The Best News Ever

Notes here Photo by David Iskander on Unsplash My Mission Statement, Luke 4, Feb. 2, Jack Morris

In the place and to the people looking for life, hope and change by either violent resistance or legalistic righteousness - Jesus enters the story and changes the story. He simply came as a son of His mother Mary and He changes the story from shame to honor from fear to joy! This is more than power on display this is who God is and what God does. He has come to invade humanities mortality by embra...

Beloved the whole gospel could be summed up in this point: to tear filled angry young lady and to you and me - its time to rethink everything. Jesus was manifest to reveal that the living God looks at us, and says to us what he said to Jesus on that day. ‘You are my son/daughter, the one I love and in you I take great pleasure. He sees us, not as we are in our broken places, but as we are in Jesus...

Beloved the Good News Gospel of Jesus that John describes in our text today “And the Word became flesh and lived among us and we beheld His glory” This is the good news - Christ has come to where we actually are...not where we would like to be- but as He is to reveal Heaven and restore earth!

Notes here Getty Images For Unsplash+ Mission Statement, Dec 29, 2024, Luke 2:41-52 Jack Morris

To shepherds in the fields in the dark of night, in weakness and vulnerability light has broken in to proclaim a song that will anchor their life in Wonder - a Savior has been born for you - the forgotten and forsaken - He is Christ the Lord. And this is the message of Advent beloved in a place and at time that would normally be cold and dark - light and sound broke in to proclaim Good News to the...

The Good News we proclaim today in a world laden and weary with fear - Hope is the promise of Gods salvation in the man Christ Jesus. Hope arrives in person. So what do we do now? We repent. By changing our mind, our heart and our life - we change the way we live as a people surrendered to Hope over fear. A life that is not ruled by fear but by love and that beloved is good news.

The Good News we proclaim today is that Jesus came from His home to bring us home. His journey filled with betrayal, fear, manipulation and death had one clear goal to destroy the power that held humanity and creation under the grip of fear and death. He comes to a people living in exile from the garden of created order with God as an exile to bring the back home!

Advent beloved is a call to a different calendar for one simple reason to set a rhythm and pattern of calling out lives back into the real story - God became a man and changed the story forever - God in Christ has set things right for us and that is Good News! And really is all we need for Christmas.

The good news we proclaim is that the meaning of life is not Power to control life - the meaning of life is self giving self giving sacrificial Love!

Notes Valeriia Miller - Unsplash Wars, Famines, Earthquakes and Oh My! Nov. 17, 2024 Jack Morris

Into a religious system that attributed value and worth to the strong and accomplished, the powerful and influential. Jesus reveals something beyond those weak measures - something not based in human accomplishment or accumulation.

Beloved the good news we proclaim today is that His Kingdom is closer than you think and comes to the One who invited us to live in whole hearted surrender to that good news that is revealed most not in the result of a ballot box but in the cross and co-suffering love. The greatest commandment is this - Love the Lord you God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yo...

Notes here Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash Not Enough Faith or ? , Mark 10:46-52, Oct. 27, 2024 Jack Morris

Into a world that defined the limits of life by ‘Power and Influence’ - where the Great Ones lord it over the little people...where we are hearing the constant message that unless we have the right Person as the ‘leader’ of our nation - everything will collapse. Jesus reveals the heart of God and the plan of God that reveals heaven on earth - not by power or influence but by uncontrolling love and...

Into a world filled with injustice, hate, division and despair then and now, that leaves us longing for a different existence. What is impossible with man real and lasting peace, justice and genuine love for one another in this life have become possible in this life because God is good.

The Good news we proclaim today is that Jesus did not come just to diagnose the cause of Divorce - but to reveal a Kingdom that sets free, restores and makes whole, this is a Kingdom where love reveals wholeness and grace brings life.

Jesus comes to proclaim a Kingdom led and kept by Love. He comes to elevate others at His expense because that is what Love does. Beloved the Good News we proclaim is that the strategy of Heaven while confusing to the world is still about revealing the Freedom, Forgiveness, Joy and Peace of Heaven to the human heart - not through a complex process of theology and self denial but through the largen...

Notes here Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash Confused by God's Action - Inaction, Sept. 22, 2024 Jack Morris

This penniless teacher is revealing the same God who hoovered over darkness, empty non life and formless confusion and revealed light, life and order. That God is doing the same in real time to the people and in places we had not thought possible. Light, life and love have come to rescue all of humanity change the story and He still comes to change our story - and that beloved is Good News.

The Good News we proclaim today is that something has come into being that has changed the whole story of humanity - Mercy has triumphed over judgment! And that is Good News especially as we live in a world drowning in harsh judgment against one another and ourselves - Mercy Still Triumphs! God is still in the business of telling another story in your life and mine. Men and women held in captivity...

Faithfulness is not about words memorized, recited, rules kept or duties and obligations fulfilled but a heart cleansed and a life shaped by the radical self giving love of God revealed in Christ! True Faithfulness that Jesus reveals is not about how ‘clean or right’ we appear but is love alive in the heart enough that it will follow Jesus example to lay down our life for the good of others and th...

Beloved the Good News that Jesus proclaims in John 6 to a world filled with disappointment, despair and disconnection that no matter how hard they tried ends in death. Jesus invitation is Eat Well - Bon Appetite. He reveals food that changes everything - it restores, makes whole and imparts life!

Notes here Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash The Source of Life, August 4, 2024 Jack Morris

Jesus life was about revealing an ‘open secret’ - this mystery of faith - that we are included in Him - restored to Garden relationship and representation! This is the mystery of faith that Jesus is attempting to tease in the hearts of His friends - the mystery of Faith. This is a great mystery but believe it or not (and it is hard to believe) Jesus is not himself apart from us any more than he is...