from John 1:35-42
When we hear the word “testimony,” we often associate that with the legal arena. The problem with that is that a testimony is often given either from a place of attack or from a place of defense. Too often, it seems, the church has adopted and operated from this understanding of the word.
What if testimony became something that is inviting. What if we took an active role, if we became involved in the work that God is doing in this world to draw people to Himself?
What if the story of Christ in your life simply became an invitation to others to, “come and see?”
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 2:8-20
The story of Christmas is often a familiar one. Come to think of it, the story of your life can begin to feel familiar as well. The hope of Christmas is that the birth of Jesus speaks something NEW into the familiar!
w/ Vern Collins
from Psalm 51:1-17
Paul writes in his letter to the church in Galatia that, “it is for freedom that you have been set free,” and challenges the believers there to no longer be yoked by slavery…and yet, many of us walk around bound by the weight of our failures and our sin.
We bear it to the point that we become experts at hiding it…
But what if freedom is found, not in hiding it…but by being willing to be honest about those times when we miss the mark?
What if in choosing freedom, we are also choosing to look more like the church Jesus imagined?
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 17:20-21
We often speak of life with Christ as being a “journey,” but inherent in a journey is that at some point there is an end…a finish line. What does the finish line with Christ look like? How do we know when we’ve arrived?
On the 3rd Sunday of Lent, you’re invited to consider what Jesus means when He talks about this Kingdom that is coming or that is near…
Where exactly is this Kingdom breaking in? Around us…or inside us? And if it’s inside you…imagine what that means for your life!
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 7:36-50
Do we have any hope of reclaiming the adage, “They’ll Know We are Christians…by our LOVE?”
Christians are known for a number of things today…is love…the love that Christ offers us, the love that Christ modeled for us, and the love that Christ calls us to one of them? Or are we known for our hypocrisy? Are we known for our self-centeredness? Are we known for our exclusivity, or our neglect of those not like us?
What if the church came to be known as a place for those no one else wanted? What if all of the, “wrong people,” showed up? How beautiful it might just become.
But how is that possible?
Only by allowing Jesus to re-order our lives…
w/ Vern Collins
from Ephesians 2:11-22
We could agree that walls are important in providing stability, creating a structure that is safe…and yet so often we erect walls that are harmful and divisive.
What if instead of building walls between you and the rest of the world, or adding bricks to those that already exist, you instead began to work to break them down, just as Christ has broken down the walls that separate us from God?
w/ David Hockett
from Hebrews 4:12-16
It is one of the most enduring works in all of history…and yet can be one of the most frustrating.
It is held as being central to the Christian faith…and yet can be one some of the most frustrating words with which to engage.
If you’ve ever become frustrated or fed up or confused and simply put the Bible down and walked away…you’re invited to take a new perspective. What if your expectation of God’s Word shifted? Instead of asking what God has for you in His Word, what if you began approaching it asking how your life might fit in to it?
w/ Vern Collins
from John 1:35-51
Have you experienced something so amazing that you wanted to tell everyone you know…yet at the same time, you didn’t really want to tell anyone because you were afraid of what might happen to that experience?
How have we come to the place where we treat the Gospel the same way? How have we come to the place where we treat the Hope found in Jesus like something we want to protect for our own? Jesus is God’s dream for humanity, God’s dream in the flesh…open for all…and yet so many are never invited into the dream.
Perhaps being reminded of your own invitation into the dream…perhaps being reminded that the invitation we offer to others was never meant to be complicated…it was meant to be as simple as, “Come and See.”
w/ Vern Collins
from Acts 10:44-48
In our final week of our “Questions” series, we wrestle with perhaps one of the most piercing questions yet.
Have you experienced the love of God? Do you share it with others, or do you find yourself being choosey with whom you decide to share it? Have you experienced the grace of God? Do you freely offer grace to both your friends and your enemies? Have you experienced new life in Christ? Do you share that new life with the world around you, or is it something you keep to yourself?
In this week’s passage, we find in Peter a willingness to trust the end without seeing it, a willingness to go to the fringes, and a willingness to offer the hope of Christ to the most unlikely people…
Are you willing to do the same?
w/ Vern Collins
