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"This week marks the beginning of Advent. Historically, Advent calls us to remember that God came to earth to live among us, along with preparing us for his final coming at the end of time. Christmas is supposed to be all about Advent."
"As you spend time with your families this Thanksgiving, whether you're excited to see loved ones or are dreading it, we're asking you to represent God there, to make it a SACRED SPACE. Acknowledge God, reflect on what He has done, and love and listen to your family. "
"Pastor Ed shares thoughts on thanking God for who He is."
"Pastor Ed frankly and from the heart about ways for us to express thankfulness in our lives."
"Pastor Andrew continues our series about creating and maintaining Sacred Spaces in our lives for God."
" Ed continues the Sacred Spaces series with some thoughts on how our lives matter to God.
Papa Ed’s brother Mark shares some thoughts on marriage relationships from Genesis.
We’re bouncing around and examining some thoughts, that God has created life to be lived out in community. Yes, we champion individuality. Certainly, the Bible talks about us being created as individuals. Yet, there’s always this connection that when we express our individuality it should always be lived out in the context of community.
What if belief isn’t just an end within itself? What if we’re not supposed to just “believe,” and then just try to live this kind of holy thing the best we can? I don’t know quite what that means. But, we’re supposed to believe and wait until Jesus comes…. What if we’re missing “why” we believe? What if believing is something more than belief?
I fear that though we get the idea, as evangelical’s, of believing [in personal salvation] – ourselves, and trusting in Christ – ourselves. I wonder if sometimes, we miss the point of why?
Andrew continues this series with some compelling thoughts on how God gets involved with our lives.
In Christian thought, when we approach people, we need to respect them, and treat them like we would as if we were approaching God Himself. That’s smack in the middle of Christian thought. That somehow, when we go out into the world and face each other, there should be a little bit of a “whoa,” I’m approaching someone, who on some level, is reflecting the image of God.
Ed shares some thoughts on how to find the places where God’s Word can speak into your life.
What if God hasn’t made faith just about being great individual people who live perfect lives? What if God has called us to admit that we need each other?
Andrew shares some thoughts on faithfulness – faithfulness to God.
A big part of how we love each other is in the names we use; how we “label” each other.
" In the ancient world, the gods were thought to be angry. Most of the stories of creation in the pagan world were of the gods fighting and war. The reason we end up with the universe and human beings is the result of their fighting. When the Bible and the stories of scripture come out; it’s a completely different story. The story of scripture has nothing to do with the gods being angry. It has everything with this being in eternity who imagined wanting to share life with someone beyond himself. According to the Genesis narrative, the reason God creates is precisely because of love. This is radical thinking in the ancient world! "
Andrew talks about how God hears and answers our prayers.
Freedom for many people is a kind of commitment to their own simple, baseline impulses. It looks like the classical form of Hedonism. Whatever you have an impulse for – go for it! Sadly, there are people in the context of the church that think the reason we have faith is so God can give us even more stuff than the pagans!
“God did something I didn’t expect Him to do. God is bigger than our ideas. Even though we have theological constructs and understandings, that doesn’t mean God can’t work beyond them. One of the ways we’re going to reach more people for Christ is to quit judging them because they don’t speak our (codified) language….”
