Cultivate NJ

Revelation is not about predicting the future, it’s about living faithfully in the present. This series is Reclaiming Revelation. Last week we learned how revelation literally means unveiling. Pulling back the curtain to reveal the truth about the world as it is right now!  For this week we are asking , What does John see when the curtain is pulled back? The answer: He sees Jesus.   Jesus is among...

Jude looks to mobilize the faithful, to enlist each of us to stand up for the true faith we have been given and to reject anyone who would take us in a different direction. He wants to sensitize us to any scalawags who only look out for number one, especially those lurking within the congregation of the righteous. Jude does not reprimand the reprobates just for the fun of it—no matter his colorful...

We are called into a relationship with our Father God that stretches into eternity. For now, we participate in our Father God’s mission in the world to bring others to known Him. Jesus calls us to pray, as he prayed, for power, protection and unity that all may come to know Him as he really is and experience eternal life with Him. 

In prayer, God meets us where we really are and invites us to join in his healing work. When we pray for others, we don't have to control the outcome or have all the answers—we simply offer ourselves as a loving presence and trust God to work through us. Church, today we are invited to pray honestly, listen humbly, and carry one another into the presence of God. 

God is already present and at work in us and in the world around us, and God has chosen to invite our prayers, our lives, and our actions into that work. We don't have to control God or carry the weight of the world ourselves—Prayer is how we learn to trust, surrender, and participate in what God is already doing. 

God has established a Kingdom in Jesus that does not reign through coercion, violence, or domination, but through love, mercy, and self-giving power. Church, today we are invited to declare where our allegiance belongs and to become people who live according to the logic of God's Kingdom, trusting that His Kingdom is the one that will ultimately last forever.

God does not lead His children into evil or delight in their suffering. He is the Father who walks with us, provides what we need for today, and works to redeem what evil intends to destroy. Church, today we are invited to trust our weakness to His care, rely on His presence in every trial, and follow Him one day at a time.  So, Lead us not into temptation is NOT a prayer for God to stop tempting...

The good news this morning is that our God has been and is battling for us against spiritual forces that would overwhelm and destroy us, and He is victorious! However, because that evil is still at large in this world, Jesus counsels us to be humble, vigilant and to pray for deliverance from the Evil One. 

God sees that sin has made fools of us all. And we act out of our foolishness. And instead of abandoning us, He comes looking for us. Church, that's the gospel. Forgiveness begins long before we ever think to ask for it. God has already been searching the garden. Our Merciful Father has chosen pity over collecting the debt of our sin, and in Christ He offers forgiveness that sets us free. Belo...

Our Father knows what we need, delights to provide for His children, and invites us to become part of His provision for one another. Church, today we are invited to trust Him more deeply, share more generously, and stand more closely with those in need.

God's will is not simply something that we wait to escape into, nor is it a secret plan for our lives. God's will is to bring the very life of heaven to earth. So, church, today we are invited to embody that life even as we pray for it to come. So take up your calling today, beloved, and commit yourselves again to the restoration of God's good world.

God is more beautiful, loving, and trustworthy than we can imagine, and God longs to be known as He truly is. As God's people, we are being freed from false images of God and transformed into living reflections of divine love. Beloved, let us welcome God's work in us by praying that God's name may be honored in and through our lives on display to all people.

The Lord’s prayer is NOT just a prayer script we repeat at church or in our own prayers. It CAN be those things, but it’s so much more as well.  This prayer Jesus gives his disciples is a way of learning to become the people of God who are becoming more and more open to the presence of God.  The God who created all things is not distant or difficult to reach. In Jesus, we have become God's bel...

Pentecost is the revelation of a slave-freeing, fear-healing, deliverance-dealing, all-embracing movement of God. Church, behold God's presence and power in your body, among our body, reaching forth in the world to call every-body home. 

The work of God moves forward by the spirit of Jesus outside the gates, among the excluded and the marginalized, making peace until all fear is vanquished and all people find a home in god's community. To whom is the spirit of Christ moving you and moving us to today?

Jesus—the risen and glorious One—is Lord over all chaos. He calls us into a love that reaches beyond space and time. As we love one another, God’s glory breaks through, pushing back the forces of sin and death,  drawing all things toward new creation. Beloved, let’s press deeply into love today, giving praise to the One who is making everything new.

And what kind of shepherd is Jesus to us? He is the One who lays down his life for the sheep… the One who knows us and calls us by name… the One who shares our suffering and cares for us in our sorrows… the One who holds us securely in his loving hands, protecting us from all the powers that seek to harm us, taking full responsibility for everyone and everything, even to the point of death… The on...

You’re not crazy if you feel like we’re living in a world on the brink of disaster, not in a world where Jesus is raised in victory. Can you relate? If so friends, we declare our need and we proclaim good news into this.  Beloved, take heart. The kingdom of God will not be jailed up, damned up, or cut down by human hands or by any principalities and powers. Wherever you find yourself this morning,...

Christ is RISEN. He is the first fruit, raised ahead of us, reigning with us until the last enemy, death, is destroyed. Church, in Adam all die, but in Christ we are all made alive. Be alive in Christ this Easter day. 

The cross of Christ reveals the horror of what we've done to the world, to each other and to ourselves; and in the same moment, reveals the depths of God's love for us and the potency of God's power to save us. Beloved, we really are in bad shape, but we are held with a love that goes deeper than our worst and is working even now to liberate us from the fear of death. Behold the man up...

 Yahweh is our unbreakable promise… He always finds a way to fulfill His word and work powerfully through quiet, unseen acts of courage and obedience. As followers of Jesus, we are invited into that same story—trusting that even our hidden faithfulness matters and is part of a much bigger story that we may never fully see. 

The trauma of our past is not the final word on the quality of our future. Our God specializes in metamorphosis – turning silenced victims into archetypes of agency. Helping the voiceless find their voice. Transforming the shamed into paragons of promise. Beloved, your story is not over. This covenant-making, covenant-keeping God has promised himself and all things to you.

Our God works through his people, and through our relationships with each other, to accomplish his plans and advance His kingdom. Our God is always present and at work. We look for and support what He is doing above all things and within the relationships and friendships given to us. 

Beloved, though the days are dark and difficult, persist in prayer and don't lose heart. Because more is happening through our prayers than we can see. Though the way to better days may seem closed off for a time, God is good and is present with us in the barren places. He will remember his people and raise us up in due time. Arise and pray… there is no Rock like our God.

God is always doing a new thing among his people, overturning the xenophobia of the past to make way for his everlasting love. Even today beloved, God is expanding the boundaries of his ever-widening mercy – Turning the faithless into the faithful; Turning the bitter into springs of hope; Turning the rich into sources of goodness; Turning curses into blessings. The question is NOT “Is God moving a...