First Houston United Methodist Church

fmhouston.com

fmhouston.com

To help us understand what the Holy Spirit is, Lance takes us to the root of the word, and shows us the ways the Spirit interacts with our lives. The Spirit is there with us - as a comfort, as a coach, as a wind that blows us towards where God wants us to be. But it’s on us to let it move us. Lance wants us to be a people moved by the Holy Spirit - who actually pray for each other, who don’t play...

Judgment isn’t something we talk about all that often. But if there is a new heaven and a new earth coming, what we do in this life matters. We are called to social holiness, and that means not standing in judgment over one another, but raising one another up. 2 Peter 3: 8-15a fmhouston.com

Lance looks at the Ascension of Jesus, and the mission Christ left us on earth. We are the body of Christ. We have to live that! We’ve been given the power to fill every thing in every way with the heart of Jesus. And we’ve got work to do. “We cannot lament the way of the world if we are not doing anything about it!” Ephesians 1:17-23, 2:4-7 fmhouston.com

Today, Amanda asks us “how do we let the Creed change us?” Today’s section talks about the risen Christ, and how having a risen Messiah changed everything for a people who had waited hundreds of years. Have you ever tried to change a tradition? It can be harder than you think. 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 fmhouston.com

In the wake of hurricane damage, power outages, and a Presidential shooting, Lance talks about the reality of living in a broken world, and what to do as storms in our life come with greater frequency and greater intensity. We may be living in a broken world, but no one can stand between us and God. No one can separate. Romans 8:31-39 fmhouston.com

Today we get to the fulcrum on which all our faith pivots - the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. His cross opens up the way to eternal life. And we must pick up our crosses daily to follow him. Hebrews 2:10-18 fmhouston.com

Today, Lance looks at Pontius Pilate, the only human mentioned in the Apostles’ Creed (other than Jesus), and reminds us that this is a real historical event. This really happened. Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent, and he keeps trying to keep Jesus from being killed. But Pilate could not save him, because Jesus was here to give himself away - so that everyone would have have a way to the Father...

In the heat of summer, we get to remember the gift of Christmas. In Jesus, we seen the beauty in life, what life was intended to be. And because of that, we can be truly alive, and can fully live. “The virgin will have a song and his name is God Is With Us” - the story of Christmas is a story we shouldn’t be thinking about just once a year. Colossians 1:15-20 fmhouston.com

When Lance left the hospital with his first child, he couldn’t believe they were sending him out without an instruction manual. But in life, we are not without direction. God sent Jesus Christ to show us to be fully alive - for us, he IS the instruction manual. Jesus is the exemplar of what it means to be divine. He made the face of God known on this earth - one of sacrifice, and self-emptying lov...

On our next step through the Apostles’ Creed, Lance covers “God as maker,” and how the very presence of creation around us reminds us that God is always with us. The stars in the sky above us show us that our God never leaves the one behind. Then, a trip to Homeboy Industries in California, where gang members find their way into the church. Isaiah 40:10-14, 18-31 fmhouston.com

As we begin a period of what the church calls “Ordinary Time” - though Lance thinks it should be called “Extraordinary Time” - we begin a series defining what we believe, guided by the Apostles Creed. We start with the story of the Prodigal Son, but it’s not a story about a son. It’s a story about a father. A father willing to run to his son and welcome him home during a time when no one could com...

When Nicodemus came to visit Jesus, he was confused about how Jesus was asking him to be “born again” - wasn’t the first time enough? It wasn’t - but Lance reminds us that being born again is more than just a single moment, a story to look back to. What about the moments that are happening now? Our call to faith isn’t a one-time thing. We don’t have to look back and say “that was the moment!” What...

On Senior Sunday, Lance tells the graduates - and all of us - to wait on God’s timing. As he ascended to heaven, Jesus called the disciples to intentionality. To pray, and believe, and wait for the Spirit. He calls for us to do the same. “My prayer for you is that you hunger and thirst for the Lord more than anything else in this world.” Acts 1:1-13 fmhouston.com

Not long after Jesus returned, we see how the disciples have returned to their old life, despite Jesus having sent them off to spread the gospel to all the world. But there is no place that we can run, no place that we can hide, that our Savior will not find us. John 21:15-19 fmhouston.com

In today’s story, we meet the disciples where they are fishing on the lake - they have returned to something familiar, some place they feel safe, in their grief. But Christ is coming to change all that, and give them a new spirit. We can be trapped in grief, in distraction, the endless scroll of life. But, “if we’ll only look up, if we’ll only look within - we will find Jesus there.” John 21:1-14...

When we meet the disciples in today’s scripture, they are behind locked doors on Easter evening. But as the disciples are about to be the first to realize, there is no locked door, no sealed tomb, that can keep our Lord contained. And that same spirit is about to be poured out upon us. “No matter where you find yourself locked in the darkness, there is nothing that can keep our Lord away from you....

When we meet the disciples in today’s story, they are still in the thickness of grief - and they remind Amanda a bit of toddlers being picked up after being preschool. But the Jesus who comes to them is simply WITH them, in their fear and their disbelief. Luke 24:36-48 fmhouston.com

As we begin a new series on “living as Easter People,” Eric tells us the story of the road to Emmaus - which, as he pictures it, is a bit like an episode of ‘Undercover Boss.’ Luke 24:13-35 fmhouston.com

We notice different things in different ways. Every time Lance returns to the Easter story, he finds a new perspective. The world prepares us to expect bad news. But when the women went to the tomb where Jesus was buried on Easter morning… if they had understood what Jesus had told them, they shouldn’t have been. Sometimes we are the same as the women in this story - we’ve heard the words, but we...

As Lance reads through the Passion story, he is struck by the mockery that Jesus endures throughout. But as he notes, this was always the plan. Jesus could not save himself, and still save us. But evil does not have the final word. Love does. And remember: Sunday’s coming. Isaiah 52:13-15; 53:1-3, 7-12 fmhouston.com

As Jesus came into Jerusalem, he was hailed as a hero. The problem was that Jesus continued to not be who they had expected him to be. Where was their conquering savior? Mark 15: 1-39 fmhouston.com

We reach the last tenet of our core values: seek God daily. What does this look like? Maybe not what you think. Seeking God isn’t just in the inward practices, it’s in the outward practices: justice, healing people, reformation. Mark 10:35-45 fmhouston.com