Respond to Worship

Life on the Way Down: The Endless Cycle

January 5, 2025

Christmas is Real

December 29, 2024

Conversation Starters ╬ Faith and doubt often come together as awkward dance partners. Like Jonah in the belly of the whale, praise God for the things you know: Jesus has come, lived and died for love of your soul. To worship as an act of the will, a decision, leads the weary soul into deepening and rekindled faith. ╬ In 2025, look deeply into God’s Word in search of those who have lived their faith in God. Who are the witnesses of God’s faithfulness in the scriptures? Seek to follow their examples. Also, find a soul friend with whom you can live your faith, and doubt your doubts, out loud.

Christmas is Real: Power and Holiness

December 24, 2024 • Brad Strait

Christmas is Real: Grace

December 22, 2024 • Brad Strait

Christmas is Real: Faithfulness

December 15, 2024 • Brad Strait

Conversation Starters ╬  Think about your own heritage and family tree. Some of your relatives may be followers of Jesus, while others may be far from the Lord. Take a minute to thank God for those who came before you as examples of godliness. Now, take a minute to pray for those in your family tree who are far from God today. Would the Lord invite you to commit to praying for them daily during this Advent season? ╬ Matthew’s list of 42 generations is a fascinating study. Imagine for a moment the life experiences of the people listed. Hopes and disappointments, joys and suffering, faith and doubts combine to into extraordinary lives that make it into the listed ancestry of Jesus. Just like us, these lives are lived faithfully, and sometimes unfaithfully, before the God of mercy and love. Rehearse your own ancestry. Can you see God at work in the ups and downs of your own story? Give thanks for God’s great mercy and love.

Christmas is Real: In Control

December 8, 2024 • Brad Strait

Conversation Starters ╬  At the end of the Annunciation the angel Gabriel left Mary with the words, “For no word from God will ever fail” (1:37). How do these words express God’s sovereign control, authority, and covenantal presence? ╬  It is tempting to want to be a “control freak,” attempting to order our lives, our circumstances and the people around us. Being controlling is often a defense against a fear of the unknown or to prevent pain from suffering or loss. It separates us from Jesus. If God is good, if God loves and is present with his people, what would it be like to relinquish your illusion of control to your sovereign God? Until it is worth the risk, trying to control will continue to separate us from our Lord and Savior.

Christmas is Real: Faith

December 1, 2024 • Brad Strait

Conversation Starters ╬  Zechariah and Elizabeth and Mary are examples of deeply rooted faith. How did generations of God-followers continue to live in faith even in the silence and waiting and disappointments of those four hundred years? What lessons can we glean from their example? ╬  Faith and trust. Trust and faith. They go together. These are the essential foundation for living faithfully and obediently before God. Measure these within your own mind and heart. Do you truly believe that “No word from God will ever fail”? Do you believe in the God who has brought about his salvation plan in Christ Jesus? To what degree do you trust the Father, the Son, and the Spirit with your own life, hopes and dreams?

The Road Ahead

November 24, 2024 • Brad Strait

Ripples

November 17, 2024 • Brad Strait

Freeing Our Hearts

November 10, 2024 • Brad Strait

Teachable and Trusting

November 3, 2024 • Brad Strait

Conversation Starters ╬  Western culture has been thoroughly Christianized for so many centuries that concerns for the homeless, the indigent, and the elderly have long been institutionalized. When you think of the “lowly” today in your community, whom or what comes to mind? Are they being overlooked? What is it that they need the most? How is God asking you to give love to the lowly?  ╬  Jesus says that all who desire to enter the Kingdom must come to it like a little child — "for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” This is shocking language for an educated and accomplished people. Look at your life, attitudes, and actions. Are the Kingdom requirements of humility, dependence, weakness, and trust centerstage for you? The gifts of confession, forgiveness, and beginning again are always ours in Christ Jesus.

Too Hard

October 27, 2024 • Brad Strait

Conversation Starters ╬ “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!” Like the boy’s father, unbelief and doubt can sometimes seem larger than faith and belief. Do you believe your doubts and doubt your faith? Or do you believe your faith and doubt your doubts?  ╬ When have you assumed that God would do something the same way he did before? What would change in your life if you lived always in continual reliance upon Him?

Old and New Faces

October 20, 2024 • Brad Strait

Conversation Starters ╬ What is the significance of the fact that Jesus was both the Son of God and the Son of Man? That he experienced both horrific suffering and death, and glorious exaltation?  ╬ For what challenge or problem should I seek the help of the God who is the Lord of heaven and earth?

Seeing Clearly

October 13, 2024 • Brad Kenney

Conversation Starters ╬  The two-stage healing of the blind man reflects our own progress toward understanding who Jesus is and the extent of his compassion and provision for his people. Think about your own journey as a follower of Jesus. How do you understand and know Jesus differently now than you did when you first became a Christian? As you think about your own growth as a disciple of Jesus, what words would you use to describe your progression of who you have known him to be—Friend, Savior, Healer, Lord, Shepherd, Suffering Servant, Lamb of God, Risen Christ, Son of God, Righteous Judge, . . . ╬  Think about a time when your vision was obscured by life circumstances. How do you see that situation differently now?

Opening Day

October 6, 2024 • Phil Bremerman