New Beginnings Lutheran Church

Ever hear of a “glutton for punishment”? You don’t want to add that title to your resume! In fact, if we want to get more in life, giving up excess is a good move to make. Adding moderation--or restraint--to our choices will save us from many regrets. 📖 Matthew 5:21-24 | bit.ly/2ZTdrHy 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

Ever hear of a “glutton for punishment”? You don’t want to add that title to your resume! In fact, if we want to get more in life, giving up excess is a good move to make. Adding moderation--or restraint--to our choices will save us from many regrets. 📖 Matthew 6:25-35 | bit.ly/3pWA4FF 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

I’m too tired to give up laziness. There’s got to be an easier way to deal with sloth than all the hard work it takes to get rid of it! (Are you picking up on the irony in those last two sentences?) God has so much more in mind for us. If we just give up sloth, we get more of the life God has in store! 📖 Matthew 25:14-30 | bit.ly/3pTln5V 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nb...

Watch out for envy! The more envy you have, the less you get in life. Envy robs you of the best of things. Envy robs you of the joy that comes from all that God has given you!. Give up envy and get more of God’s blessings in your life for godliness with contentment is great gain! 📖 Matthew 20:1-16 | bit.ly/2NZi93Q 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

Seven Deadly Sins—now those are worth giving up for Lent! In fact, when we surrender a sin we gain much more than we give up. Take Lust, for example. We think what we lust for will give us more, but it leaves us with less. When we give it up, we get more: purity! 📖 Matthew 5:27-30 | bit.ly/2OYz5b6 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

What’re you giving up for Lent? That familiar question assumes subtraction leads to devotion. Jesus promises addition. When we give up sin—which we are often reluctant to do—we actually gain from the so-called loss. For example, when we give up greed, we can gain charity in exchange. It is more blessed to give! 📖 Matthew 6:19-24 | bit.ly/2Zptfl4 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Lov...

Which of the Seven Deadly Sins is your favorite? If you had to give them all up except one, which one would you hold onto? That was a trick question, for if you give up sins you don’t lose, but you get more! Christ crosses out our sins and adds His goodness to our lives and we are forever better for it! 📖 Matthew 16:24-26 | bit.ly/37uf02X 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | n...

It’s time to put on the gloves! 🥊 That’s right: time to hit the punching bag. We gotta get to work in order to fight the good fight of the faith. We are not bodybuilders, but we do have to work out God has worked into us. 📖 Jude | bit.ly/3qLbRCK 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

If you just witnessed pastor Joe shoplifting from the grocery store, would you want to listen to his sermon? What if he stole your car? 🚗 You’d probably excuse him and say, “We’re all people in process,” right? We’re saved by grace, after all! 📖 Jude | bit.ly/3qLbRCK 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

Some things are worth fighting for. Holding onto your faith can often feel like a fight. This is the perspective advocated by one of the half-brothers of Jesus Christ in a sermon he wrote. This sermon is found in your Bible in the little book of Jude. 📖 Jude | bit.ly/3qLbRCK 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

We care better together. In fact, caring relationships assume we stick together. And God brought us together for a purpose bigger than any one of us. To achieve something greater than ourselves, we need to be part of something greater than ourselves. 📖 Hebrews 10:24-25 | bit.ly/2WJHUWW 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

Caring for one another has a ricochet effect. Jesus said others learn about God’s love when we do as He did for us. What has God done for you? That is a clue to how our care for one another will impact the whole world! 📖 John 13:34-35 | bit.ly/3rqTC73 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

We care, but caring is as much about Word as it is about action--God’s Word. A family dinner pack from Bread Co is fitting when someone is laid-up. A warm meal feeds them for the day. Including encouragement from the Bread of Life will sustain them for eternity. 📖 Colossians 3:12-17 | bit.ly/34L89At 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

When you come up against the sharp edges of life (a disease afflicts your health, the economy costs you your job, a jerk breaks your heart,...) you wonder who cares. The answer is that you do. You care for others and find relief in your own struggles. And others, ideally, care for you and discover the same. 📖 Romans 12:3-13 | bit.ly/3pnrbow 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving |...

With the new year around the corner, thoughts of “time” are on many people’s minds. The new year is a good time to __________. We can all fill in that blank. What does God say about time and how we spend it? And how do we prepare for what is to come? 📖 Romans 13:8-14 & 2 Corinthians 6:2 | bit.ly/3p9YNWM 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

What is the opposite of LOVE? Dislike? Disdain? Indifference? It’s easier to say accurately what love isn’t than to say what love is. Love isn’t God, but God is love--and so we learn what love is by seeing Him. 📖 Isaiah 63:7-9 | bit.ly/3lQdeOM 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

What is the opposite of JOY? Discouragement? Despondency? Depression? Even when our circumstances are dark, joy is possible. Tune in to find more ways to tap into this gift of God. 📖 Zephaniah 3:14-20 | bit.ly/3kLQQod 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

What is the opposite of PEACE? Discord? Disharmony? Distress? Many of us suffer a lack of peace and our sleepless nights and/or our health show for it. Listen to learn how you can experience a more satisfying way of life. 📖 Micah 5:1-5 | bit.ly/35Jiz4M 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

What is the opposite of HOPE? Despair? Distrust? Disbelief? We live in times increasingly prone to these D-words. Would you prefer hope? Then come find out how your heart can swell with expectation of better things. 📖 Jeremiah 33:10-18 | bit.ly/3pGuFUa 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

As a lion growls over its prey, so we meditate on God’s Word (cf., Isaiah 31:4 and Psalm 1:2). God’s Word is a feast and we are learning how to eat it in this final installment, Part Four. 📖 Philippians 4:2-9 | bit.ly/3om5DJs 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

More than once, God’s prophets were told to eat God’s Word (e.g., Revelation 10:9-10). We are attempting the same as we learn methods for studying Scripture, Part Three. 📖 Philippians 4:2-9 | bit.ly/3om5DJs 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

God invites us to taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8). We will be serving up another course of God’s delicious Word and learn how to study the Bible, Part Two. 📖 Philippians 4:2-9 | bit.ly/3om5DJs 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

Jesus said that we don’t live on bread alone (Matthew 4:4), but on every Word that comes from the mouth of God. How do we eat God’s Word? Come hungry as we learn how to study the Bible, Part One. 📖 Philippians 4:2-9 | bit.ly/3om5DJs 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

The end is here? The end of the world has been “coming soon” for some 2000 years! If a 1000 years is like a day to the Lord, how many days(!) until Jesus comes back? Sooner than you think. 📖 Revelation 22:7-21 | bit.ly/34MmeyB 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

The Bible began in a garden and ends in a city, but that’s not how our story ends. Revelation marshals a variety of images to encourage Christians living in the end times to not lose hope. We have so much to look forward to at the end of all things and the new beginning! 📖 Revelation 21 | bit.ly/3lL7tSO 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give