a question: How? How does someone actually live a transformed life?
Have you ever wondered why so many Christians struggle to experience real transformation? We believe the Gospel. We know Christ has saved us. We still worry like the world worries, chase what the world chases, lose our temper over the same frustrations, seek our identity in our careers or accomplishments, and return to the same sins we've battled for years. The problem isn't that Christ has failed to transform us. The problem is that we often continue living as though our old life is still our true life.
As we will see today, we can learn to live as the new people Christ has already made us. In Colossians 3:1–11, the apostle Paul taught the Colossian believers that because they had died and been raised with Christ, they were to live out the transformed life that Christ had given them. -
A Sacrificial Life
We have a perfect example of others-focused self-sacrificial love in the person of Jesus. If your instinct is to climb your way to fulfillment in life, then check this out. Jesus didn’t climb his way to success, descended to success. If you want to follow Jesus, that’s your path too.
Paul taught the Philippian church that the path to exaltation was to live self-sacrificially like Christ. We can receive the reward God promises us when we follow Christ’s example of self-sacrifice. -
The Church
Today we are going to join the disciples and other followers of Jesus in their moment of limbo. They were with Jesus for 3 years during his earthly ministry, they watched him crucified but then they saw him after his resurrection. Jesus was with them for 40 days after the resurrection, and then he left them again, ascended into Heaven. And he told them to wait.
Now what? That’s not just their question—it’s ours. What do we do with the fact that Jesus has died for our sins, risen from the grave, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us? That is incredible news … but what comes next?
In the book of Acts, Luke recorded that God established His Church as His means to accomplish His purpose of rescuing all nations. -
The Receptive Heart
How are you and God? When's the last time you asked that question? And how do you even begin to answer it? If we’re honest with ourselves, sometimes we are all over the place with our spiritual life, aren’t we? Why is there such a variation in how we ourselves feel about our spiritual health from one day to the next? Why is there such a variation in different people and how they seem to be doing spiritually?
Jesus has an explanation for this. In the parable of the sower, Jesus taught that the key to bearing the fruit of the Kingdom of God is a heart that is receptive to the word of God.
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Now, What Do I Do With the Cross?
Imagine yourself on a path. That path is the collection of the choices you are making right now about what is important in life, what is the priority in how to spend your time, your energy, your thoughts, your desires, your essence. Not how do you want to spend all that. But how are you actually spending it? Now, look down that path. Where is it leading? Where are you heading? If you keep just doing the things you are doing right now, are you confident that it is going to end up where you want it? That it will lead to a satisfaction and a reward that is eternal in value? Jesus is here, today, inviting you to follow his path towards the best that the creator of the universe has for you. And, spoiler alert, it involves a cross…
In Luke chapter 9, Jesus told His disciples He would soon suffer, die and be raised on the third day and that their greatest reward would come when they chose to follow Him in this same way. When we choose to follow Jesus, we are choosing to live a self-sacrificial life that brings eternal reward. -
In All Circumstances
When we think of God's will, sometimes we think about asking God to clearly tell us what decision to make about my careers, relationships, major purchases.
It’s not that God doesn’t care about these major life decisions, but He cares more about the heart than he does the decisions of the heart.
Do you want to know the transformed life? Do you want to experience God’s will for your life? In Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica, he taught them that God’s will for them was to be spiritually transformed in Christ Jesus. We can experience God’s will for us through spiritual transformation. -
Faith Life
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul taught that God brought them from spiritual death to spiritual life, to be set free from the influences that used to enslave them and to live the kind of life he has designed us for. We can live the kind of life he made us for when we…
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Be Empowered
What's the condition of your spirit today? Are you experiencing a life full of abundance, adventure and fullness of God’s presence? If you would say that your spiritual life is boring, that you don’t really feel close to God, that you go long periods of time without having a conversation with God, that you find fulfillment more in other places than in your spiritual life, and that you frequently use your outward self to cover up what is really going on inside of you, then you really aren’t experiencing the kind of abundant life that Jesus promises to those who follow him.
According to Paul’s prayer for the church at Ephesus, the only way to experience the fullness of God in us is to be empowered by the Spirit of God. We can experience the fullness of God in us by being empowered by the Spirit of God. -
Don’t Lose Heart
It is a good thing to take time every now and then to evaluate what has come before and what is coming head. God gave us days, months, seasons, and years to build a rhythm into our lives. Many use this time to make New Years resolutions.
But what would it look like to focus on what really matters as we look back and look forward? In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, the apostle Paul exhorted the church in Corinth to be courageous in the things that truly matter. -
A Psalm for Giving Thanks
Thanksgiving is not an attitude for one time a year but a consistent mindset for life.
The celebration of thanksgiving is not a new thing nor is it an American thing. No this goes back to ancient times in Hebrew culture, in fact, Thanksgiving feasts are God’s idea. If you look back in Leviticus you will see instructions for how to do thanksgiving sacrifices and they had festivals for thanksgiving like the festival of booths or tabernacles. God instituted regular times of thanksgiving for a reason. Why? Because our thanksgiving doesn’t come from our circumstances but it comes from knowing and experiencing God.
In Psalm 100, the psalmist instructed all the earth to offer thanksgiving to the Lord because of who He is. We too can offer thanksgiving to the Lord.