The Perfecting Church

In the midst of a census, for the taxation of the entire Roman occupied world, God inaugurates His heart Kingdom for all who will receive His Son. There is a deep, personal joy found in Jesus for each of us; a joy that can not be found in any other thing or in any other way. To know Jesus, is to know a deep and abiding personal joy. .

The Messiah has come that we might have peace within, peace with others and peace in the world. The word shalom in all of its forms is mentioned 550 times in the Bible. We typically use peace and shalom interchangeably in the English language. But shalom is far more comprehensive than simply the absence of war and chaos. Shalom is the relational restoration of creation as God the creator and susta...

We celebrate Advent, Christmas, the arrival and birth of Jesus the long awaited Messiah. Jesus is not only the hope of the entire world, He is the hope of every single event in our lives. No where can hope be seen more clearly than in the way God takes our temporal lives and sweeps them into His eternal plan for all creation. 

Dropping Materialism, Individualism and Consumerism is not a once and for all thing. It’s a decision we make daily. This world never stops telling us we aren’t worthy and God isn’t trustworthy. So we must choose God and His way over and over again, until our serial yes produces a different kind of person — a person with a heavenly perspective, peace and provision — a child of the living God. 

Mankind traded the good life — life as God intended — for the goods life — buying and selling the life we choose. No where is selling and purchasing the life we choose more celebrated than American Western culture. We pride ourselves on being what we want to be, doing what we want to do and accumulating what we want to have. But in the end, life part from God is a lie. The goods life ends in chaos...

We are blinded by materialism because unlike other sins it hides and holds us captive. It convinces us our lives consist of the things we have and apart from things we aren't inherently valuable. Materialism is a functional god that forces us to serve it and trust it, convincing us if we have nothing we are nothing. Jesus sets us free from materialism by giving us His peace, His joy and eternal wo...

Materialism, Individualism and Consumerism undermine Jesus’ intent for our lives and the Church. The Church was never intended to exist simply to make our lives better. Jesus’ Church has been placed in the world to extend His Kingdom and to usher in eternal life.

Individualism stems from a determination to get what we want rather than embrace God's will regardless of the outcome. But, it's in our valleys, times of despair when things don't go as we hoped, that we develop a deeper dependence upon God and experience God's power to shelter, protect, sustain and position us in His will now and for what is to come. It's in these moments that we must trust God i...

Listening to God demands radical love that engages a community sacrificially requiring excessive generosity - THIS turned the world upside down - let’s turn our city upside down

Before Jesus dropped the mic ending His earthly ministry, His final priestly prayer for those that would bear His name was a prayer for unity. Of all the things He could have asked of the Father as He left this sin-stained, demon-infested world — His deepest desire was that we would be one. Unity is of far more value than we’ve realized. It’s tied to our destiny here and our destiny in the world t...

Have it your way, do your thing, just do you, are a few of the catch phrases that’ve become the norm in daily thought and language. We live in a hyper-individualized, materialistic culture that’s all about getting what you want and doing things your way — because after all You Only Live Once. But for many of us the biggest obstacle to our peace, joy and flourishing is the very thing we’ve been enc...

The God we serve is love and He empowers us to love- to answer the call of the great commandment to love, the great commission to go and the ministry to reconcile.

We’ve all experienced brokenness in relationships. Some of us have siblings we haven’t spoken to for years. Others among us are at odds with in-laws. Some know the pain of divorce. But if we’re ever going to live as the reconcilers God has called to be, we have to stop normalizing ex’s and lean into God's grace to be reconciled.

Who hasn't been hurt by the actions or words of another -- a parent who constantly belittled, a colleague who sabotaged a project or a friend who was disloyal? We’ve had traumatic experiences -- being physically or emotionally abused by someone. Wounds caused by others can leave us with lasting feelings of anger, bitterness and even vengeance. If we don’t learn to forgive, we will never experience...

We’re part of a world filled with people who have lost the way. The way for humanity in the the mind of God has always been the way of love. We were created in Beloved community; we were created by Beloved community and we were created for Beloved community. When we go the self-absorbed, self-exalting, self-glorifying way of this broken world; we become what Love hates – we become the opposite of...

The human ego is one of the biggest enemies of God’s love. Ego works to exalt our will, our way and the pursuit of our glory over God’s. But we were made in Love; we were made by Love and we were made for Love. When we refuse to live in love we destroy ourselves. If we’re ever going to recover the beloved existence God intended -- conformed to His will and way – we will have to choose God’s love o...

God is calling us, inviting us and teaching us to love. He knows apart from Love we can produce nothing, become nothing and gain nothing of value. We were made for Love; we were made by Love and we were made in Love. When we give ourselves to real Love, we begin to really live life – a life of real love.

As those born of Love, we’ve been supernaturally equipped to live in Beloved Community. Our rebirth and renewal changes everything—our new life resting securely on the foundation of our immersion into His abiding Love. Love is not just what we do; Love is who we are.

Love God's 4-Letter Word: Perfecting Love 428 views Streamed live 22 hours ago Introduction: At some point real love shows itself in what it does, not simply in what it says or feels. Love that says or feels but never does, is not real love. We try to really love, but apart from God we can’t – God is love. In order to perfect lov(s): NKJV 1John4:15-18 8.7.2022 Message Takeaways Confessing is more...

Over the last five years, popular culture has become inundated with spirituality, particularly New ageism. On any given day now, you can walk into a store and find crystals, and books with a concentration on chakras and the power of the mind. It is Indeed fascinating to explore the possibilities of being able to manifest one’s own destiny, ideas that we find in both Christianity and beyond. The qu...

The God who is Love came to deliver us from lesser loves. When our affections for created things exceed our affections for the Creator of all things we become enslaved. The God who is Love is lifting us and restoring us to our identity and destiny in the Beloved.

Being chosen in the Beloved changes every aspect of our human existence. We’ve been restored to the Godhead the source of love and life – the God of creation. Our lives have become a response and a result of His grace and lovingkindness. We must learn to live in love, from love and for love. We have been chosen in the beloved. Scripture(s) NKJV: Ephesians 1:3 Ephesians 1:4 Ephesians 1:5,6 Ephesian...

In a world filled with complexities and confusion how is one organism — the Church — to have clarity on its mission and purpose? We must look to and hear from Jesus, that we might grasp the mission and the mandate from the Master.

Love may very well be the most used and abused word ever uttered by mankind. It’s been used to describe our mothers, favorite ice creams and travel destinations. It’s been used to manipulate, corrupt and to restore. Some of us can remember our first love and some of us have experienced so much relational pain, we’ve sworn to never love again. But long before there was a mother, difficult break up...

Graduation is always a time to celebrate the accomplishment of completing a course of studies or a program. But just as graduation is about completion, graduation is about launching out for something new. With the certificate or degree or competencies that you come away with, you now have the capacity to make change in your community, in the society and in your own life. However, a piece of paper...