Sometimes the circumstances or realities of my life push me to flounder until I remember who God is… It reminds me of Hagar in the book of Genesis. In chapter 16, she named an area "The God Who Sees" when God met her in great distress. Later, in Genesis 21:8-21, God...
A funny thing happened at Element on a recent Sunday morning, I was making a sermon illustration and it turned out better than I ever dreamed. If you missed it, this is what happened. I showed everyone in the room a 20$ bill, it was easily identified by most people. I...
If we were to read Romans chapters 1-3:20 (which you should, because Romans is amazing) without an understanding of the gospel, without knowing of our rescue, we could and should come away feeling desperate, lost, and hopeless. It’s a good thing we don’t stop at...
We spent the last 4 months going through the beatitudes, we are now continuing on to the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. As we rounded out the beatitudes a lot of you mentioned that you had never heard them explained the way we talked about them. You also mentioned...
CS Lewis in the book the weight of glory writes, " Glory suggests two ideas to me, of which one seems wicked and the other ridiculous. Either glory means to me fame, or it means luminosity." He is speaking of glory for ourselves (he says he doesn't want fame and...
…and not the kind you’re thinking of. I was hanging out with some friends recently, and the topic of personality happened to come up. This subject has always fascinated me—my husband and I even took a whole semester-long course on it in college (yes, we are psychology...
Today's blog comes from the wisest person who ever lived: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who...
Why isn't Communion, the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper, mentioned in the creeds of the church? This could be a very short answer, but I will do my best to string it out a bit. The Nicene Creed came about in 325AD and it was essentially a way to combat Gnosticism and...
In the Nicene Creed, one of the most quoted and respected creeds, it says, "We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins." What does that mean? Did they believe baptism saved a person? One of the things that we, westernized people, like today is what we call...
I have a relative who has been grilling me about some verses and brought up John 14:14, which he says can't be true since we clearly don't get everything we ask for from God. Do you have any insight? Do I have any insight? I have an opinion about everything. In...
