Adventure in the Ascent

Immanuel (God with us) is not just a Christmas theme, it’s at the core of Scripture/heart of God. He desires to be with His people, and came to live with us so that we could live with Him. How do we take that concept out of the Christmas story and see it developed in the day-to-day? We have been invited into life WITH GOD. You are not meant to do life without Him or apart from Him. Outside of Him,...

“Revival is the visitation of God which brings to life Christians who have been sleeping and restores a deep sense of God’s near presence and holiness. Thence springs a vivid sense of sin and a profound exercise of heart in repentance, praise, and love, with an evangelistic outflow.” -J.I. Packer “As long as we are content to live without revival, we will.” -Leonard Ravenhill A special thank you t...

“Praise is what joy in God does when obstacles are taken out of the way.” -John Piper No matter where you find yourself at in your walk with God, we all long to be completely whole, restored, and renewed. As we move into a time of Fall Renewal, meditate over Psalm 51, and respond in any of the areas of it that Holy Spirit leads you to… ↠When we came to Christ in repentance, we needed spiritual ren...

↠Thessalonica- A “healthy” growing church that had increasing, flourishing faith ↠We know that faith can and should GROW  ↠What is faith? Hebrews 11:1- Putting your trust in God and having confidence that He will fulfill his promises. “The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” ↠Faith is what initially brings us in to be a follower of Jesus (Ephesians 2) ↠It doesn’t jus...

“The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine working among a people. If God be near a church, it must pray. And if He be not there, one of the first tokens of His absence will be slothfulness in prayer.” -Spurgeon Do you hunger for God’s breakthrough presence in your live...

“The voice that you listen to is the one that defines you…” ↠We can’t approach the Bible disconnected from its Author (1 Corinthians 2:14) ↠This active Word, the words we are to live by, our path for life, is meant to be enjoyed, consumed, absorbed via the relationship with God. ↠We study the Scriptures to embody its Author. It’s meant to change us, to conform us into His image, to equip us. ↠As w...

If we would submit ourselves, our times, our talents, to him, as weak as we may be, there would be a beautiful and powerful ministry that would spring forth, and that is what we were able to witness this past week. Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Galatians 5:25 “If we live by the Spirit...

↠Setting the stage: David is on the run dealing with fear, rejection, and more… ↠After Saul tries to take his life, David finds himself in a place of  running/hiding and ends up joining the Philistines ↠He and his “mighty men” are given Ziklag (their resting place, families there) ↠Marching again to war & encountering more rejection (29:4) ↠David & his men prepare to march with the Philist...

“Has God changed? Is he not an immutable God, the same yesterday, to-day and for ever? Does not that furnish an argument to prove that what God has done at one time he can do at another?” -Charles Spurgeon A testimony is a spoken or written record of anything that God has done. ↠The Old Testament understanding of “testimony”- “DO IT AGAIN!” ↠The root word of testimony in the Hebrew (OT) means “rep...

2 Corinthians 5:20- “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” ↠The most famous and most memorized verse in the Bible- John 3:16 ↠Because we “know it so well,” we are at great risk of simply passing by it’s treasure ↠I challenge you to read over, meditate on this verse throughout this week ↠Context: Convers...

With the understanding that we (those in relationship with God) are saints/citizens of Heaven/a royal priesthood, we also see that there is a beautiful, priestly responsibility that comes with it. We are called to “proclaim the excellencies of Him.” Over these next few weeks, we will look into the Scriptural basis, the implications, and the practicalities of it as we grow together in the ministry...

“Baptism is an outward expression of an inward faith.” -Watchman Nee ↠We are to be a people of great celebration! Celebration is key in the Kingdom of God! ↠In Scripture, we see the beauty of celebration, celebration of God, what He has done, feasts, banquets, parties, (Ps. 98:4, 145:7). In Matt. 22, Jesus illustrates the Kingdom through a wedding feast. In Luke 15, as the Prodigal returns, the Fa...

1 Corinthians 12 ↠We talk about The Gospel, we want an authentic Gospel, and we find that in this beautiful Gospel of the Kingdom. ↠Jesus preached the “Gospel of the Kingdom (Matthew 4:23).” We are sharing that same Gospel that speaks of the “Kingdom,” God’s reign, the “coming close” of the Father into lives/situations. ↠The sending out in Luke 10, “heal those in it who are sick, and say to them,...

“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all…” -1 Cor. 12:7 ↠Review of last week: The Trinity is in the gift-giving business, Holy Spirit gives! ↠In three NT locations we are taught about gifts of the Holy Spirit- 1 Cor. 12, Ephesians 4, Romans 12 ↠These gifts are unique and supernatural abilities given to us to carry out His outreach mission, walk in true identi...

“In order for the assembly (ekklesia/church) to be built up, every believer needs to rise up and be actively seeking the Lord and functioning according to the gifts that the Spirit has given each one.” -Henry Hon ↠The Holy Spirit gives gifts- we continue to see the “giving” of the Trinity ↠Every good and perfect gift comes down from above (James 1:17) ↠We are instructed to “earnestly desire” spiri...

“When we pray for the Spirit's help ... we will simply fall down at the Lord's feet in our weakness. There we will find the victory and power that comes from His love.”  -Andrew Murray ↠Jesus “I will pray/ask the Father…” (v. 16a)- Jesus in His role of intercessor  ↠”Coming between on behalf of/the act of praying on behalf of others” (Rom. 8:34, 1 John 2:1, Heb. 7:25). We know the Holy S...

“If we think of the Holy Spirit only as an impersonal power or influence, then our thought will constantly be, how can I get hold of and use the Holy Spirit; but if we think of Him in the biblical way as a divine Person, infinitely wise, infinitely holy, infinitely tender, then our thought will constantly be, 'How can the Holy Spirit get hold of and use me?'” -R. A. Torrey ↠Back to the e...

"If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.” -A. W. Tozer The third Person of the Trinity In order to begin to understand the Holy Spirit we must first look...

“My dignity as Abba’s child is my most coherent sense of self.” -Brennan Manning This chapter is regarded as one of the crown jewel chapters in the Bible, and there are three main things that I believe the Holy Spirit would highlight for us in this treasure chapter… ↠There is now there no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! (v. 1) ↠It doesn’t say there is less condemnation, but there i...

“God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, 'I love you.'” -Billy Graham Last week, we looked at the introduction to the book of Romans and Paul’s first major theme- the problem of sin. Just as God doesn’t discriminate with salvation, sin doesn’t discriminate. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Today, w...

“Romans is really the chief part of the New Testament and the purest gospel. It is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but also that he should occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul. The more we deal with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes.” -Luther ↠The most powerful epistle written to the “church” in Rome…...

“A spirit of thankfulness is one of the most distinctive marks of a Christian whose heart is attuned to the Lord.” -Billy Graham Joy and thankfulness are not just emotions, but they are actually a posture of our heart… ↠What is the will of God for me? His Word gives us insight into His will… ↠Great Commission (Matt. 28), Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5), Abiding (Jn. 15), but His’ will also i...

“But I have this against you: you have abandoned the passionate love you had for me at the beginning." -Rev. 2:4, The Passion Translation ↠Remembering what God has done in our lives… ↠What Has he down? What testimonies & praises do you have? ↠Laying memorial stones (Joshua 4) ↠What “stones” can you lay? For you & those after… ↠God longs for us to proclaim His goodness now and to futur...

We love Him. We keep His commandments which are really just simple invitations to know Him, be with Him, abide in Him, and He will come and take up residence, you won’t be a lost orphan, and the comforter will come rush in, in a way the world can’t explain, Heaven on earth… ↠The word love is used a lot in these verses, but is reserved for those in relationship ↠This isn’t the same as the blanket s...

Isaiah 26 is a song of salvation, part of a song of praise that spills over from the previous chapter. The prophet Isaiah celebrates God’s trustworthiness to provide all that the people need, including their ultimate need: salvation. ↠The benefits of possessing the mind of Christ- one is His peace/His shalom ↠“You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in Yo...