Element Christian Church of Santa Maria

This week of our Advent journey focuses on joy. Joy is often depicted in our culture as an overwhelming emotion, but it is something much greater for followers of Jesus. For the Christian, joy is a permanent state, the result of knowing a loving God that has rescued us. Advent is an especially great season of joy, because we take time to remember the very act of God being born into the world.

This week, we begin our Advent journey together. To mark this shift in seasons, you may want to do something fun as a Community….share a meal (other than the Agape meal you shared last week) or do something festive. This is a new “appointed time” that is worth celebrating! The holidays are a great time to reach out to those outside your Community as well, so remember to be intentional about inviti...

This is our last week in our series called “Legends of the Fall,” where we look the “bad” guys or bad stories in the Bible. Throughout this series we have seen how we are like many of the “bad” guys we have talked about. Today we look at Lucifer, or the Devil.

Today, we look at the shortest bad guy in the Bible, Zacchaeus. He is one of the guys that people love because of the story, but he started off bad. He was a chief tax collector. Zacchaeus was a person who became a member of the ruling class by exploiting the poor in order to benefit himself. Tax collectors would extort extra money from those paying taxes to further benefit themselves. The poor ha...

This week we look at Balaam and his talking Donkey! Balaam is a pagan prophet, a seer, and a diviner. He is a smart guy who knows how to “see” the future based off reading patterns in animals. He had to know animals, flight patterns, and even claimed he was able to look at the liver of a dead animal to help predict the future. He was also believed to have claimed to be a sorcerer that could influe...

In Legends of the Fall we are taking 10 weeks to look at the villains in the bible, those that everybody considers the “bad guys.” We are looking at how we are not as different from them as we might think. Today, we take a look at THE BETRAYER, Judas Iscariot. The most infamous traitor in Scripture, other than the Devil, is Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Christ. Judas is a guy that we love to hat...

During the summer we did a series titled Coloring Book All-Stars (about the heroes you would find in children’s bible coloring books). We are now in a series titled Legends of the Fall (about all the bad guys in the bible). We travel through these two series in an effort to be able to see how the people in the bible are just like us, lost and in need of God’s redemption.

We are in a series called “Legends of the Fall,” which is all about the “bad” people or the “bad” stories in the bible and how it relates to who we are. We tend to want to look at “bad” guys in a story and say “that could never be me because I’m really a good person,” but we are exactly like those bad guys. Today we look at an incestual story of rape; we look at Amnon. It is important to remember...

Today we look at the story of David and Bathsheba. There are two stories people remember about the life of King David, his highest triumph (when David slew the giant Goliath) and his lowest personal defeat (when David gave in to personal temptation and slept with a woman who was not his wife). For every Goliath we seem to be able to defeat, there is a temptation, like Bathsheba, waiting to take ho...

Today, we look at the Tower of Babel. The people of Babel were proud of their tower, but the language in the Bible shows that God was not impressed with their works. Genesis 11:5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. Sometimes we are so impressed with our own works that we think God has to also be impressed, but no matter how good we think we are, we cann...

This week, we look at the first murder in the world and find out how Cain is exactly like us. Thankfully, identifying with one of the “bad” characters in the Bible points us in the direction of Jesus, our Redeemer!

The first “legend” of the fall is actually two people, Adam and Eve, our first parents. Many times they are cast in a positive light, but all that we know of our fallen world begins with them, it is why Aaron called them “patient zero.”

Welcome to the last week of coloring book all stars, the series where we take a look at some of the most popular stories, or people, in the Bible. We realize that some of your personal favorites may not have been covered during this series, but that is OK, you get to tell your friends, families and kids about them. This week we look at who Jesus is and why who He is becomes so important to our con...

This is week 11 of coloring book all-stars where we look at figures in the bible who are larger than life, who (usually) make it into the coloring books that kids love to scribble on. This week we look at Jacob’s favorite son, JOSEPH! Genesis 37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age.

We are in our series called Coloring Book all-stars about the biggest (or biggest stories) in the bible...the ones you typically find in kids bible coloring books. Today we are going to look at a biggie (other than Jesus), MOSES. Moses is a guy almost everyone likes, Jews, Christians, and even Muslims. Moses was an Israelite by birth, but the story of Moses is largely a story of God’s calling. God...

Welcome to Coloring Book All Stars Week 9. We are taking 12 weeks to look at “heroes” in the Bible, those you would see in the pages of kids coloring books, comic strips or even cartoons. These are the stories and people we have lifted up to place of near perfection. We’re taking a close look at how the Bible shows them as messed up men, people as messed up as we are. This week we look at Gideon.

We are in the middle of a series called Coloring Book All-Stars, where we look at the most popular stories and characters of the Bible (outside of Jesus) and begin to understand them in a more human context. It is Element’s hope that we will no longer idolize these characters, but view our “heroes” as broken people who have received God’s grace. This week, we look at the story of Noah and the grea...

This week we are looking in the book of Daniel, specifically the story of Daniel and the lion’s den. We learn once again that the book of Daniel is largely about issues of the heart. Daniel, like Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego finds himself in an uncomfortable situation because he refuses to deny the one true God. This story starts off with Daniel blessing the new king. Daniel recognizes he is called...

This week we are looking in the book of Daniel, specifically the story of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and the fiery furnace. We learn that this story is a story about identity and control, not just a cool example of faith when a believer is being tested.

Today will be different as we are looking at a non-Israelite. Some of you may have heard of him, but many of you probably haven’t. You may be wondering why this man is a Coloring Book All-Star if we don’t know who he is…the answer is that Aaron thinks he should be one, so he is including him. His name is Naaman and the story takes place in 2 Kings 5. The story is full of surprises and odd requests...

This week we look at the story of Elijah and the false prophets of Baal. The story of Elijah is ultimately a story about the God of the universe who wants to reveal Himself to us despite the fact that we betray Him and put our faith and hope in false gods. In the Story of Elijah there are many different characters; God, Elijah, Baal, the prophets of Baal, Ahab, and the people of Israel.

When I read the story of Samson, the first question that comes into my mind is naturally, “How far is too far?” When we read the story of Samson we learn that no sin is innocent; every compromise leads deeper into a lifestyle that dishonors God and moves us further into our own personal hell. Sin also tends to affect and infect not only the individual, but the whole community. Samson is a Coloring...

David and Goliath feels to us like the rise of the underdog stories we all know and love. David, fits the mold for a Coloring book all-star. David was a 10-12 year old boy who, in a tournament of champions, faced Goliath the giant who held the philistine heavy weight belt, and killed him. When we read this story we often tend to think of David as the most epic tween ever. The interpretation of the...

Today we start with John the Baptizer— not John the Baptist. Often times when people read the Bible they will use upward comparisons, this means we tend to deify the people in the Bible giving them legendary status. However, when we do this we often neglect to look at their flaws and forget they are human. By understanding the “All-Stars” flaws we will hopefully gain a better understanding of God’...

We can be better Children here on earth by listening to our Heavenly Father (God), by obeying our Father (God), by loving our Father (God), and by praying to our Father (God). This is why our priorities are so important and why being an image bearer of Christ under the direction of the Father is so important. How we serve our families, and ultimately live on mission, comes out of our understanding...