A faith in Jesus that does not result in action is worthless. The Bible seems to suggest that true faith is demonstrated by our deeds. A powerful example of faith in the scriptures is that of the Centurion in Luke 7. This man asks for Jesus to come to His house because he believes Jesus is the only hope of healing for his servant. The centurion’s faith was not something that he only held in his heart; it was something he was willing to act upon. Jesus actually comments on how amazed he is by the...
Apr 21, 2024•38 min
The early church shared a deep sense of fellowship around their belief in the risen Christ. They supported each other’s faith based on their shared love for Jesus and their commitment to living out His teachings. They shared with anyone who had a need, spent time reading the scripture, and fellowshipped together. This spirit of community was what allowed their numbers to grow each day and for the Gospel to spread far and wide. Today, believers can enjoy the community that comes from faith. Being...
Apr 14, 2024•40 min
One of the greatest obstacles to growing in our faith is the inability to fully accept the forgiveness of God. Our past mistakes, shortcomings, and failures too often hold us back from all that God has for us. God invites us to live with a future focus. Rather than dwelling on the past, we are called to live with eager anticipation for what lies ahead.
Apr 07, 2024•43 min
Easter morning revealed an empty tomb because Jesus had risen from the grave. The two women who first made the discovery had a choice to make. Do they trust the good news or do they ignore the evidence in front of them? The resurrection of Jesus was good news that changed the lives of the disciples and by their impact, the world. We have the same choice to make as the woman did. When we choose faith, we are found “in Christ” and our lives are made new.
Mar 31, 2024•31 min
When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the people were excited! They so desperately wanted their savior to come and rescue them, but what they weren’t expecting is where he would start. He didn’t storm the palace and kick out the romans, in fact, he went to His own temple and started with His own people there. The people wanted a regime change, and Jesu brought it, but not at all in the way they were expecting.
Mar 25, 2024•42 min
The only imitation we should be striving for in our life is to imitate Jesus. This means we look like Him in how He loved others. This love was unbelievable to those on the receiving end. This love was unconditional and not based on performance. This love was self-sacrificial and not selfish. The only urge we should give into is the urge to be more like Jesus.
Mar 17, 2024•42 min
God, because He decided to use us to accomplish His mission in this world, calls us His “ambassadors.” We are called to be God’s voice to reconcile people to Himself. This includes the willingness to speak up and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.
Mar 11, 2024•38 min
As followers of Christ, we have been chosen by the God of the universe as His prized possession. We are chosen and set apart through Christ our Savior. This has all happened for a specific purpose which is to allow us to proclaim the goodness of God to those who still find themselves in the darkness.
Mar 03, 2024•27 min
The world has certain patterns to it that do not lead to a full life. Greed, anger, jealousy, materialism, and dishonesty are just a few of them. Paul instructs us in the book of Romans to no longer conform or blend in with the ways of the world, but instead we are to live as transformed people. Transformation doesn’t happen by accident; it is an intentional way of daily living.
Feb 25, 2024•39 min
Jesus was busy. But he was never in a hurry. He had counted the cost of his time, and knew exactly what he should do in order to fulfill his mission on earth. We can do the same by budgeting our time, and protecting it based on our priorities. However, we should always remember that our verdict is sealed regardless of our productivity. God doesn’t need us to finish our to-do lists. This freedom should allow us to work hard because we want to be a part of redeeming God’s creation.
Feb 19, 2024•43 min
If you’ve ever felt unequipped or unsure of yourself or your call from God, you’re certainly not alone. All throughout scripture God calls people who make excuses, feel insecure, don’t like themselves, ore don’t believe they’re the right person for the job. And guess what, he proved time and time again that His call on their lives and ours is ON purpose, FOR a purpose.
Feb 11, 2024•41 min
We live in a celebrity culture and often that affects the church as well and keeps God’s people from experiencing the powerful life He intended for us, because all through Scripture and down through history we see that God takes ordinary people, in ordinary places and empowers them to do extraordinary things!
Feb 04, 2024•44 min
We live in a “hustle” culture. If you want to get more done, the world will often tell you to “work harder,” “burn the midnight oil,” or “sleep when you’re dead.” But the biblically-based, scientifically-verified truth is that rest is a counterintuitive key to being wildly productive. In order to do more, most of us need to do less and rest more.
Jan 29, 2024•35 min
When Jesus came to earth, he temporarily traded in his Godly omnipresence and accepted the unipresence of being a human being. He could only be in one place at a time. He had to prioritize the many good things pulling at his attention because he was laser-focused on “finishing the work the Father gave him.” We can apply these principles of prioritizing our yeses and accepting our unipresence to our work and lives today.
Jan 21, 2024•38 min
As we look to the life of Christ for principles of time management, we notice that Jesus always ensured his “yes” was “yes,” from the smallest to the biggest commitments. He also fought to block out noise and create room for silence, stillness, and reflection, which we see all throughout the Gospels as he retreated to “lonely places.”
Jan 14, 2024•40 min
Time is something that if not managed well can easily feel like gets away from us very quickly. Have you even tried to manage your time, but feel like you just don’t have enough of it? How do we make sure that we are accomplishing our every day life tasks, as well as preparing ourselves for the work God has for us when there just doesn’t seem to be enough time? Today we will look at 5 biblical truths about our time, and how we can better manage the precious time God has given us.
Jan 07, 2024•35 min
At just the right time, Jesus came into the world. He came to free us from the crushing weight of the law. We could never be good enough to earn salvation, so Jesus lived a perfect life on our behalf. Why? Because of love. God wanted us to be a part of his family. Out of love, he adopted us through the work of Christ. We are now the sons and daughters of God. Jesus is our savior and we can rest in the love of the Father.
Dec 17, 2023•33 min
The circumstances of life have a way of robbing us of joy. Disappointment, frustration, and loss can suck the very life from us; however, Jesus’s birth reminds us that, no matter how hard life is, we don’t have to go through it alone. God has come to us full of grace and truth, and that should bring us joy. We can trust that Jesus’s presence with us will reveal the truth about our lives and at the same time offer us the grace to see things change.
Dec 10, 2023•46 min
The announcement of Jesus’s birth was delivered to shepherds who lived on the fringe of society, in the fields, watching their sheep by night. If a king were born to the world, you would expect these shepherds to be the last ones to know about it. Yet, the heavenly angels told them that peace was coming to the earth for those on whom God’s favor rested. What a shocking message! God’s favor was even on the shepherds. They were being offered peace; and if it could be given to them, we can rest ass...
Dec 03, 2023•39 min
The prophet Isaiah writes one of the most classic of all Old Testament prophecies about the coming birth of Christ. The passage he writes is born of gloom and darkness. The world had felt the full weight of sin, and it had wreaked havoc on all of creation. What Isaiah offered in chapter nine was something the Jewish people needed more than anything—hope. Hope that one day someone would come to make all things right and restore what had been broken. The birth of Jesus was the fulfillment of that ...
Nov 26, 2023•33 min
Celebration Center
Nov 23, 2023•41 min
Mission accomplished; we have done the task God called us to do…now what? What if God does something that we weren’t expecting? Or worse…what if He does something that we absolutely disagree with? When God acts and we aren’t happy with Him, that actually speaks a lot to our heart and how we may be off from aligning ourselves with God’s will and God’s heart. Do our hearts break for what breaks his? Do we ultimately want what He wants…for ALL to know Him? Jonah struggled with this…
Nov 19, 2023•41 min
Every one of us matter to God. Even when we run from or resist Him, His pursuing love keeps coming to win us back to Him. For people of the 2nd chance, the focus is not on what it IS, but what it CAN be…God’s grace changes everything, and in Jonah 3 we see Jonah’s 2nd chance, Nineveh’s 2nd chance, and ultimately OUR 2nd chance!
Nov 13, 2023•47 min
Sometimes in life we find ourselves in some REALLY hot water from a decision we have made. All our choices have a consequence, and we have a good loving father who lovingly disciplines us to bring us back to Him. How we react when disciplined is key! Do we receive it, grow from it, and let it shape and mold us? Or do we reject it and keep running? When we are confronted by God, do we get BETTER or BITTER?
Nov 05, 2023•39 min
Our actions have a lot to do with not just what happens to us, but also with what happens to others around us. Storms in life can hit us from all angles, and our minds and attitudes play out in our actions, which lead in either running to Jesus, or away from Him. If Jesus commanded you to go love someone that you despised, what would you think? How would you respond? How would you act? Would you run TO Jesus, or AWAY from Him?
Oct 29, 2023•47 min
What if you mess up, and feel like you are unable to do what God has asked? You need another chance, but you feel like you lost your opportunity to do it because you ran from His call? The good news is that we serve a God who not only cares about the work He asks you do you, but He cares about you! So much so, that He always gives another chance.
Oct 22, 2023•45 min
The commands of Jesus that we have studied up until this week are meaningless if we don’t understand the repercussions of them. Namely, Jesus wants us to follow Him and do things His way so that we can be sent into the world, now that He is back in heaven. He has left us His Holy Spirit to guide us into the broken world around us. Therefore, if we want to go All In for Jesus, we must live the commission He has left us with.
Oct 15, 2023•42 min
It is often said that knowing Jesus can happen in a single moment with a single prayer, while following Jesus happens over the course of a lifetime. Jesus uses His words strategically throughout His ministry, calling people of all different backgrounds and lifestyles to follow Him. Our task this week is to answer the question: what happens when we decide to follow Jesus? And if we answer that question; we will experience what it means to go All In for Jesus.
Oct 08, 2023•38 min
In a world full of expectations and demands, Christian’s can tend to get caught up in the logistics of expecting God show up or hearing from Him. The reality is, we have a hard enough time figuring out the best way to hear from God and can get so crippled by those logistics that we miss it altogether. How does God speak? When does He speak? Why can’t I hear Him?
Oct 01, 2023•38 min
Have you ever been given something of great value? How do you treat it? We’ve been entrusted with a treasure of great value – God’s grace. It has been given by God, and passed down through generations. How should this affect our daily life? And how might this treasure that you hold affect the future?
Sep 24, 2023•45 min
