February 2015

The Justice of Jesus

Sometimes when we watch the news or experience evil in our lives we can wonder if injustice will reign in our world and if evil will last forever. We’ll explore a dramatic parable that probes the nature of our sin, tragedy of human injustice, God’s ultimate justice, and God’s grace poured out through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

Trilogy of Grace

We’ll explore the third of a trilogy of parables in Luke 15, learning from the three characters. The prodigal son rebelled against his father, running away into sins especially shameful in his culture before coming back home, bringing to life that God’s grace is wider than any sin where we might have wandered or shame we might have experienced. The older brother was equally lost, because he didn’t grasp his father’s love so worked to earn his father’s approval, ending up bitter, teachi

January 2015

The Joy of Jesus

When you look in the mirror, what do you see?  So often our sense of who we are comes from the values of our culture: we are what we have, what we do, or what others think of us. The truth that Christ teaches is that we are the highly valued, beloved daughters and sons of God, created in God’s image. The next time you look in the mirror, what will you see?

The Wedding Banquet

God has planned a wedding banquet to celebrate the arrival of his bride, the church, into the Kingdom of God. Have you ever attended a wedding banquet? Do you remember the joyful celebration, love of the bride and groom, delicious feast, words of blessing, and dancing into the night? God has a party beyond anything we could imagine to celebrate the consummation of Christ and his bride, the church, in God’s Kingdom. But Jesus has a twist in this parable, because many of the invited guests are t

Kingdom Trilogy

Jesus often spoke about the Kingdom of God. What is this Kingdom? How do we enter this Kingdom? Why would we want to devote our lives to this Kingdom? How does God’s Kingdom spread within people’s lives around throughout the world? How does God’s Kingdom resemble the kingdoms of our world and how are they radically different? Luke masterfully weaves several Kingdom Parables in the next chapters of our journey. I’m excited to explore these parables to further grasp the unique identity of

One and Only Life

What will we do with the one and only life God has given to us? Will we squander the resources God has entrusted to us or will we invest them wisely to make a difference in this world and impact eternity? We only have one chance to live our lives. The choices we make today affect the people in our lives, the world in our generation, and our footprint into the future. Imagine if God’s people became lavishly generous with our time, money, abilities, and the Gospel. Imagine impoverished children

December 2014

The Magnificat

Hope is important to a hurting person, persecuted person, or rejected person. Mary experienced God’s favor, to give birth to the Messiah, not because she merited it or came from a favored nation or belonged to a famous family. Mary experienced favor because of her genuine faith and humble state. We’ll explore the “Magnificat” with Mary’s song of celebration to learn how God can use anyone who is humble and available to glorify God and further Christ’s mission in the world.

The Warnings of Jesus

Who is Jesus? Diverse perspectives of Jesus Christ fill people’s opinions, media portraits, academic research and everyday conversations. A religious philosopher?  A social revolutionary? A crazy guy who claimed to be God? A mysterious figure we can’t know much about? The Son of God? What does that mean? We’re exploring the identity of Jesus as revealed in the Gospel of Luke during

Neighbors in Need

Jesus surprised everyone in the crowd when he shared the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We’ll probe challenging questions evoked by this thought-provoking story. Who are people in our culture robbed by racism, crime, poverty, violence, abuse, corruption, and thrown to the side of road like the victim in this parable? Since Samaritans were despised outcastes, what injustice and anger must this Samaritan have overcome to fuel such compassion on another suffering person? What can we learn, in our world filled with so many overwhelming needs, from the specific actions by the Samaritan to wisely meet needs? Come ready to be inspired and equipped to take genuine acts of compassion and justice in the name of Christ.

November 2014

The Identity of Jesus

The Identity of Jesus is the question we will be looking at this Sunday, and it’s one that Luke is sure to put at the center of his Gospel. In fact, when the question of Jesus’ true identity is discussed amongst the disciples, it marks a crucial moment in the life and ministry of Christ and the disciples who follow him. The answer to this question is no