For those familiar with the Christmas story, two of the most universally recognized figures are Mary & Joseph, the unwed teen girl, who would become the mother of the Savior of the world, and her betrothed husband, who would raise a child not conceived by him in a world hostile to that notion. Like many Jewish people of their day, they had been bearing the silence of God for hundreds of years, waiting for His promises to come true. But now they had to bear the silence that followed personal promises unheard by a callous world that would have been more than skeptical of their claims. Most people would have dismissed their stories (at best) or derided & shamed them (at worst). How did they shoulder that injustice? How could they keep faith when doing so seemed unbearable?

#SilentNights #SoundOfSilence #Advent #FAITH

What do we do when we’ve been trying our best to do things right, yet our dreams are left unfulfilled? What do we do when it’s easier to start doubting the dream rather than hoping beyond hope? What if the silence in our lives really does threaten to silence our own joy and aspirations? The Christmas story begins with two devout people who wrestled with these very questions.

#SilentNights #SoundOfSilence #Advent #Hope

As we wrap up our series in the book of Haggai (focusing on our priorities) we also have the chance to engage in our latest Celebration Sunday, an opportunity to celebrate & worship God for all the good He’s done (and is doing!) in our lives.

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Why do we do what we do? Often, it seems that we might just be going through the motions. Other times, it's like we're operating on autopilot. Perhaps we've gotten a glimpse of a future we want to see happen or even find ourselves motivated by more base instincts, like getting ahead or just taking care of our own selfish needs.

The best option, though, is that we have discovered a great value, a compelling REASON. Have you?

Because, if we do discover this, if we are compelled by this, then our priorities begin to align with the good and the right and we are able to out the fully human, fully joyful life God has planned for us.

#Priorities #FutureGlory #Celebrate #CelebrationSunday

There really are many demands on our time, on our resources, and on our loyalties. And even if we've come to place to understand what is most important, what our priorities should truly be, it's easy to find ourselves falling short of those ideals.

So often we're told (or we say to ourselves), "At least the heart was in the right place!"

But does that trump what we're doing? In reality, it is direction, rather than intention, that determines our destination. While it is important to make sure our intentions & motivations are correct, it is ultimately our behavior towards that goal that makes the difference between living our our priorities rather than merely affirming them.

#Priorities #FacingOurFaults #DirectionNotIntention #HisKingdom

The older we get, the more we remember - and forget! But the truth is, we are often those who allow our nostalgia or other memories to affect how we operate today. While history & experience are wonderful counselors, they tend to be awful leaders. They can keep us looking backward, when God so very, very much wants us looking forward. It takes discipline & humility to let go of comparing what we have now to what once was. And the stark reality is that very often our memories of days gone by are colored by the very nostalgia that brings them to mind. In fact, there are a host of reels and memes on the the internet right now where Gen X'ers are replaying the lyrics from songs of "the good ol' days" in the 80's & 90's, only to discover that they are riddled with as much sketchy & unhealthy content as the contemporary music they lament.

Jesus calls us forward into His kingdom, and that direction will always be vastly more important than they memory of what has once been.

#Priorities #ForwardNotBackward #HisDirection #HisKingdom

One of the facts of modern day life in America is that most (if not all) of us are quite busy. In fact, author Molly Teuke recently noted, "A 2018 Pew Research survey revealed that 6 in 10 adults in the US feel too busy to enjoy life, and in 2023, 60% of some 2,000 Americans believed there are not enough hours in the day to complete their to-do list. That means more than half of Americans never feel like they have enough time in the day to complete their to-do list."

Sadly, this cultural phenomenon is not avoided by Jesus-followers. Stats for casual church attenders, committed members, paid staff, and everyone in between are just as bleak - and sometimes worse! It affects our work, our play, our health, our sanity, and our faith. It's a real problem!

But the most tragic reality is that (because of this busyness and other schedule-related factors) those who claim to follow Jesus are often quick to offer the disciplines of their faith and their connection to Jesus' family & His mission as first-to-be sacrificed. Unfortunately, the demands on our time and focus are not likely to spontaneously self-resolve … so what are we supposed to do?

#Priorities #FirstThingsFirst #HisPresence #HisKingdom

When we think of evil, often we think of people who have acted evilly. We think of criminals, moral deviants, terrorists, and other publicly base individuals. Or we’ll tend to think of those who have slighted, annoyed, shamed, hurt, abused, or rejected us. And while these are all examples of evil, there is another, unseen and yet just-as-active sphere of evil that is also just-as-person. This sometimes imperceptible realm of evil has at the same time a great influence than we might believe (it IS real), as well as a neutered power over us (it need NOT be feared).

#theUNSEEN #Spiritual #Satan #Demons #Evil

Within popular movies, television series, and literature, you'll find countless stories & recollections of creatures benevolent to mankind that are not quite human - beings that are oddly similar while remaining shrouded in mystery. In most cultures around the globe and throughout time, at least a subset (if not a majority) of these entities are dubbed "angels" of some form or fashion. From religious to secular, from clearly fictional to claims of verifiable historicity, these celestial agents are woven into the fabric of our collective conversation.

And yet, there are WIDE discrepancies about who they are, what they are, and even why they are. For Jesus-following people, there is a way to discover the answers to these questions, to discern reality from fabrication & fantasy. These often-unseen actors can be brought at least a little bit more into view.

#theUNSEEN #Spiritual #Angels

Our fascination with the world beyond our physical senses is virtually universal across cultures, national boundaries, religions, and more. Yet one of the greatest spiritual realities that we can encounter is one that should radically transform each of us as Jesus-followers and massively empower our faith community … and yet it is often ignored, misunderstood, or distorted. This reality is not an experience or an entity or an emotional state. It is a personal encounter of eternity-altering proportions.

#theUNSEEN #Spiritual #HolySpirit

One of the very popular movie genres over the past several decades could be classified as end of the world type films. From giant asteroids hurtling towards earth to rampant mutant viruses to natural disasters and more, we seem to be fascinated with what happens at the end of this existence on our planet. And our modern society has even borrowed a biblical term and applied it to these notions: apocalypse. However, as often happens, this term is used in a way that is rather divorced from it's biblical meaning.

Apocalypse doesn't really mean "the end of the world" as much as "an uncovering" or a "revelation."

Even so, as we think of the end of all things for us, it is important for us to grasp what it is that God IS revealing to us about what the future holds. We often get fascinated with the fantastic and dramatic and cataclysmic, but what the Bible reveals is actually way more glorious, way more beautiful, way more encouraging, and way more practical than we might be thinking … and it has WAY more to do with how we live today than it does with figuring out the details of how it will happen.

#Sountracks #Promises #Eternity #FreedomFromDespair

Unfortunately, there really ARE scary things out there. There really ARE things that go bump in the night, even if they are human actors behaving badly and not fantastical creatures. If you're alive, then you know what it's like to feel fear, and we're all constantly trying to flick on the lights of this life and banish the monsters around us.

So much hurt, frustration, conflict, & suffering can be traced back to humanity's desperate fight to protect ourselves from our fears, whether perceived or real. Wars have been fought over it. Friendships have been wounded. Marriages have ended. Anger, mistrust, hatred, and rebellion have all fomented beneath the shadow of fear.

But what if there was an antidote to fear? What if there was a way to disarm fear and step into being fully human? What if there was an answer to fear (or rather, our response to it) that allowed us to live lives of freedom & purpose & joy?

Gloriously, there is an answer, and it's closer than many of us might think.

#Sountracks #Promises #Power #FreedomFromFear

What gets you up in the morning? What motivates you to get going, to keep going, and not to give up? What excites you? What compels you forward day after day?

How you answer that will do much to tell you what you value, how much you value (or DON'T value) yourself, and what your outview on life is like. And too often, how we answer is based on things that don't matter as much as we think they do, on things that should not hold our ultimate allegiances, or on things that are simply unworthy for us to build our identity on.

Even so, there IS an answer that is worthy. There IS an answer that we all have within our reach. There IS an answer that checks every box & fulfills every qualification. There IS an answer that offers the purpose we all long for in the deep places of our soul.

#Sountracks #Promises #Purpose #NoFearOfEmptiness

Do you ever feel powerless? If we're honest, most of us could say, "Yes!" many times over. Whether it's about relationship conflicts, financial stresses, difficulties at school or work, or innumerable other situations, we often feel as if we are slaves to our situations. Even worse, many of us believe we're at the mercy of our own shortcomings & failures, victims of our sin, unable to overcome them on our own.

And the truth is … we ARE.

On our own, the Bible teaches that we're enslaved to our brokenness. But the ever-more-amazing truth is that God wants to meet us in our brokenness with His goodness and set us free from the power of sin in our lives. He wants to take the burden, shame, & power of our iniquity and replace it with His freedom, love, & righteousness.

#Sountracks #Promises #Righteousness #NoFearOfSin

One of the serial laments of humanity is how alone people feel, even though we're more "connected" to one another now than ever before in history, especially due to advances in technology. Yet, in many ways, we're actually LESS connected today because we've missed what those connections actually take to be valued - proximity, presence, passion, and more.

These words may hold different meanings for each of us, but the promise of true fellowship that God offers to us is meant to produce all those things, all within the context of authentic, enduring relationships. Relationships take work, but God promises to give us freedom from isolation when we embrace them.

#Sountracks #Promises #Fellowship #NoFearOfIsolation

One of the fundamental problems of life is, ironically, death. Every religion, every philosophical school of thought, every grand enterprise of humanity has wrestled with the notion that - at some point - life ceases to be alive. So what can we do about it?

Following Jesus provides a promise that answers that question to the full, and accepting the promise is the best, most foundational decision we can make. That promise - the promise of eternal life - provides us with all that we need to find freedom from death, the enemy of humanity.

#Sountracks #Promises #EternalLife #NoFearOfDeath

What do you do when something is hard? When something that should be easy takes too much effort? When you’ve given it a go, but it seems like no progress has been made? Well, if you’re like most of humanity … you’ll tend to quit. In fact, the J-Curve theory of behavioral change states that when we try to do something like form a new, healthy habit, things will usually get worse before we see the benefit of that change.

And unfortunately, most people tend to quit the new direction soon after the “worse” begins. If we want to see the benefit of the new, we have to bear through the pain that accompanies it - not something most of us are particularly good at doing. The same is true for us as we try to grow in our practice of prayer. It is usually harder at first. We often fail more than we succeed in our plans. But in the end (if we DO bear through it), the payoff is a richness of relationship with God that defies description.

#PrayFirst #Persistence #Patience #Piety #Fasting

There are so many great things in life that we have good intentions to do, but we often fail to make them a regular part of our lives - why is this? In short, because we are ALL human. Our bodies aren't perfect. Our minds aren't perfect. Our world isn’t perfect. And all our imperfections colliding with all the imperfections of others stewing in the cauldron of the world's imperfections means that good intentions are not enough.

We've spent a couple of weeks digging into the nature of prayer on Sunday mornings, but this week we'll push into what it means to move beyond merely recognizing the merits of prayer or simply wanting to pray more. We'll discover that intention must meet action if we ever want to really live a PRAY FIRST kind of life. .

#PrayFirst #Plan #Place #Practice

Many of us often approach prayer as carefully-curated, randomly-collected, or desperately-uttered words spoken into the void in the hope that they might somehow affect the REAL world, though they be nothing more than ritual in practice to us. But this is not the truth, the reality, the essence of prayer. Prayer is not empty phrases bandied to the darkness. Prayer is not feeble liturgy badly remembered. Prayer is not about vainly hoping that I just get what I want because I want it so desperately, not really believing that it will make a difference in the end. In fact, it is SO much more! Prayer has a purpose. Prayer has power. And prayer is with and through and for and by and in and about and to and from the most beautiful, glorious, dynamic person in the cosmos.

#PrayFirst #Purpose #Person #Power