Thoughts about Jesus, life and how to be a person looking to co-work with God toward the restoration of all things.
Through Jesus's death and resurrection, he overcame Satan's efforts to steal, kill and destroy. Jesus brings the cosmic rule and reign of His Kingdom.
At the center of all that Jesus accomplished through his death on the cross, love is at the core. When we are able to receive the everlasting love God demonstrates through Jesus on the cross, it changes everything.
During Lent, we are learning how to deepen our dependence on God as we look at how Jesus responded when he was tested in the wilderness in Matthew 4. When we have everything we need, why do we need to depend on God?
During Lent, we are learning how to deepen our dependence on God as we look at how Jesus responded when he was tested in the wilderness in Matthew 4. When we have everything we need, why do we need to depend on God?
During Lent, we are learning how to deepen our dependence on God as we look at how Jesus responded when he was tested in the wilderness in Matthew 4. When we have everything we need, why do we need to depend on God?
Scripture says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God; yet at the same time, it seems contradictory when Scripture also says we are sinful at birth and no one is righteous. The "shadow" parts of ourselves are the good and beautiful places that are twisted toward darkness when they do not find their end in Jesus.
Scripture says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God; yet at the same time, it seems contradictory when Scripture also says we are sinful at birth and no one is rightheous. The "shadow" parts of ourselves are the good and beautiful places that are twisted toward darkness when they do not find their end in Jesus.
In the final chapter of Jonah, we see God's profound compassion and grace fully revealed. At the same time, Jonah continues to reveal our selfish and hypocritical human nature.
God takes Jonah's bare minimum faithfulness and uses it to bring redemption to all of the Ninevites. This helps us understand God's judgment as merciful, as he works to make all things right.
Jonah's prayer from inside the belly of the fish offers us a chance to examine our own prayer life, particularly when we are in the depths.
The story of Jonah acts as a mirror to our own lives. Jonah's disobedience invites us to examine the ways we may be running from God.
Where there is light, darkness tries to push through. During epiphany, we reflect on what it means that Jesus came for all people and we have hope in the light even where there is darkness.
Epiphany is a time where we reflect and contemplate on this moment's implications for our world. What does it mean that it was revealed that Jesus is the Son of God?
From our Advent series "With". As God's image bearers, we get to be a physical representation of God's presence to one another. As we are rooted in God with us, we can be God with us to others.
From our Advent series "With". Immanuel, God with us, means we have full access to God's presence. When we are still, we give God permission to be our strength in every situation, however big or small.
From our series "Division Over Peace". The Resurrection of Jesus justifies the exclusive claims that we have been looking at throughout this series and recontextualizes what it means to bring peace.
Jesus cannot simply be liked, we must crown Him King of our lives or we reject Him. Because Jesus is God, we can trust that as we follow him we will begin to experience the peace we long for.
From our series "Division Over Peace". Jesus lives out a self-emptying love that gives people access to his presence and the shalom of His Kingdom. We are invited to embody the same attitude of self-giving love.
From our series "Division Over Peace". Pastor Garret looks at Jesus claims in Luke 12 that he has come to bring not peace but division. The type of peace Jesus is bringing is divisive because it is exclusive; exclusively accessible through his life, death, and resurrection.
From our vision series "Dust". In Jesus's vision for justice, he desires us to overturn unjust systems and heal the human desire which created those systems in the first place.
From our vision series "Dust". Making disciples is much more than making converts, it's any movement toward Christlikeness no matter where you are on the spectrum.
From our vision series "Dust". Part of becoming like Jesus means naming the ways we are not. As we build a habit of confession and reconciliation, we are able to grow in Christlikeness.
From our vision series "Dust". We all have expectations of what church is supposed to "do" for us. How can we surrender those and embrace worshiping together as a purposeful act for a church body?
From our vision series "Dust". Who are you bringing to Jesus and who is bringing you?
Following Jesus means we become like him in every way. Jesus's contemporaries had a phrase for this. They said they were to follow their teacher so closely they would be "covered in the dust of their rabbi." Meaning as they followed their teacher so closely that the dust of their feet would cover them.
Garret wraps up our two weeks series on what it looks like to transition into a new phase of life or what it means to stay and continue to press in where you are.
Molly introduces a two week series about what it looks like to transition into a new phase of life as we go through 1 Chronicles 16.
God exists in the midst of your doubt. Jesus on the cross shows that as God is dying, God is doubting God (Mt 27:46). God is bringing an unexpected, unforeseen, unimaginable and surprising new reality from out of the graveyard as you navigate your blindness.
Continuing to walk through the process of learning how to confront our blindness through the example of racial justice.
This week at Ekklesia we had a panel of guests share how they walked through this process of "blindness" around racial injustice. We can serve as an example for how we confront the events in our lives that challenge what we have always accepted as true, as we are following Jesus. Taylor tells us about the disorientation of being a BIPOC woman in world that consistently deconstructing her identity as a child of God. And Josh talks about what it means to come from the majority culture and learn about God's heart for racial reconciliation.
Continuing to walk through the process of learning how to confront our blindness through the example of sexual purity.
This week at Ekklesia we are having a panel of guests share how they walked through this process of "blindness" around the idea of sexual purity and gender roles. The idea is that this can serve as an example for how we confront the events in our lives that challenge what we have always accepted as true, as we are following Jesus.
Embedded in the experience of loving God, following the Spirit, and pursuing the truth, you look at the "event" (cultural event, life event, new idea, personal realization) through the lens of the scriptures, the history of the church, your personal experience, and tradition/community with a pre-commitment to obey whatever you discover.
All of us go through moments of blindness. There is a way for God to lead you through it.
Jesus's death and resurrection saves you from slavery and death.
The kingdom Jesus is bringing is for the seemingly insignificant and it may shatter your expectations of how you think it should appear.
How do you disciple people who are also following Jesus alongside you?
Defining the question: What is discipleship? "Halloween to Jesus". Discipleship is inviting others to join you on a personal journey towards Christlikeness.
You cannot serve both God and the "system". You can't live the freedom way of Jesus and get sucked into the overconsumption that is normal in our society. Jesus invites us to experience the tension of living in the world, but not of it. Practicing simplicity helps us discover that.
If we don't set aside time to be alone with God, our relationship with him will suffer. Distraction threatens our faith. The practice of silence & solitude creates space for us to find true rest and abide with God.
Creating a Rule of Life will help you practically take steps to build rhythms in your life that are modeled after the way of Jesus.
In order to find resolve in our need for hurry, we must radically change our way of living. In order to do that, we get to examine the way that Jesus lived - slowly, intentionally, restfully.
Our need for hurry causes great problems in our spiritual lives and is a barrier to true intimacy and connection with God.
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