Since the beginning of time and by the third page of the Bible, humanity has struggled with the relationship between God, knowledge, control, and temptation. When we get it wrong, the results are catastrophic.
The downsides of social media are never far away. . . our teens are constantly confronted with images of people who somehow seem prettier, richer, more fashionable, and more popular. Social media takes the normal anxieties of teenage life and hypercharges them.
How do we relate to God and one another in this digital age? We hope you will join us this week as we look for God’s answer together to the real problem of being “Alone Together.”
While disagreement is unavoidable, division is a choice. The most important thing to Jesus is his followers’ unity, and in the midst of disagreement, we can create a community where everyone is welcome, and even enemies can work together joyfully.
When someone does something wrong, we want them to get what they deserve. But when we’re the ones who do wrong, we want mercy! Thankfully, Jesus shows us a God who does not give us what we deserve but offers us grace, no matter how little we seem to deserve it.
When you’re going through a difficult time, someone might try to reassure you by saying, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” But if we’re honest, we all have things we can’t handle alone. The good news is that God never expected us to handle everything on our own, and God helps us when we have more than we can handle.
Everyone wants to be happy, but our attempts to chase happiness often have the opposite effect—they make us miserable. While God delights in our happiness, God also has higher callings for us that are better and more life-giving than happiness alone.
We’ve all heard them—simple sayings that sound nice, but are simply untrue. You may have heard that “Doubting is dangerous.” But doubt is something we all experience, and in fact, doubt can actually help us to grow.
The Christian life isn't something we do in private—it's a public act of living as a citizen of heaven, and it has serious social and community consequences. Being good citizens of the gospel kingdom of Christ demands higher standards for our behavior, and when we live this way, we can enjoy a common life of joy and humility.
We all need a supportive community around us, but a healthy, strong community can be hard to find. The early church in Philippi demonstrates what it looks like when we come together as people partnering together who are generous, content, and loving. By following their example, we can create that same kind of community today.
