from 1 Samuel 16:1-13
Have you ever struggled under the weight of wondering whether or not you measure up? Have you ever struggled with feeling like you just don’t have what it takes? Have you given yourself over to people or things in order to try and be seen as worthy, or acceptable?
If any of things are or ever have been true, then know that God does not measure you by the standards the world measures, and God is not looking for the same things in you the world is demanding.
God looks beyond the measurable and looks to the heart…and when you begin to embrace that truth, not only does it change the way you approach God, but it changes the way you approach challenges and the world around you.
w/ Vern Collins
from Ruth 4:13-22
Almost as an intermission between the story of Israel’s judges and the beginning of the time of her kings is the brief account of a woman named Ruth.
While this may not only seem like a strange placement for such a story, but also a curious addition to what we hold as Scripture, it is one of the most beautiful pictures of faithfulness we have in all of the Bible.
Not only does Ruth paint for us a picture of what undying faithfulness looks like, but challenges in the attention and compassion we give to those around us.
In the midst of your every day coming and going, triumphs and even struggles, are you paying attention to the lives of the hurting around you…and are you willing to enter in to them?
w/ Vern Collins
from Daniel 3
If someone asked you Who God is, how would you answer that question? How would you describe God to the world around you?
Particularly now when this world is hurting, when so many questions surround the acts of hate and violence that seem so prevalent…what would you tell this world about who God is? How would you describe God?
What if it wasn’t an explanation that this world needed, rather an introduction?
Do you know God in a way that you would allow you to introduce God to this world?
w/ Vern Collins
from Genesis 6:5-22
In week 3 of our “More to the Story” series, we look at one of the most well known stories in all of Scripture…the story of Noah. While there are any number of questions surrounding this account of Noah’s building of the ark and God’s bringing of the flood, we find that there is a questions posed to us…
In this world where we might say (save for a promise and a rainbow) we’re probably due for another wiping of the slate…what if in looking back at the account of Noah, we begin to see it, not as an issue of morality, but one of theology…does creation still allow God to be God? Does humanity still allow God to be God? Are you, in your life, allowing God to be God?
w/ Vern Collins
from 2 Timothy 4:1-8
If someone were to observe the way you use your time, what would that tell them about your priorities in life? Too often, the way we use time is not an accurate reflection of what is important to us because much of our time is often dictated by others…employers, educators, children, parents, even friends.
Rather than allow ourselves to become frustrated when time doesn’t play out the way we hope, what if we began to see our time less about what we can acquire, accumulate, and accomplish and more about how we can leverage it for the sake of the Gospel?
w/ Vern Collins
from 2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Think about the amount of time you spend ensuring that you, “measure up,” in the eyes of those around you. Whether it is in the work place, in your relationships with others, as a student…or simply in the things you pursue.
We don’t want to be found lacking…we don’t want to be seen as weak…we often answer the question, “how are you doing?” with, “fine,” regardless of how we might be hurting.
Paul offers us encouragement in what just might be possible if we are willing to embrace our weakness rather than avoid it…perhaps we just might find that God becomes all the more powerful, loving, and full of grace if we are willing to offer Him those parts of us that we would hide from the rest of the world.
w/ Vern Collins
from Romans 1:1-17
What drives you? That question is best answered with the question, “what day is it?” Simply put-what drives us is often determined by the season in life, the predicament, or the circumstance in which we find ourselves. It is determined by the life we seek for ourselves or the goals we have in front of us.
What if all of those things were filtered through a central driving force? What if your life were driven by the Gospel of Christ? What if it informed and determined everything else that drives you?
Week 2 in our series on Paul considers a life “set apart for the Gospel of Christ.”
w/ Vern Collins
from John 15:1-11
A mark of maturity is independence. Whether it is making decisions on your own, setting your own curfew, paying rent, buying a car, owning a home, attaining a job, trying something new, or starting a career, the ability to think, act, care for oneself shows independence…which translates to this world as a sign of maturity.
The problem comes when that thinking or that value system begins to affect our understanding of life with Jesus. No matter how much we accomplish, we are all fragile people living fragile lives.
What if, your maturity in Christ weren’t about exercising your independence, but becoming more deeply dependent on Jesus? In John 15, Jesus calls that, “remaining,” or, “abiding,” in Him.
What would it look like for you to embrace your fragility, rather than try and cover it up with all that you are chasing or accomplishing?
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 24:36-53
Paul promises in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians that if anyone is in Christ then they are a new creation…he goes on to say that the old has gone and the new has come (from 2nd Corinthians 5).
That is quite a promise for those desperate for change. It is a promise that is full of hope that things don’t have to continue to be as they are…that the struggles we currently have we might just be able to lay down, right? Well, yes…sort of.
What if the change that is promised does not have anything to do with your circumstances, but you within them…or your perspective about them?
We tend to get frustrated when we don’t see the change we long for as followers of Christ, but perhaps we are looking for change in the wrong place.
What if the reality were you were just few adjustments away from experiencing the change you long for in Jesus…change that sets you loose on this world as one who can shape it for God’s Kingdom?
Things change when things have changed.
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 24:13-35
It is not uncommon for significant change in life to be met with confusion, self-doubt, unrest about how it affects both the present and the future.
Encountering Jesus can be no different. If you’ve given your life to following Jesus and welcoming Him as Savior, then what happens once the novelty wears off? What happens when the music stops, when the weekend is over, when life creeps or crashes back in? Doubt. Fear. Uneasiness. Confusion.
When these feelings start to creep in, guilt is not often far behind.
Take heart…for it is right in the midst of their confusion and fear and doubt that Jesus met the Emmaus road travelers and journeyed with them through it.
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 24:1-12
Whether you’ve grown up in church or not, the story of the Resurrection is at least mildly familiar. Each year the church looks to an empty tomb and proclaims the Hope that walked out of it…but by the end of the week is the hope still a reality, or have we allowed life to dull the song of salvation and cloud the light of a new dawn?
How is it 2,000 years later the Resurrection might still have the power to transform, the power to call us to life, the power to break the chains that bind us, and the power to send us into the world?
Perhaps it is time, like the first disciples, to allow ourselves to be surprised…maybe even confused by the Resurrection again. Perhaps it is time to stop stopping short at an empty tomb and look for the One Who walked out of it.
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 21:1-11
It has been said that your doctrine determines your doxology…that is, what you believe about God or Who you believe God to be dictates your worship of God. While there is truth to this, it places an awful lot of ownership on you to keep God at the center of your life in order that your worship might flow in the direction it needs to.
Perhaps worship is not only meant to be a response, but a means of focusing our attention and affection on God, that God might continue to reveal Himself to us through His Son Jesus.
What if worship weren’t just your response, but it also dictated the direction of your focus?
w/ Vern Collins
from 1 John 3:16-18
Ad campaigns that promise more with the purchase of a product only to leave us wanting more, political campaigns that promise something new is coming only to see things remain the same.
In a world full of empty promises talk has become cheap.
Has the Good News of the Gospel of Christ and the hope of new life found in Him suffered the same fate? Has the claim lost its power? Has the promise been diluted to simply another option for a different kind of life?
You have something to say about it. The church has something to say about it. A life lived poured out on behalf of the world around it points to something worth living for and invites the world to encounter Jesus…the hope of something new.
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 4:1-4 and 2 Timothy 3:10-17
You know the saying, “You are what you eat.” The idea being, what you eat affects your health and your life in general.
In Jesus’ temptation to turn stones to bread, He responds by saying that it is not bread alone that we need to survive…rather it is God’s Word that truly sustains us and gives us life…the question is, are we consuming God’s Word the way Jesus suggests?
Imagine what might change in your life if God’s voice began to overpower the voices that tend to vie for your attention…
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 6:5-15
While prayer is one of the highest and holiest works to which we can strive, it is at the same time so simple a child can do it.
And yet it can be one of the most frustrating aspects of our journey with Christ. We know it is something we should do, we know it is vital to our growth, our connection with God and with this world…but why is it so frustrating? Why does it seem so difficult?
Jesus invites us, right where we are, into a deeper connection with the Lord…His concern is less with how we pray and more about what God is able to do in our hearts when we do.
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 6:16-18
In God’s economy things tend to work backwards. Things seem counterintuitive to the way the world works…which is probably exactly why we need to consider it!
In week 2 of our series we consider how emptying yourself might just be the thing that allows you to be filled.
w/ Jeff McClain
from Genesis 2:1-4
Many of us operate at a pace the leaves us feeling like we are barely keeping our head above water. There are demands on our time, demands for our attention, demands for our affection, worries about today and plenty for tomorrow.
Our culture promises products that simplify and make life easier, and yet even those tend to become our focus and end up feeling like they are stealing life from us.
As we begin our new “Rhythms” series, we start with what is most important…STOPPING. RESTING. SABBATH.
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 4:1-13
How do you handle interruptions to your plans? What do you do when it seems that things are starting to run off the rails? How do you handle those obstacles?
What about the obstacles and interruptions in your relationship with Jesus? How do you handle giving in to temptation?
The moment you decide to make a new beginning in Christ is the moment the enemy will begin working against you. May you find strength and comfort and hope for the rest of the journey in knowing that Christ allowed himself to be tempted on your behalf…so that you would find grace and strength when you face those things that get in the way.
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 5:1-11
What if the confidence you find in your new beginning has nothing to do with what you have accomplished and secured for yourself, but everything to do with the One Who has secured it for you?
In week 4 of our “New Beginnings” series, we look at the invitation, not to membership, but to mission; not to program, but to passion; not to safety, but to sending.
w/ David Hockett
from Luke 4:14-21
Often when we think of new beginnings, we look forward to what is coming in hopes of forgetting what is behind.
In a culture of the next new thing, what do you expect from the Lord? What do you expect when you gather with the church in worship? What do you expect to hear? What do you expect the church to be about?
Something new? Something fresh? Something flashy and engaging?
What if what you heard was the same old news? Would it be enough?
What if when you sought the Lord all you got was the same old news? Would it be enough?
w/ Vern Collins
