Grace for New Life

There are so many decision points coming at us in life and so many voices telling us how to handle those decisions. How do we best navigate those challenges? Through a story Jesus tells us about the kingdom of heaven, we can see that the best thing we can do is step into the invitation Jesus gives us to enter into a deeper life with him. (Based on Matthew 22:1-14 .)

At times it can feel like we are all alone in this world and we can get discouraged over what is happening in our life. But the Bible tells us that we are never alone. Jesus has put on flesh and blood in a way we could understand so we could receive a life that was beyond our comprehension. (Based on John 1:1-18 .) Our guest preacher this Sunday was Pastor Matt Peeples, our presenter from the Miss...

Pastor James shares with Pastor Matt how he got connected with the Missionary Pathway and the two of them discuss some next steps for learning more about the Missionary Pathway and how to make disciples as we go about our everyday lives wherever God has placed us.

Having listened to our community first, we are then ready to engage with it. Pastor Matt teaches about ways that we can do this with a focus on the Person of Peace and using BLESS Rhythms.

We cannot engage with our community without first listening to it. In this episode, Pastor Matt shares how we can do that.

Based on what we have seen Billy Graham or others do, we may think that evangelism is only about getting people across the finish line of faith. If we are not gifted evangelists, we then may think that there is no place for us in God’s work of making disciples. But the process of coming to faith involves several steps along with way. Each step is important and there is a role for each of us, regar...

What can an ordinary, everyday believer in Jesus do to reach others for Jesus? They can actually do a lot of things that professional church workers cannot do and this has been part of God’s plan from the beginning. With biblical and contemporary examples, Pastor Matt shows us how.

Pastor Matt shares a very simple, but powerful way to do Bible Study which anyone can do anywhere with anyone who is willing.

We might think that we do not know many people who do not yet know Jesus. But when we create our own Oikos Prayer Map, we will discover that we are surrounded by people who we can pray for and love and perhaps one day share the Gospel with.

Pastor Matt shows us how thinking about the Christian Church in a new way can help us to reach more people for Jesus.

When you think that anything is possible for you, then you become willing to step into new opportunities. For many of us who follow Jesus, our picture of what it means to be a Jesus-follower is too small, not much more than going to church on Sunday morning, so then we never step into a new opportunity to follow Jesus beyond that. But what if church and following Jesus is much, much more than that...

​​Many of us tend to avoid dealing with our problems by filling our lives with pleasure, hearkening back to a previous time with nostalgia, or fleeing from our problems. But none of those approaches work. Jesus shows us a different way. By addressing our inner problems, with God’s help, and then becoming a conduit of his grace, we become part of God’s plan for dealing with all the world’s problems...

Far too often, we human beings try to live a good life without the power of God in us and our efforts inevitably fail. But God has given us all the power we need to live life with him in his Word, the Bible. As we feed our soul with God’s Word, we will have all we need for life with him. (Based on Matthew 4:4-11.)

Two people can experience the same thing but have vastly different opinions about their experience depending on whether they are an optimist or a pessimist. Which is the right way to view things, with optimism, or with pessimism? Both are correct, depending on what you are looking at. When looking at the present state of ourselves or the world, we should be pessimistic, for on our own we are lost...

The darkness in our lives can take many different forms, but all those forms have this in common: We are in big trouble, we are facing that trouble all alone, and there is no hope of the situation getting any better. Jesus came into this world to shine his light into our darkness. As we make him our leader, he gives us a new life where he brings his wholeness to us and all creation. (Based on Isai...

Tonight is the reason we celebrate! God’s love came into the world in a baby in a manger in Bethlehem. But this isn’t just news from the ancient past, it is also Good News for us today. As we reflect tonight on several passages from throughout the Bible, we see that Jesus is God’s long-promised Messiah sent to give us a new life with him. Jesus is God-with-us!

Research tells us that having joy in our close relationships is the best predictor of having a long and happy life. But how do we have joy in our relationships when our circumstances have turned against us? The answer is Jesus. He is the humble King who came to restore our relationship with God, and will come again to heal, redeem, and restore us. Through our relationship with Jesus, we can have d...

Many of us love to cheer for the underdog, but very few of us would prefer to be an underdog. Having formidable odds stacked against us can lead to despair. The Good News is that God loves underdogs like us and sent his Son into the world to bring peace to our heart now and peace to all creation at the end of time. It takes humility to trust in the humble King who has come because, from the world’...

When times are tough, it is difficult for us to have hope. We want things to get better, but there is nothing in our circumstances to indicate that they will. Yet we hear this story from long ago of a humble king who came to a dark and desperate world. Why would that make any difference in our lives two millennia later on the other side of the world? He came to give us hope. (Based on Isaiah 2:1-5...

Imagine a stream of fresh flowing water that brings nourishment, life, and direction to an otherwise parched and barren land. That is what your soul is to your life. But who or what is the source of the water that flows from our soul into the other aspects of our life? That is the critically important question. When the source is God, the water he pours into our soul brings abundant life to our he...

We need to be connected to and supported by others. Because of human brokenness, our supportive relationship circles inevitably break down and we are left wounded by the rejection we experience. By identifying the toxins in our relationships and applying the love of Jesus to the wounds that cause those toxins, we are able to experience healing, and then bless and support the people around us with...

We might not be aware of the key role our body plays in our spiritual life, but it is essential in our spiritual life for we cannot engage with the world around us without it. God meant our bodies for good, but the corruption of our body by sin means that our body can lead us away from God. Thankfully, God the Son, Jesus Christ, came in a human body to redeem our human body. With the forgiveness J...

The human will is both precious and problematic. It is precious because it gives us the freedom to choose. It is problematic because, in its natural state, our will is splintered & entangled in many things which draw it away from God. Thankfully, our Savior Jesus said to his Father, “Thy will be done.” With his selfless obedience to his Father’s will, Jesus won forgiveness and healing for our...

On our own, our thoughts and feelings lead us away from God and into bondage to our own selfish, self-centered desires. But Jesus came into this world to heal our mind with his forgiveness and love. As we let God be God in our lives, he will give us new ideas and images to think about and help us to create the conditions for God-guided emotions to arise within us. (Based on Romans 12:1-13.)

When we buy something, the only way we know if we made a good deal is if what we bought is worth more to us than the money we exchanged for it. But how do we know we are choosing correctly when making life-changing decisions? When we see the ruined nature of our life apart from God, and the great value of the gift Jesus offers us of rich, full, abundant life with God, the decision becomes clear. W...