This Is WholeLife

Things To Remember – ‘Trust The Gospel’    The gospel teaches us that salvation is always the work of the Savior, not the saved. Anything added to the good news of the Gospel of Jesus turns it into bad news. Remember to trust the gospel—it is God’s work, work done by the Divine, and it can be trusted. Andy’s Takeaway from Titus 3:3-7 OUR PART: Once . . . We, too, were foolish and di...

Things To Remember – ‘Fix Your Eyes On Jesus’    What is your first line of defense? When you face good times or bad – When your relational world is stable or messed up – When you are the epitome of health or can’t get well – When the bills are all paid and there’s extra or when none are paid. Do you turn to your own mind for answers? Do you seek diversion? Is there a trusted f...

Jesus Doesn’t Make Life Easy - ‘Stored Treasure’ We all have treasures we store. Where do you store yours? This week one of our #WholeLifeTakeAways asked: What is something you rightfully treasure that could compete with treasuring God? So, what about you? What treasure do you find in your life that competes with treasuring God? Let us know by using one of the following: Text/Voicem...

Jesus Doesn’t Make It Easy – ‘Proper Payback’    You punch me, so I punch you back. In the Bible, it’s called the lex talionis or the law of retaliation. Of course, one of the problems is that, if you punch me, I don’t want to just punch you back; I want to punch you back just a bit harder than you punched me. Rather than revenge, how do we move to reconciliation? Jesus' teaching ab...

Jesus Doesn’t Make It Easy – ‘Easy Adultery’    Adultery has become part of our entertainment. Modern media has hardened us to the pain of adultery for all parties involved; however, we’ve not spent much time on heart adultery. What will it mean to guard our hearts and minds against objectifying and marginalizing others? Jesus’ imagery is pretty drastic when he says we’d be better o...

Jesus Doesn’t Make It Easy – ‘ Acceptable Murder ’     When we think of murder strictly in the realm of physically taking another’s life, it's never acceptable! However, Jesus expands the concept to being out of sync with someone—being angry, calling them an idiot, or cursing someone. How can we be reconciled when another doesn’t want to be? This week one of our #WholeLifeTakeAways...

Stewarding the Gospel…of Reconciliation    Sin separated us from God. God is the source of all life, so sin separated us from life. God is love, so sin separated us from love. We cannot be the answer to our problem. Quite apart from any action on our part, God’s action by Jesus, through Jesus, and because of Jesus brings us back into oneness and invites us to join in helping people...

Stewarding the Gospel…of Equality When we steward well the gospel, we recognize that it calls us to a radical oneness, a radical equality. We are called to give up the pride of separation and see that we are all equal in two amazing ways: all distinctions of prideful hierarchy are leveled in both the condition of being lost and being found. This week one of our #WholeLifeTakeAways asked: How broad...

Stewarding the Gospel…of Others First God’s free amazing grace to each of us calls us to a new way. Solving the sin problem is Jesus leaving the comfort of the adoring angels and the forever unity of the Trinity and putting others first. The gospel is the perfect picture of self-donation, and when Jesus’ followers follow best, that picture of self-donation recurs in good stewarding of the gos...

Stewarding the Gospel…of Unfairness If I run a good race, if I keep the faith, if I obey the law, it seems to be fair that there’s a crown of righteousness and glorious future awaiting me. But how can it be fair for God to do it all, and I just benefit? How can it be right that everyone gets a gift? Who really wants to be treated fairly? This week one of our #WholeLifeTakeAways asked: When you thi...

Stewarding the Gospel…of Worthiness You are worthy of God’s love. You cannot hear this clearly enough or often enough, and you will never understand the depth of this great truth. When we look soberly at ourselves, we might be inclined to believe that we are not worthy. However, we are worthy, not because we deserve the love of God, but because he has declared it so.  This week one of ou...

Expecting the Unexpected: An Unexpected Life Our world is not as God had intended, and while we’re here, we can separate ourselves from our community and live a safe and secluded life – not allowing the “unholiness” of the world to invade. Mary and Joseph made a home in Egypt, which during that time required both giving to and receiving from a community. How can we engage, connect, and bring unexp...

Expecting the Unexpected: An Unexpected Responsibility What if God gives you a purpose for which others have told you that you don’t qualify? “Build my kingdom on earth” is a pretty big responsibility. The shepherds were given the task of announcing the beginning of this new kingdom, and now it’s up to us to begin establishing it in our world. Will we listen to the voices telling us we don’t quali...

Expecting the Unexpected: An Unexpected Gift There are times when good things come out of unexpected circumstances, things we never could have planned. Change is never easy, rarely anticipated, and often life-altering. A barn was not Joseph’s and Mary’s first choice of where to meet their son but holding the son of God in their arms made their surroundings insignificant. How can we choose a life o...

Expect The Unexpected: An Unexpected Addition    Elizabeth and Zechariah wanted a child, and when they discovered they would receive just that, Zechariah couldn’t speak to share the exciting news, and Elizabeth was going to deal with all the challenges of pregnancy in her 80’s! How many times in our life have we been waiting for something and, when things finally fall into plac...

While We Wait: We Trust God’s Word    Jesus’ first Advent was prophesied about, but then time marched on. How do we maintain trust that he’s coming again? What can we do while we wait to build our faith and be hopeful? This week one of our #WholeLifeTakeAways asked: In what ways can you choose and help others choose abiding in the vine and trusting God’s word while we wait...

While We Wait: We Give Thanks    When things are going well, we may begin to believe that we are enjoying the life and success we are due for our hard work, wise decision making, focused attention, and careful planning and execution. However, when days of desperation come, we may become depressed and discouraged. If we’ve given ourselves credit for creating the good life, we ma...

While We Wait: Isaiah    Isaiah says that we can renew our strength as we wait. We can build relationships while we wait—relationships with each other and with God. We can develop patience, and we can follow the wisdom and avoid the pitfalls of the patriarchs of Scripture, learning from them what is wise to do while we wait. This week one of our #WholeLifeTakeAways asked: ...

While We Wait: David    This week, many of you were pained by the election. Your candidate didn’t prevail. Now you are fearful, concerned where the opposition will lead. Maybe you feel threatened or you feel your nation is threatened. How long can you wait for things to be different? What are you to do while you wait? This week one of our #WholeLifeTakeAways asked:&nb...

While We Wait: Daniel    Taken captive in a foreign land, out of his element, not clear as to his future, with more unknowns than a pandemic, Daniel prayed. He prayed so regularly, so faithfully, so consistently that it was the only way to get him in trouble with the king by crafty fellow statesmen. While we wait, we can mature in our prayer life. Pray. That’s what Daniel...

While We Wait: Moses    There’s the temptation to run ahead. Moses knows his story: from basket boat to royalty! He craves justice for his people, so he takes things into his own hands and commits murder. But it was witnessed. He flees to Midan, and for forty years each morning he cares for sheep. Finally, he leads his people to freedom, and they refuse to trust that God can gi...

While We Wait: Joseph    Things can seem tough. We can do the right thing and still have things not work out. We can and will be treated unjustly. Joseph was sold by his brothers and unjustly imprisoned. Joseph had no idea if his wait in jail would be days, years, or decades. What did he do while he faced a totally unknown wait? No matter our circumstances, we can choose to mak...

While We Wait: Job    Job was a great man of faith walking with a God who had prospered him in every conceivable way. Then he lost it all. Stripped of wealth, friends, family, and health—wishing he’d never been born. What can we learn as Job waits in suffering for God to redeem? This week one of our #WholeLifeTakeAways asked: What do you find most confusing or most hard to...

While We Wait: Abraham    Abraham was given a promise: to be the father of a nation, which he heard as the promise of a coming son, an heir, progeny. He decided that waiting was too long. From Abraham, we learn one thing not to do while we wait, and that is to adopt a do-it-yourself plan. A form of that for us might be “getting ready for Jesus to come,” as if we could do t...

Gathered At The Table    Any time change takes place, there is a natural, and sometimes personal, resistance to it. What does it mean to celebrate Communion together during COVID? Though we aren't physically in the same place, it's important to remind ourselves of the extravagant grace of our Savior. So gather some type of bread or cracker, and some type of beverage,...