Genesis Project Portland

God's beauty is all around us, but sometimes we fail to see it. Through our going to Jesus, we can find everlasting beauty in him, as he calls us back out to dispel darkness through his Glory.

We are continuing our series "Yours is the Kingdom" where we are looking at different stories of Jesus that define his Kingdom reign on earth as it is in heaven. We often find gaps in our life, a rift between what aught to be, and what is reality. Jesus moves into the gaps and fills them with his love and forgiveness, and he calls us to meet him in those uncomfortable spaces, as he fills them in t...

We are journeying through the stories of Jesus that define his kingdom, and talk about how Jesus is always calling us to himself, in order to draw us deeper, in order to call us back out. In order to do this we first have to learn how to approach Jesus, despite our reluctance to be drawn deeper with him. Every time, Jesus is gonna cut through the surface and go straight to the heart.

As we look back on the year past and forward to the year to come we need to pause and ask ourselves the question: Where have we been? and where is God leading us? Sometimes hiding is a good way to cope with a difficult situation, but at some point it runs its course and we need to be driven out, but not on our own power.

Merry Christmas from Genesis Project! Through Immanuel, God with us, Jesus embedded himself in the middle of the difficulty and the mess in order that we might live saved. The hope of Jesus now shines bright in us but also through us.

As we continue to look to God, who put on human flesh and moved into our neighborhood in the person of Jesus, we come to a topic that is difficult for us to grasp: humility. Humility in our culture often is equated with weakness, but as we look to some models of what true gospel humility looks like, we see that our power is through receiving the Kingdom of God.

The gospel is God's covenant partnership come to fruition through the incarnation. When we look to the story of Nehemiah, we see that it points us to the story of Jesus and we learn what it means to live out the embedded ministry and follow Jesus all the way through.

Many times in our American culture we are quick to leave and fear lingering too much, but if we look to the God of all creation, his promise is to remain; always. The Christmas story is the fulfillment of that promise in Jesus. Looking to him as the model of what his embedded ministry looks like, he shows us that the answer is always to abide in him as he did in us.

Our new series is about how God has chosen to deal with evil and sin in this world through becoming a human being and moving into our neighborhood to be with us. The God of all creation embedded himself in this world through the person of Jesus, and because of that we have the hope of His good news.

As human beings we often have a short-fuse; quick to get angry. We sometimes relate to God and his wrath that same way, but scripture tells us of a God that is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. We serve a God that was went all the way into longsuffering so we could receive life.

What if there was a reality where loyalty wasn’t tied to guilty obligation but instead, it was tied to Love, and out of that Love poured an abundance of generosity? A commitment that knew no bounds, and transcends the confines of time. An unconditional love that remained steadfast even in the face of betrayal and denial. A love that shows up, time and time again over and over and over and over. Th...

We all have the desire to be seen and loved. So as we continue our series in bringing our difficult questions to God, we often wonder who God is in the midst of our isolation, pain, and rejection. When we look to the story of Hagar in Genesis, and a Blind Man in the Gospel according to John, we see that God sees us, hears our cry, and restores us back into healing.

As we continue through the series "Be Still and Know" we come to an important aspect of following Jesus that sometimes we get all wrong. Many times we're led to believe that obedience is merely blind compliance to God, but if we look a little further through the prophets and the person of Jesus, we see obedience is more of a Spirit within, rather than an action.

Sometimes it's difficult to know how to communicate with God. So as we look to a prophet in the Old Testament, we see how the process of lament can bring us in closer relationship to Him. That when we have our biggest doubts and questions, the answer isn't to quit on God, but to wrestle with Him through waiting and serving God. When we do, we see Jesus is the ultimate servant who waits on us.

Our interaction with authority is broken and often bleeds into the way we perceive God's authority over our lives, but if we are to humble ourselves and look to the person of Jesus, we see authority exercised like none other. When we see Jesus as the good shepherd we begin to move from doubt to belief.

Part one in our new series "Be Still And Know" is about the questions and doubts we have about God and our faith. And in order to truly know God we have to be reassured that God is the god of with, "an ever-present help in trouble." God is calling out to us to cease and desist our striving, and to be still and know he is God.

We often avoid being stretched in fear of the pain, but if we learn to lean into it we experience the new life that God has for us.

Many times when things get messed up we are inclined to scrap it altogether and start from scratch. Sometimes the world seems so broken and bleak we wonder why God hasn't started over on his original plan. However, if we look to the God of scripture, revealed through his Spirit and the person of Jesus, we see that God will never renege on his plan. Instead, we see the god of new creation, and God...

As followers of Jesus, we have been called to build a different community where everyone belongs. That because we are his Church, in-dwelt with his Spirit, we have the power to be a model to the world of what community looks like according to Jesus.

We are often so encumbered by whatever issue we are faced with that we miss the new thing God is doing in our lives. However, we are told through scripture that if we spend time with Jesus, he will begin to show us his new beginning as he leads us through our struggles.

Sometimes life seems so bleak, but we are promised that God is bringing new life from the desolate land. God is always doing a new thing, and it's our decision whether or not to receive that or deny it.

When we go through trials and suffering we often develop a negative self-talk, but through Jesus we can learn to find strength in the midst of hardships.

Pastor Sam Moreno helps us understand how in our relationship with Jesus we often feel like we need to be perfect and fully developed, but Jesus is actually looking for us in the process of following him. The good news of Jesus is that we are all works in progress in our journey with him.

The greater culture carries a perception of the Church that sometimes may or may not be accurate. Instead of fighting against it, the person of Jesus shows us how to accept it and show them to the truth.

While Jesus is our great comforter in times of trouble, following Him will not promise us a more comfortable life. The true person of Jesus is leading us off the mountain top experience that we often want to stay on. He leads us back into the valley.