House Church

What does it mean to be a strong man? There’s lots of ideas floating around our culture: some good, some weak, and some outright dangerous. So what matters most when it comes to manhood? God calls us to be strong and act like men by obeying carefully all that He commands. It’s important not just for ourselves, but for our families and those we care about.

God calls us to represent His name well through what we say - it’s a big responsibility and a big blessing too.

As God reveals His heart to us the first thing He warns is not to let anything take His place. Often times, it’s not bad things we allow to do that but it’s good things that we let become dangerous things when they replace Him.

Are you building a successful life, or a useful life? Sometimes we can get caught up building life to look the way we want and we see ourselves as being self-sufficient. Yet, Jesus evaluates the way we live our lives not by how important we think we are, but by how we allow ourselves to be useful for Him.

Real faith that has REAL growth is what really counts. Yet, some of us get stuck in our faith living off the glory days of previous growth rather than leaning in and pressing forward. Or maybe we’re just playing the game, Christian in name only, without actually ever producing life change. Either way, Jesus calls His Church to wake up and move forward!

Mothers are a gift from God. Their hands carry and care for many things. It’s only fitting that the Lord would call us to honor them for the work of their hands.

Not all “Christian” voices are faithful voices. It can be hard to discern false teachers and false teaching, but Jesus calls His Church to never tolerate them. It’s important to reject false teaching when we hear it because WHO & WHAT we listen to will ultimately shape what we believe and how we live.

Faithfulness to Jesus doesn’t just mean refusing to deny Him - it means refusing to drift from Him too. When our affections are set in the wrong places we can get caught in a current that takes us from following Him closely. God’s grace in community is the lifesaver we need to get us safely to shore.

It’s a sad reality, but people can use their words to damage our reputations and cause us pain. It can evoke negative emotions, panic, and chaos in our lives and our hearts. How does Jesus call us to respond when it happens so that we can remain steady and trust Him through it?

In His letter to the Ephesian Church, Jesus reminds us that how we love is more important than merely doing the right things and grinding through the motions of ministry and life.

Jesus came to bring us new life like the bursting forth of green in spring, but with spring inevitably comes storms. Will we choose to focus on Him and grow in faith or be distracted by the storms around us?

Jesus entered Jerusalem at the start of Holy Week to be the King who would free His people. But we shouldn’t mistake freedom for independence. He came to set us free, but to lead us into a freedom that submits to His rule and compels us to serve others.

We often have a false assumption: that as we mature we should become more self-sufficient, that we should need others less. The Bible offers us a different reality - that we were made to need God and one another. Good community can comfort us and counsel us in the weariness of life.

God promises to provide for the needs of His people. Through providing manna in the wilderness and Jesus’ miraculous feedings, we learn that God provides just enough for what we need. Yet, God being our Provider is about forming us into people of trust and obedience not about being our Genie in a bottle.

It looked like the Israelites were stuck - the Red Sea behind them and the Egyptians in front of them. Out of fear, they panic and complain rather than remain ready to move when God says to act. Sometimes we fall into the same spot in life: camped out complaining rather than remaining in a ready posture of faith that allows us to take the step of faith when God says GO!

Following Jesus is more than just spirituality or loving Jesus with our hearts - it’s complete surrender and submission of our hearts and lifestyles to Him. Anything less is not what He requires.

The Plagues in Egypt feel dramatic, but distant to us. What does God’s work there have to do with our lives today? Turns out, we’ve got our own idols that need to be exposed so that we can be freed from what enslaves us.