from Luke 24:13-35
In Isaiah 43:18-19a we read, “Forget the former things do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” In Revelation 21:5, we hear the words of Jesus captured by John, “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!'” Since the beginning, God has been in the business and the process of taking that which is broken, and rebuilding it…making it new!
As we begin our new series, “Rebuild,” we are invited this week to consider that part of recognizing the need for God’s ability to make new is to come to terms with that which we have lost. As you consider this past year; as you consider your life-what has been lost? Where have you experienced loss? As you think about the church, where has there been loss? How might that loss open the door for possibility?
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 24:13-35
Without encounters with the Risen Christ, the empty tomb would be nothing more than the place where Jesus WAS…instead, as Luke and the other Gospel writers attest and as the early church bore witness to…the reality was Jesus was on the loose!
Does it feel that way in your life? Is Jesus on the loose, free to shake things up, free to redirect, free to reorient, and inspire, and challenge, and love, and meet you where you are…? Or has Jesus simply gone missing?
As we begin our new series, “Encountering Jesus,” we invite you open yourself up to the places that Jesus might just be showing up in your life…the place where He might already be at work.
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
