There is a saying that goes like this: Love is love. Whether between friends or couples or between parents and their kids, love is said to be all the same. During the time of Jesus, the Greeks had 8 words for love. In English, we have one word for love. Jesus modeled different kinds of love.
Jesus modeled diversity pretty early on in His teaching ministry. His students and disciples had different views and different hues. His commitment to diversity came from what He established on the sixth day of human history. How does diversity in Jesus’ Kingdom compare to the BLM movement?
Why are we, as humans, drawn to the promises of hope and change? What is so appealing with hope and change? Many have come and many will come promising a better tomorrow, more equality, more harmony, and better justice. What Jesus promises is a different kind of hope and change.
The world doing everything it can to provide humanity with the perfect life. The world is attempting to establish human flourishing apart from God. How effective has the world been with re-establishing human flourishing. We’ll find that humanity only flourishes when we live under His authority.
The flesh is “the desires of our body that feel natural but are apart of God.” These desires are for control, dominion, and survival. Desires aren’t wrong in themselves but how they are applied. We all experience strong desires but just because they’re strong doesn’t mean we need to give into them. We’ll find that the flesh wants our desires disordered and God wants our deepest desires ordered.
We learn from Jesus that the devil is a master manipulator as the most effective lies are the mostly true lies. He provides some truth to each lie, which makes it believable. Most often it is the “you deserve to be happy” one. From teenagers to those married for 25 years, it’s the most believable lie. It’s a lie that fits in our culture and fit with our media. We’ll find that through lies, the devil tries to get us to distrust God and trust ourselves.
Taking a step just means doing something slightly out of your comfort zone, but on the other side can be a greater faith experience with God.
From the beginning, the Holy Spirit brought order to chaos and light to darkness. We may be capable of creating physical life, but only the Holy Spirit can redeem our spiritual lives.
The same Spirit that brought Jesus back to life is alive in you.
It is in us all to try to fill our lives with temporary things. The world says we should look inward for what we want, but the gospel says to look upward toward what God wants. We have the opportunity to follow Jesus as Lord even when it costs us something.
If we allow self-discovery to lead to self-focus, we begin a happiness chase that will never end. But if we allow self-discovery to lead us to our part in God’s common purpose, we will discover lasting fulfillment and joy.
Our culture would have us look deeply into our hearts to discover our most authentic selves. The world says we should look inward, but the gospel challenges us to look upward. And by looking upward, we will not lose ourselves, but rather find ourselves—our true selves.
It wasn’t by accident that God messaged the shepherds first and entrusted them with the message that God is with us. Instead of trusting the angels or emperors or the religious elite, God has entrusted everyday, hard-working people like you and me with the Good News that He is with us.
First-centuries Jews expected the arrival of a messiah. Scripture had recorded God’s promise to provide them with a Savior. They believed that this messiah would be a political and military leader. He would save their culture by driving out the Roman Empire and making Israel a feared military power in the region once again. But when God orchestrated Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, he was up to something much bigger . . . and much more personal.
Maybe you wandered away from the church. Maybe the church pushed you away. You lost interest. You got busy. You got hurt. You thought you were done with God forever. But then you started to miss the peace. Despite everything you had experienced, you sensed a light out there. The doubt, the anger, the disappointment with God, the sin, and the shame didn’t put out the light. And here you are in church again. How did that happen?
The Christmas season is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year. But for many people, it’s complicated. It’s a time of year that surfaces tensions in relationships, unmet expectations, and the pain of absent loved ones. What do you do when the magic and wonder of the Christmas season feels out of reach? How do you reconnect with the reason for the season?
Jude went from thinking his half-brother, Jesus, was a fraud at best and liar at worst to believing that Jesus was his Savior and Lord. It took the Resurrection to change his mind. Has the Resurrection changed your mind and changed your life?
Jude is writing in a time where Rome treated Christianity like Judaism...another distraction from full allegiance to Rome. But something happened over decades and decades against all odds the Church outlasted Rome. So what won people over to Jesus?
The Church has always dealt with those who do something that causes them and the Church to lose credibility. Jude faced it with leaders using Scripture out of context and bullying people with intellect. We face it too with those who attempt to manipulate people, sell out, and desire the spotlight.
Jude provides three examples with those who took what God offered without God. All three examples experienced severe consequences. Some would say they got what they deserved. But what if those consequences could have been avoided? What is the alternative to individualism?
Jude is writing to a group of people who took what God offered—grace—without God. This filter was called Gnosticism, which encouraged people to do whatever they wanted with their body because it didn’t affect the soul. Why is understanding grace so important?
Although Jude doesn’t address it because something else came up, he really wanted to write about salvation. Like Jude, we live in a world and culture that says there are many ways to get God to notice us and reserve us a spot for eternal safety. So why is getting salvation right so important?
Jude understands who he is and explains who he is. Do you know who you are? Are you who you want to be? Until we understand our identity, we may struggle with understanding how compassion, love, and peace should look like.
Imagine if we as a church get these two things right and the impact that we have on our community. In order to love and serve strangers, we need to get it right with family. We should have plenty of practice with those we love. If we can’t get it right in the home, we will not get it right with strangers.
There are actually two things we can do to serve our community. The way we describe serving our community at South Ridge is by the tagline—Lovin’ the Burg. This has become more than tagline but a way of life for those who call South Ridge home. If we can get these two things right then this community might be willing to view the church favorably and most importantly receive God’s invitation to change their life.
When you make a financial donation to Be Rich, every penny supports the needs and efforts of these organizations. Your contribution will fund projects that are game changers for our nonprofits and life changers for the people they serve. Together, we can make a difference! It all starts with asking the right questions.
It is impossible to be honest/genuine in relationships when you’re imaginary. The imaginary you doesn’t have time for a group but the real you is craving to be known.
This has just been an observation but those who are less and less in community are the ones seem to experience more and more chaos in their life. We’ll discover that the following Jesus is more like a cluster of grapes than a bag of golf balls.
Jesus was a friend of sinners. And those who were unlike him genuinely loved being around him. In Jesus they both saw and experienced the heart of his Father. As the church, it is our joy and duty to continue his example, reflecting the Father’s heart and inspiring others to follow Jesus.
We gather to be reminded of his unconditional love, and in this season we get the opportunity to continue to gather in various forms. The form of the gathering is less important than the function of the gathering. We need to gather because unconditional love needs to be personally experienced and publicly practiced.
