Peter's Progress
June 30, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Acts 9:32–43, Acts 10:1–23, 1 Peter 3:15
As one of Jesus’ disciples, Peter knew what it meant to reorient his life around the love, lifestyle, and leadership of his Rabbi. He led like Jesus, and he lived like Jesus, but Peter still had to learn how to love like Jesus. In https://biblia.com/bible/csb/acts%2010, Peter is confronted with his next marathon: overcoming his prejudice. As a Jew, Peter believed that the gospel was only good news for his own people. But when God reveals the global scale of the gospel by showing him that Gentiles are just as loved by God as Jews are, Peter must confront his prejudice. Like Peter, all of us have biases. We classify, exclude, and judge people based on ethnicity, social status, or political tribe. But to follow Jesus means we must love everyone the way Jesus did, even when we disagree with them. Just like Peter, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we too can participate in the marathon of overcoming our biases and extending the gospel to all people.
The Slow Work of God
June 23, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Acts 9:19–31, Galatians 6:9, Galatians 1:17–18, Galatians 2:1
In https://biblia.com/bible/csb/acts%209, Paul experiences his moment. He encounters the risen Jesus in an instant and his life is forever changed. But then, Paul begins his marathon. Rather than jumping straight into the work of the ministry that we know him for, Paul spends years cultivating a slow, gradual, and deep relationship with God. From Paul’s life, we learn that God always works slowly in us before working extraordinarily through us. But God won’t force His work in us. Like Paul, we must learn to trust in the slow work of God, yielding more and more of our idols, passions, and desires to him in surrender. Only by letting go of our expectations and accepting God’s grace can we slowly grow into mature disciples of Jesus who greatly impact those around us.
The Moment A Murderer Became a Minister
June 16, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Genesis 15:6, Psalm 106:28–31, Acts 9:1–19, Philippians 3:4–9, 2 Corinthians 12:9
In Acts 9 we meet Saul, a murderer and enemy of the new Christian movement. Saul has built his life around what he believes is the righteous way of God: zealously eradicating evil from the world. But then, in a moment, Saul is transformed. He meets the risen Jesus and learns that the righteousness of God doesn’t come by our earthly power, violence, or force. Instead, it comes through Christ. God in human flesh, coming to take our punishment and suffer violence on our behalf. We can learn from Saul by accepting our own brokenness and inability to achieve righteousness. Like Saul, we learn that to be a follower of Jesus is to let him be a warrior for us against sin and evil. Jesus is our only hope and confidence. Acts 9:1-19 CSB
Fulfilling Your Purpose - Peacemaking E4
May 26, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Genesis 37, Genesis 50:15–21, Genesis 45:1–11
The final part of peacemaking involves making peace with who we really are and who God made us to be. At some point in our lives, our perspective shifts. We realize that we aren’t the hero of our story in the way we thought we’d be. We make mistakes, poor choices, and few of us experience life exactly the way we thought we would. And yet, God can still redeem the lowest parts of our story. In fact, the most influential people in the biblical story all experience dramatic low points. At the end of Genesis, Joseph seems to be at his lowest point. But through his work of forgiving his past, forging new patterns, and framing his pain, God is able to fulfill Joseph’s purpose. Making peace with our purpose means making peace with disappointment, failure, and regret. But it also means making peace with who we actually are today. We look back at our lives, and ahead to our future, in order to fulfill the purpose God has for us.
Framing Your Pain - Peacemaking E3
May 19, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Genesis 4:1–12, Mark 14:32–42
One of the hardest parts of our lives to make peace with is the pain and suffering that follows us. All of us experience hardship, and for some, it’s the defining attribute of our lives. Whether from death, loss, infertility, chronic illness, sudden diagnoses, relational hurt and betrayal, or simply from apathy and the monotony of life, all of us have painful experiences. Making peace with our pain doesn’t mean we ignore its reality. It actually means the opposite. Unlike Abel in https://biblia.com/bible/we/gen%204 don’t allow our pain to stir up bitterness in our hearts. Instead, framing our pain is a way for us to vocalize our pain to God. We name the emotions connected to our pain, and we voice these emotions back to God. But we also declare God’s faithfulness back to ourselves. Like Jesus in the Garden before His crucifixion, we use our pain as a reminder that God is still faithful and in control. And even in our lowest, God is still near.
Forging New Patterns - Peacemaking E2
May 12, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Genesis 25, Genesis 32
Once we’ve made peace with our past, we must learn to forge new patterns. To do this requires us to take ownership for the ways we contribute to the pain of the people around us. All of us have ways of coping with pain in our own lives, and some of these coping mechanisms can be good. If we’re lucky, we learn from our parents what it means to own up to our mistakes, forgive others, and resolve conflict well. But all of us also carry negative coping mechanisms into our relationships as well. Some call these negative coping mechanisms attachment styles. We learn how to get what we want from people and how to avoid pain that comes with relationships. Put another way, all of us tend to cope by becoming either peace-fakers or peace-breakers. We fake peace by ignoring conflict, pain, and hard conversations with others. We break peace by blowing up on those around us, storming off, and giving into anger and resentment. And like all negative coping mechanisms, these patterns are often fueled by lies we believe about ourselves, others, and God. By making peace with our patterns, we’re intentionally confronting our flesh. We’re calling out the selfish parts of who we are and refusing to let it rule over our relationships. Like the Psalmist in https://biblia.com/bible/we/ps%20139’re inviting God to search us and know us to get rid of the offensive and sinful parts of us (https://biblia.com/bible/csb/ps%20139.23-24).
Forgiving Your Past - Formed by Peacemaking E1
May 5, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Genesis 12:10–20, Genesis 26:1–11, Exodus 34:6–7, Matthew 18:21–22, Matthew 6:14–15
All of us are shaped by our past. Where we come from, who we come from, and the way we were raised all shape who we are today in profound ways. Most of us have a basic awareness of our family of origin, but few of us have done the hard work of learning about our past to better understand who we are today. As a result, all of us unknowingly transmit the same narratives, patterns, pains, and expectations as our family before us. To make peace with our past is to return to an ancient tradition from the scriptures. Throughout the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, God tells His people to remember where they’ve come from, what God has saved them from, and the promises He has made (https://biblia.com/bible/csb/deut.%206.12, https://biblia.com/bible/csb/isa.%2046.9, https://biblia.com/bible/csb/ps.%20143.5). Making peace with our past means we must forgive our past. We must take intentional time to see where we come from. We learn about our family of origin to better understand where our behaviors and patterns come from, both good and bad. But most importantly, we look back in order to recognize God’s providence and care for us in our lives. By recognizing both positives and negatives in our past, we’re able to see how God has used our family of origin to shape who we are.
The Myth of Comfort
April 21, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Acts 6
Many of us fall into the trap of believing the myth of comfort: if something goes wrong, we must be doing something wrong. We falsely assume that if we’re doing the right things, we won’t face suffering, opposition, or conflict of any kind. But in https://biblia.com/bible/we/acts%206 see why this is a myth. As it grows, the early church faces conflict. There’s complaining within the church and persecution outside the church. But rather than giving up on those around them or giving in to those around them, the church endures internal resistance and external persecution. By learning to abandon the myth of comfort, we too can become non-anxious in the face of resistance.
Sharing Christ in a Post-Christian Culture
April 7, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Acts 4:1–22
Until Acts 4, the beginning of the church experienced miraculous success. People joined the church daily, shared what they had with one another, and gained more and more favor with outsiders. But in Acts 4, all of that changes. Suddenly confronted with the gospel truth, Jewish leaders give in to their anxiety and start harassing the disciples. Peter and John are forced into court, interrogated, and threatened. But instead of toning down their message, they get bolder. Peter remains a stable non-anxious presence amidst the fear of the culture around him. Our culture is much the same today. And like Peter we also have a choice; we can either tone down our message, or get bolder in proclaiming it. By reminding ourselves that Christ is our cornerstone, we too can remain non-anxious and continue spreading the good news with those around us.
Easter: Paranoia or Metanoia
March 31, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Acts 3:11–26
We live in a paranoid world. From the chaos, violence, and immorality around us to the anxiety, pain, and trauma inside us, most of us live in a constant state of fear. And without any hope of rescue, this paranoia leads us to either alarmism, or escapism. But the gospel story gives us a better hope. Jesus came into a world just as paranoid as ours, and he confronted the root of our paranoia; we’re all stuck in spiritual slavery, sin, and sickness. And by living the perfect life, dying the death we deserved, and rising again, Jesus offers us hope. But to choose this hope takes an act of “metanoia,” or repentance. When we repent, we actively choose to reorient our lives around the reality of Jesus and his resurrection.
Acts: The Spiritually Lame & The Spiritual Leader
March 24, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Acts 3:1–10
In https://biblia.com/bible/we/acts%203 meet a man unable to walk sitting outside of the temple. Separated from the presence of God and others, this man was left to beg for a living. But when Peter and John encounter him, they offer more than gold or silver; they offer him healing, both for his body and for his shame. Like this man, many of us today carry shame from our wickedness and woundedness that pulls us away from God and from others. And like Peter and John, at some point we will have the opportunity to extend healing from God to others. In order to deal with our shame and heal the shame of others, we must learn to confront it.
Acts: The Upper & Lower Room
March 17, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Acts 2:42–47
Most of us carry unrealistic expectations when it comes to church community. We all want the perfect personality to lead us, the perfect people around us, the perfect programs to serve us, and the perfect place to make us comfortable. But few of us fail to realize that community based around these things won’t feed the deep longing we have in our souls for genuine community. Instead of settling for personalities, programs, people, and places, the book of Acts invites us to see what a more true and genuine community could look like. At the tail end of Acts 2, just as the gospel movement is about to spread, we see a glimpse of this type of genuine community shared by the first disciples. Rather than settling for personalities, people, programs, and places, they commit to the teaching of scripture, deep and vulnerable community, intentional rhythms of practice, and reliant prayer for the Spirit. The goal of our church is to do the same.
Feasting with the Sinner [Hospitality E4]
February 25, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Luke 7:34–50
Many of Jesus’ interactions with the lost happened over a meal. In https://biblia.com/bible/csb/luke%207.34, Jesus is accused of being “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” The Gospel of Luke illustrates this well: In https://biblia.com/bible/csb/luke%205, Jesus is described dining with tax collectors and sinners at a man named Levi’s house. Jesus is anointed by a sinful woman while eating at a Pharisee’s home in https://biblia.com/bible/csb/luke%207. And when Jesus forgives and restores Zacchaeus, the Jewish tax collector in https://biblia.com/bible/csb/luke%2019, he first invites himself over for a meal. Bottom line: Jesus’ proximity to those living counter to the way of God was scandalous to the self-righteous and life-giving to the self-rejecting. Again, if seeking and saving the lost was his mission, then sharing a meal with them was his method. As Jesus’ disciples, we’re instructed to do the same. By practicing hospitality, we create a safe space for those opposed to the way of Jesus to encounter and experience the love of God. We don’t affirm people’s sin, but we do affirm that they’re loved and valued image-bearers of God.
Feasting with the Stranger [Hospitality E3]
February 18, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Luke 14:12–24
If “loving your neighbor as yourself” was the second most important commandment in the scriptures according to Jesus, then it’s something we should make a regular part of our day-to-day life. But in our hyper-individualistic and self-serving culture, few of us actually get to know the strangers we interact with on a daily basis. Jesus and his disciples faced similar issues in their day. Loving their neighbors was difficult because of boundary lines and discrimination that occurred between Jews and Gentiles. Later in the biblical story, the early church faced violent opposition and persecution due to their commitment to King Jesus. And yet, the more meals they shared with their “enemies,” the more their enemies became friends. Over time, those friends became part of the family of God. Henri Nouwen defines hospitality this way: “the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.” People will always expect our hostility until they experience our hospitality. By getting to know the neighbors in our lives, even our actual neighborhood neighbors, we create spaces and opportunities to serve those around us and demonstrate the love of God.