from Colossians 3:1-15
While we were created for relationship…first with God, and then with one another- in the hopes that those relationships would be a reflection of the fullness of Who God is…while this is part of the means by which we experience the full life that Jesus promises us…the reality is that relationships can be the source of some of our greatest challenges and deepest hurt in life.
In Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae, we get a window in to how we might just be able to live in to having healthier and more Christ-reflecting relationships.
w/ Vern Collins
from Ephesians 2:11-22
By nature we have a tendency to form teams. We gravitate to or surround ourselves with people who share things like our ideals, our values, and our view of morality. While this is not inherently wrong, what happens when our forming teams becomes choosing sides and choosing sides sets us at odds with those who aren’t like us or don’t agree with us…those who are outside of our circle? When this happens in the church, how does the way we treat those who are “outside” have any hope of looking like the Gospel?
What if God is calling you into relationship with those not like you so that God can work in you…and God can work in those relationships?
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 5:21-26
We are meant to be a reflection of God for the world around us. One of the things that is true about God is the relationship in which God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, why are relationships one of the most difficult places for us to reflect Who God is? What if we began to allow God to bring healing to the brokenness that exists in our relationships with those around us?
w/ Vern Collins
from Acts 2:42-47
Somehow we have allowed ourselves to become convinced that busyness equals fruitfulness. The reality, however, is not that we are left admiring all that we’ve accomplished…rather, we are often left just trying to hang on. Though the invitation to a healthy rhythm and the command to rest, the truth is, many of us are simply committed to things we can’t readily drop or opt out of.
So rather than put off taking our next step in belonging…rather than waiting until we get through “this busy season” (which never seems to come)…what if we reimagined what it could look like to be connected….to BELONG to the Body of Christ? What if we allowed God to redefine how our time is spent?
w/ Vern Collins
from John 8:1-11
Often times we can know that God loves us and calls us to love those around us…to be LIKE JESUS to the world around us. We can know that God loves us so much that He gave His Son as a payment for our sin.
If we know those things, what keeps us from feeling like we are living the new life that Jesus promises? Why do we feel “stuck” somewhere between where we were and where God is calling us? For many of us, it can be boiled down to one word: FORGIVENESS.
Too many of us carry the stones of condemnation or anger or frustration or hurt around, hindering our walk in the freedom of grace that God offers us in Jesus. Maybe it’s our inability to forgive someone who has hurt us, or maybe it’s our inability to forgive ourselves…regardless, the invitation is to out those stones down and walk in freedom!
w/ Vern Collins
from John 21:15-25
John ends his Gospel with this curious last sentence: “Jesus did many other things as well. If everyone of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”
What is it that makes, “many other things,” possible? Work harder? Delegate more? Accomplish more? Sleepless nights? Saying, “yes,” anytime you are asked to do something? Sure, these are all possible elements to accomplishing many other things, but what if it begins by saying, “yes,” to a meal? What if it begins by saying, “yes,” to relationship with Jesus?
And what if we allow Jesus to take us deeper? What if we allow Jesus to ask more, rather than to work so hard to become what the world is suggesting we ought to be?
w/ Vern Collins and Jeff McClain
from James 1:19-27
One of the key pieces of the shape of the Christian life is that of ministry. That is, giving all of who we are to the work of Christ in this world.
What if ministry isn’t so much about the things we DO, but how we give ourselves in relationship with others? That changes not only our approach, but might just call of a reordering of our priorities.
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 5:1-3
As we continue our series through the season of Lent, we are invited to consider one of Jesus’ keys to the kingdom we have been talking about in recent weeks…
Humility.
What if, instead of the way we tend to think of humility, as what we stand to lose by choosing the humble path, we dare to consider that humility is instead about what we might gain?
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 1:26-56
How do you navigate the unexpected interruptions that come in life? The phone calls, the turn of events, the changes that sometimes come without any warning? Do you just get through them, try to survive until you get to the other side?
What if it were possible to navigate those unexpected interruptions and challenges faithfully rather than just trying to get through them? What if God could change your worry into willingness or your pain into possibility?
w/ Vern Collins
from 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
The foundation for our call to relationship with others is found in the relationship made possible by God’s willingness to look at our broken relationship with Him and move to make things right. Not because God had somehow wronged us, but because God is gracious to we who have wronged Him.
We are called to take up the cause of bringing the world around us to reconciliation with God…but in order to do that we have to be willing to step outside of our small worldview and live lives in response to the grace offered by God to us through Jesus.
When we view that sacrifice for what it is and what it accomplished, then our view of the world around us begins to change.
w/ Vern Collins
from Romans 12
Loving well is not like sleep well. IF things go smoothly during the night, if there are no worries, if kids don’t wake you up, if there are no nightmares then maybe you will sleep well.
But loving well should not be left up to such chance. God is not a God of luck, God is a God of intentionality…in the way He loves us and in the way He calls us to love others.
Paul gives us a model for how we are to achieve the kind of love that is a reflection of the relationship from which we were created…the relationship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
It begins with grace.
w/ Vern Collins
from Genesis 1:26-27
Our lives tend to be a web of relationships. Marriage, family, dating, friendship, classmate, co-worker, employee and employer, proponent and opponent of an issue or idea…
Relationships can often be a source of great joy or they can be a source of great pain in our lives. There are times when we find ourselves seeking isolation because we have been so wounded by relationships…and there are times when without realizing it, we find ourselves living in a “functional isolation” born our of the illusion of connection we create through social media.
To say that relationship is complicated is an understatement…but what if we saw relationship not just as a challenge we have to navigate, rather something for which we were actually created?
Imagine how you might begin to look at God, and humanity around you differently if you lived like you were created for connection with both.
w/ Vern Collins
Ephesians 2:11-22
In the Creation story in Genesis we see that were not only born out of the relationship of Who God is in Three Persons, but we were created with relationship in mind. Add to that science’s understanding that physically and emotionally we have to have relationship (because without it both the mental and physical state of our bodies suffer), and we know we need relationship.
If this is the case, then why are relationships often one of the biggest burdens and largest source of stress in our lives? Because we are broken people trying to be connected to broken people.
What if you approached relationship differently based on the relationship God has mended with you through Jesus Christ?
w/ Vern Collins
