This Is WholeLife

The Truth Sets Us Free John 8:32 A life built on truth is the route to a life with more personal freedom (no need to keep up with your lies). However, what Jesus is saying here is so much larger and more significant than even this. This week one of our #fhcTAKEAWAYS was a prayer and one I’d challenge us to pray every day:   Lord, take my heart; for I cannot give it. It is your property.  Keep it p...

Philippians 3:13 We love this text! After all, we’ve all made a bunch of mistakes, and who wants to look back and dredge up all that pain? However, is this text about the grace that allows a new start or God's call to move forward in a life of service and sacrifice, bringing his Kingdom to the world? This week one of our #fhcTAKEAWAYS asked:   Read Philippians 3:13-14 in more than one translation....

Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”  This is a text regularly misused in an attempt to force an answer from God.  We may be surprised to see the context and the call to settle things in community without negating our private devotion to God. This week one of our #fhcTAKEAWAYS asked:   While Jesus is explicitly clear that we are to have no...

Rachel Held Evans said, “The Table reminds us that, as brothers and sisters adopted into God’s family and invited to God’s banquet, we’re stuck with each other; we’re family. We might as well make peace. The Table teaches us that, ultimately, faith isn’t about being right or good or in agreement. Faith is about feeding and being fed.” Jesus left his disciples with a concrete way to remember his gr...

Here’s a text we love because we are the star in our own movie, and we like the sound of God’s voice in this declaration.  We like the idea of God’s plan being to prosper us and not to harm us. It could easily be the weekly verse to cite among those who preach a prosperity gospel (which is not gospel at all). Without context, it appears to offer a guarantee that in the end, life will be okay, and...

This is the quintessential pep talk passage. It is most often used to pump up a spirit of achievement and even pride – like the Little Engine’s, “I think I can!” What is the real context?  Paul is here considering how God has enabled him, strengthened him to be content in times of plenty and times of shortage. Paul writes this from prison, and from the way the text has been abused, you might think...

Didn’t Jesus say we must be as perfect as God? Or, did he? Didn’t Jesus say if someone hits you once, let him hit you again? Or, did he?  Matthew 5:38-48 This week our message was by Dr. Ernie Bursey.  Dr. Bursey earned his PhD in New Testament Studies at Yale University, where his dissertation topic was Exorcism in the Book of Matthew. He also earned an M.Div. from Andrews University and a Master...

Didn’t Jesus say we must be as perfect as God? Or, did he? Didn’t Jesus say if someone hits you once, let him hit you again? Or, did he?  Matthew 5:38-48 This week our message was by Dr. Ernie Bursey.  Dr. Bursey earned his PhD in New Testament Studies at Yale University, where his dissertation topic was Exorcism in the Book of Matthew. He also earned an M.Div. from Andrews University and a Master...

Jesus’ call to proactive kindness is not to just not do what we wouldn’t want done to us, but it is proactive: DO for others what we wish for ourselves. What do we wish for ourselves at the end of a hard day of work? What would we wish for ourselves if we were without resources to care for ourselves or our child? What would we wish if facing oppression in the land of our origin? We have unending o...

“God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.” Facing opposition...

In a world where everything is changing so rapidly and where fortunes can be made or lost in a moment, we may feel compelled to defend and protect “my stuff,” “my ideas,” “my wealth,” “my religion,” and “my tradition.” This doesn’t leave much space for peace. Imagine helping people collaborate instead of competing, cooperate instead of fight. God has made peace with us and calls us to make peace w...

It’s interesting how easy it is to not care for people we don’t know and how hard it is to not care for those we know well. Jesus said “blessed are the merciful!” The best way for us to be merciful is for us to care, to really step into the shoes of another, to look out at the world from behind their eyes, and to hear and experience what they hear and experience. Matthew 5:7 This week one of our #...

“God blesses those who are poor . . . ” This is a bold and counter-cultural thing for Jesus to say. It was hard to understand and believe in that day and maybe nearly impossible to grasp in our consumer-driven culture where acquiring possessions, power, and influence are so coveted. Jesus says people are blessed and privileged when they come to realize their own bankruptcy—their utter helplessness...

Love is something we all want—we all need, and our modern world provides us all manner of messages and definitions of what love is. But Paul says that there isn’t much of what we sing about and talk about that can really get close to the depth of God’s love. In fact, Paul prays for the church that they might be able to somehow grasp this amazing love. Why is it so hard for us to accept, embrace, u...

We like to be in charge.  We like the planning and the scheduling and the organizing and having the final say in what happens and how it happens.   However, our desire to be in charge is only an effort to exert control over things none of us can actually control.  What if we let go (even just a little bit) because God is in control?  Luke 10: 38 – 42  This is a part 2 of 2 to one of our rare “.5”...

We like to be in charge.  We like the planning and the scheduling and the organizing and having the final say in what happens and how it happens.   However, our desire to be in charge is only an effort to exert control over things none of us can actually control.  What if we let go (even just a little bit) because God is in control?  Luke 10: 38 – 42  This is a part 1 of 2 and a predecessor to one...

Going from a seemingly easy and full life to one that quickly became broken in all manners — physically, emotionally and spiritually. The Monnier’s journey to embrace this new path required overcoming many hurdles. Understanding that there may not be physical healing to come, but spiritual health, is the most important prescription God provides. Mark 1:35-38 This is a rare part 2 of 2, a “.5” epis...

Going from a seemingly easy and full life to one that quickly became broken in all manners — physically, emotionally and spiritually. The Monnier’s journey to embrace this new path required overcoming many hurdles. Understanding that there may not be physical healing to come, but spiritual health, is the most important prescription God provides. Mark 1:35-38 This is a rare part 1 of 2, “.5” episod...

Why is God faithful to us, and what happens when we are faithful to God? Faithfulness is the basic ingredient to begin a relationship with God. Faith is the connecting power into the spiritual realm, which links us with God and makes Him become a tangible reality. Numbers 23:14 One of our #fhcTAKEAWAYS this week asked: Has faith ever transformed your life? If so then how? Please reach out to us di...

Grace is one of the attributes of God’s character that has such drawing power. It’s a simple concept: being given something good that we don’t deserve. Yet it boggles the human mind—so much so that many of us have a hard time accepting God’s generous gifts to us. Ephesians 2:8-9 One of our #fhcTAKEAWAYS this week asked: Think of a time in your life when you were given a gift that you didn't earn a...

Our God is a personal God, and we all relate to him in different ways. He is also a creative God. His creativity is wonderfully on display in nature and human creation, but most importantly throughout our everyday lives. We can trust our God to be in control and that he has a plan for our lives, but more importantly that he has already creatively mapped out how we are to live the rest of our lives...

“In Christ,” slaves and free people are one. Distinctions in the body of Christ over position, career, or income are not to be. The one with little economic or no economic lifting power has the same respect, vote, and participation as the person with huge economic lifting power. No preferential classifying based on these distinctions is valid in Christ’s Body. Galatians 3:23-29 One of our #fhcTAKE...

This hurts the heads of some of Jesus followers. However, Paul is clear in this most personal and self-defining of all distinctions, that in Christ they are gone and irrelevant. The old mindset of “headship” is gone; “in Christ” that is all reversed. There can be no roles withheld or conferred based on gender identity. Galatians 3:23-29 One of our #fhcTAKEAWAYS this week asked: What do you think a...

What the church is called to is oneness! We, being many – from many nations, cultures, backgrounds, races, language groups, political persuasions – “in Christ” we make up one, ONE Body of Christ. This was radical teaching for Paul and his Jewish culture. It was radical teaching in the Roman culture of hierarchy and privileges based on those very identities. It is radical teaching today in 2019 in...

Jesus knew who he was. Time spent with the Father confirmed his identity, and this gave him power to face challenges, heal others, and eventually sacrifice his life. Who are we? Who are we called to be, and what influences our understanding of our identity? Matthew 3:16-17 | Speaker: Steven Arauz This week our #fhcTAKEAWAYS came in the form of a guided plan for Creating An Identity Chart. Even if...