New Beginnings Lutheran Church

Everyone is part of the human race, but not everyone is part of your family. We were made for genuine relationships. We were not made to be spiritual orphans either. God puts us together on purpose and uses us in each other’s lives to accomplish His purposes through us. Come discover a fuller expression of faith family.

Ever been with someone who is always talking about themselves? The conversation always seems to come back to them! It’s as if they want you in order to have a person to talk at, rather than to have a conversation. God’s not like that. Come discover what it means to interact with God.

Has God ever spoken to you? Do you want God to speak to you? Or speak to you more? God is not far off. God is present and you can experience His real presence in increasing measure. Come discover how God speaks to you?

Have you ever considered what it means that God has made Himself known to you? God has given you His name: Jesus Christ. When you know Christ it changes everything! That may look much more ordinary than you think—or not. Come discover what a Christ-centered life looks like for you.

Ever miss someone? Only a real person can be missed. Want to make sure you'll never lose those you love? You can only fear losing someone you know. That ache is God-given and we learn how to respond to it.

We're all searching in life, but will we find what matters most? And if we find what matters most, will we want it enough to pay the cost? You’re not going to expect how this story unfolds!

Jesus said, "ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find." The opposite is true too: when you get you know you can ask and when you find you tend to seek!

We all like to receive assurances of love. You can hear it all your life, but it is so good to hear it again: “I love you.” And we enjoy other expressions of love—special reminders. God wanted His people to have a reassurance of His love—an objective reference point. Abraham got one. What’s yours?

Is sinning our only option? After all, I said it was the last time, last time. Seriously, how many times can I do the wrong thing and still be forgiven? Is there a limit to God’s forgiveness?

What happens when we die? Many books and movies describe NDE: Near Death Experiences. Light at the end of a tunnel. Outer body experiences staring down as doctors seek to save your life. Warm welcomes from loved ones in heaven. What are we to make of it all?

What do you feel when I tell you, “You need commitment”? Do you feel I’m demanding more commitment FROM YOU or recommending someone be more committed TO YOU. If you struggle with being overcommitted or could use more commitment, then this message is for you.

Have you ever been “in love”? How about “in despair”? Do these expressions give us any idea of what the Bible means when it says that we are “in Christ”? When you are baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” you are forgiven and much more!

I believe in God’s humiliation. I also believe Jesus went to hell, but that was something totally different. Where do we get these ideas? What difference do they make in my workaday world? We believe, teach, and confess that the devil is ugly as sin ‘cause Jesus beat him with a big stick. The Bible tells me so.

Neither my sexuality nor my orientation is primary in my sense of self. Or if you struggle with infertility, you’re not less because you cannot become pregnant. Empty-nested or retired, your life doesn’t become empty or meaningless. And if you’re bed-ridden, you do not lose your purpose. We believe, teach and confess something more foundational than any other criteria for life.

We like to make things difficult. Sometimes the easier way is the best way. God has a purpose for your life and it may not be so daunting or life challenging as you might think. In fact, you can fulfill one of God’s greatest commandments to you in just a few minutes this week.

“What happens to those who live on Oogi-Poogi? You know those who live on a remote island and never get to hear about Jesus? What happens to them?” That’s a good question. Want to know the answer?

Does it seem sometimes like God plays favorites? We might believe that everyone is “created equal,” but that isn’t how it looks. Why are some blessed and others not? How does God choose?

“You’re not one of those who thinks Jesus is the only way to heaven, are you?” I told her I didn’t want to be. I know and love many people who don’t believe in Jesus, so I’d like to believe there are other ways “to be saved.” But then I asked her, “How do you read this?”

Am I enough? Sometimes I feel like a fraud or an impostor because the me I show to everybody is an attempt to fulfill others’ expectations. We all have an internal desire to be “enough.” We put on our “Sunday Faces.” But God wants us to be free.

Our parents tried to master the heart of the matter when raising us. Sometimes they got it right. Sometimes they didn’t. Want to know how? It’s an art more than a science, but you won’t want to miss this.

We do not walk “in” the valley of the shadow of death. We walk “through” it. The victory of Jesus doesn’t displace human emotions, but it does displace death. Fear is an emotion that will naturally be part of our end. Though we may live and die with fear, we live and die unafraid.

I’ll admit it: I don’t want to grow old. Really, it’s not the added years that I dread, but the atrophy: aches and pains; slowing down; growing limitations. The resurrection of Jesus makes a reimagining of our later years possible. Want to know more?

To live is to risk. Failure is inevitable. It’s not that we’re doomed to fail, but this is part of life as we know it. Unfortunately, the temptation to let past failures dictate our plans has robbed too many of us of God-intended victories.

Do you ever feel alone in the world? Have you ever awoken in the middle of the night and experienced a barrage of insecure thoughts? In one way or another, we all have a fear of loneliness. The first time God said something wasn’t good, it was about being alone.