Choosing Love Today

Galatians— Faith, Not Law   "What Faith Really Is"  Before we close this Galatians mini-series, I want to talk plainly about something Paul refuses to soften on....and that's faith. Not rules. Not performance. Not religious pressure, but Faith. Because if you miss this, you miss the whole book of Galatians. Paul watched the Galatians drift from grace into rule-keeping. They started trusting their...

Galatians – Faith, Not Law   "The Heart of the Problem"  As we move deeper into Galatians, Paul keeps circling back to one truth the Galatians struggled to accept: the law can tell you what’s wrong, but it can’t make you right. And that’s where so many of us get stuck. We think rules will fix us. We think pressure will change us. We think guilt will motivate us. We think trying harder will finally...

Galatians — Faith, Not Laws --  The Law Can’t Change You  As we walk through Galatians, Paul keeps pressing one truth the Galatians struggled to accept: the law can reveal the problem, but it cannot fix the problem. And that’s where so many of us get tangled up. We think rules will make us better. We think pressure will make us stronger. We think guilt will make us change. We think trying harder w...

Galatians: Faith, Not Law – What Grace Produces  So, all week we've been talking about grace and what it has done for your past...but what can it do for your future? You know what is the benefit of you growing in grace? Well, let me ask you something — have you ever noticed how real growth sneaks up on you? You know, you look back and realize, “I’m not who I used to be.” Not because you tried hard...

Galatians — Faith, Not Law    “Trust Over Trying”  As Paul writes to the Galatians, he keeps pointing them back to one simple truth: you don’t grow by trying harder — you grow by trusting deeper. And that’s a hard shift for most of us, because we’re used to fixing things ourselves. We’re used to pushing. We’re used to performing. We’re used to proving. We’re used to thinking that spiritual strengt...

Galatians— Faith, Not Law –  "Why Rules Can’t Save You" Hi everyone!  Welcome to this week's new mini-series of messages titled: "Grace Over Rules". If you listened to yesterday's podcast, which you can listen to on your favorite podcast platform, you know we just started in the Book of Galatians. In this letter to the church of Galatia, Paul writes to them because the churches in the area were fa...

Have you ever tried so hard to “do everything right” that you ended up feeling worse instead of better? That’s exactly what happened to the believers in Galatia. They started with Jesus, started with grace, started with freedom — but somewhere along the way, they drifted back into rule‑keeping, pressure, and performance. In this episode, we explore Paul’s urgent message: rules can guide you, but t...

Have you ever faced something that made you feel like you needed strength you didn’t have? Most of us have. Life has a way of handing us moments that feel bigger than our confidence, heavier than our energy, and more complicated than our plans. And when you’re tired or stretched thin, standing firm can just feel impossible. The church in Corinth knew that feeling well. Corinth wasn’t just messy —...

Here the big question for the day....have you ever loved someone who makes things difficult… and you wonder how to keep loving them? Most of us have. Loving people is easy......when they’re easy. But loving people who frustrate you, disappoint you, or push your buttons — that’s where things get real tough. And that’s exactly where the church in Corinth found itself. Corinth wasn’t a calm church. I...

Have you ever felt unsure about how your gifts fit into the church… or wondered if they even matter? Most of us have. It’s easy to look around and think, “Well, I’m not a pastor… I’m not a teacher… I’m not a singer… so maybe what I bring isn’t that important.” And when you feel that way long enough, you either pull back or you start comparing yourself to everyone else. Believe it or not, that’s ex...

Have you ever been in a situation where everyone seemed to have a different opinion, and you weren’t sure which voice to trust? Maybe at work. Maybe in your family. Maybe even in your own thoughts. It’s exhausting when the noise around you pulls in different directions and you’re left trying to sort out what’s actually wise, helpful, or true. Corinth lived in that tension every single day. Their c...

So, let me ask you...have you ever had one of those days where you catch yourself thinking, “Why does this have to be so hard?” I don't mean it's crisis-hard. And not life-falling-apart hard. Just the everyday stuff that wears you down a little at a time. You know – Misunderstandings. Expectations. Trying to grow while feeling pulled in two directions. Those honest struggles that don’t make headli...

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to forget that the people around you are just… people? Real people. Not the version you imagine. Not the version you expect. Believe it or not, they're just regular people trying to figure life out the best they can. Corinth was full of real people too. They weren't polished and not perfect....and not spiritually impressive. Just people who brought their person...

Corinth wasn’t a disaster — it was a normal church full of real people trying to follow Jesus in the middle of real life. In this episode, we look at Paul not as a distant theologian, but as a pastor who loved a messy church enough to tell the truth… and loved them enough to stay. If you’ve ever served in a church, volunteered, led a small group, or simply tried to follow Jesus around other humans...

As we close out this Enduring Faith series, I want to come back to something Paul has been teaching us all along through Romans: faith isn’t just what you believe — it’s what carries you. It’s what steadies you when life shakes. It’s what anchors you when your circumstances shift. It’s what reminds you that God is still working, even when you can’t see how. Romans has walked us through some big tr...

Have you ever wanted to have a conversation with someone, but were at a loss with what words to say? Well, there’s a part of Romans 8 that has stopped me in my tracks, the first time I can remember reading it. Paul says, “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve had plenty of moments in m...

There’s a line in Romans 8 that’s always meant a lot to me. Paul says that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness.” Not in our strength. Not in our victories. Not in our polished moments. In our weakness. That tells me something important: God isn’t waiting for us to get it all together before He steps in. He meets us right in the middle of the struggle. And if we’re honest, most of us spend more ti...

One of the things I’ve learned about God is that He often begins His work in our lives through people we’d never expect. Not the leaders. Not the experts. Not the people with titles. Sometimes it’s the quiet voices, the overlooked people, the ones who seem small in the story. There’s a moment in 2 Kings 5 that shows this so clearly. It’s the story of Naaman — a powerful military commander, respect...

There was a time in my life when I used to send a card or a handwritten note to someone every week. Nothing fancy. Nothing long. Just a simple message to let them know I was thinking about them or praying for them. Even today I like sending birthday cards instead of emails or messages to those I'm closest to. It didn’t feel like much. Honestly, most weeks it felt small… almost insignificant. But e...

Have you ever noticed how God seems to love working through the small stuff? Not the big, flashy moments… but the quiet ones. The ones most people walk right past. There’s a story in the Gospel of John that’s always grabbed me. Jesus is teaching a huge crowd — thousands of people — and everyone’s hungry. The disciples are stressed, trying to figure out how to feed all these people because Jesus ha...

There was a time in my life when I used to send a card or a handwritten note to someone every week. Nothing fancy. Nothing long. Just a simple message to let them know I was thinking about them or praying for them. Even today I like sending birthday cards instead of emails or messages to those I'm closest to. It didn’t feel like much. Honestly, most weeks it felt small… almost insignificant. But e...

In this final week of our Enduring Faith series through Romans, we look at what a transformed life really looks like. Paul doesn’t just explain the gospel — he shows us how it reshapes our attitudes, our relationships, our choices, and the way we show love in the world around us. A transformed life isn’t about perfection. It’s about letting God renew our minds, soften our hearts, and guide our ste...

I've got a little test for you....and for some of you this may be a little challenging because of your age. I want you to think back when you were a teenage...say around 14 or so years old. Do you remember looking so forward to something and how much you hated it when your plans got completely interrupted? You’re moving in one direction, life feels predictable, you’ve got a picture in your mind of...

I want to ask you a very pointed, direct question. I would guess every one of us, if we were honest probably has a skeleton or two in our closet...am I right? You know that one thing we really don't want anyone, as long as we live, to ever know anything about. Have that thought in your head? Have you ever made a mistake so big you thought, “Well… that’s it. I blew it. God can’t use me now”? Maybe...

I've got a good question for you today....have you ever had someone make a promise to you and then not keep it? I think we all know the answer to that, of course you have and if we're being honest, we've probably made a few promises ourselves that we haven't kept....right? I know I have. Let's not beat ourselves up too badly here. Let's give ourselves some grace and say for the sake of argument th...