So...why isn’t everyone a little more like you? The world would be a better place, would it not? Apparently, not. When God designed humankind, he pronounced his work to be very good. However, as the Enneagram reveals, He didn’t make us all the same. Maybe the differences aren’t deficiencies, they’re design.
The kingdom of God is characterized by unsettling generosity —the kind of generosity that gives the undeserving what they don’t deserve and regardless of how unright we’ve been, makes us right with God. So what do we do when we’re faced with this math that doesn’t add up? And how do we respond to this unfair, unsettling system that Jesus came to invite us into?
There is an unsettling solution for just about everything, and we can sum it up in one word. Grace. It’s the undeserved, unearned, unearnable favor that Jesus came to offer us. So why wouldn’t we want Christianity to be true? And where should you start if it’s a word that was never part of the equation for you?
So if you’re going to live forever, what’s it like? This week, we’ll look at the biblical descriptions of heaven, what role Jesus plays, what role your deeds play (they do play a role, just not the one most people think), and we’ll answer your top questions on heaven as submitted through Instagram.
A lot of people struggle to believe what they read in Scripture. Instead, they argue that they’d be more likely to believe if someone came back from the dead and told them about what happens when you die. This week we’ll look at the stories of three people who did just that.
Almost everyone has an opinion about the afterlife, but so many things people believe about eternity may or may not be true. How do you know whether what you think is true...is true? To kick off the series, Carey covers five commonly held myths about eternity that it’s time to bust.
In your life, when the gap between the real and the ideal is growing, you can end up filling that gap with worry, anxiety, and fear. If you are honest, sometimes your worry about all the possible outcomes is worse than the situation itself. The truth: Worry erodes resilience. How do you maintain your resilience in the face of worry and anxiety. What if you could face hard things while winning the war against worry at the same time?
One of the things that rattles us most are difficult relationships. Sometimes we need resilience when people are difficult, and sometimes we need to keep fighting for a relationship with someone we love. Often we need resilience to navigate a relationship we didn’t choose (like a co-worker or a neighbour). How do we bounce back when the gap grows between the reality of a relationship and the ideal that we would hope for? With conflict being a big part of relational challenges, how do we keep our composure? As we look at Paul’s life the answer may not be what we think.
When it comes to most circumstances and relationships in your life you have an ideal in mind or your own idea of how it should go (even subconsciously). The problem comes when the gap between the real and the ideal begins to grow, especially when it’s something or someone you care about. That’s when you are shaken. How do you grow in resilience to handle those gaps?
As much as there are some things we should delete in our lives, there are some things that should never be blocked. In fact, they need to be saved, added and followed. Pursued. We’ll look at the kinds of things--and the kinds of people--you want to always have close to you.
Can you follow Jesus and delete toxic people from your life? Surprisingly, yes. In fact, sometimes it's the most loving thing you can do. Join us to find out why, when, how to delete toxic people from your life. You might even discover who needs to go.
What goes around often comes around. The powerless often find themselves in a position of power and the people who hurt us may someday need us. In the moments when we’ve got those people right where we want ‘em, what we say will say as much about us as anything else. If our words are stones, will we choose to throw them, or use them to pave the way forward?
Our big mouths can be destructive, but they also have the power to build others up. What we say can impact the quality, and even the direction, of the lives of the people around us. How can we use this power for good?
Like a small spark that has the potential to scorch an entire green forest, our tongues are untamable, with the power to control our whole bodies. We have a tool that can be used to build up those around us or tear them down in just a few words. What do we do with that kind of power? We can’t lock it away. But we can, by God’s grace, learn to control it.
We all know what it’s like to be hurt by someone who just couldn’t listen long enough to understand us. Maybe in their attempt to be right, they damaged a relationship that could have been saved with a little patience and curiosity. You’ve probably been on the other side of that coin too. Taking the verbal offense may have won the argument but you lost relationally. What if we didn’t settle for being right, but tried to make things right instead? The longer we listen the more we learn, and the better chance we have of protecting ourselves from our own big mouths.
You have a million things on the go, and because you don’t want to be selfish, chances are you put everything and everyone ahead of yourself. That’s potentially a fatal mistake. Maybe the key to being a better follower of Jesus, a better spouse, a better parent and a better human is actually putting yourself first when it comes to personal growth.
Whatever your sense of morality is, the frightening truth is that we all fail to live up to it? Why...and how do you keep coming up short? Surprisingly, compromise never starts with the big stuff. It’s way more subtle than that. When you see how compromise starts, you can change it.
Carey Nieuwhof
To Be List - Part 1 - Meanwhile, At Your Funeral...
As much as no one likes to talk about it, one day we’re all going to not be here anymore. So here’s the socially awkward question: what will people be saying about you at your funeral? After doing hundreds of funerals, pastors have a pretty good idea of what people say at funerals. And that’s the question we’ll look at this weekend is what will people say about you? It’s not that hard to predict.
When we face pain and loss, they change the story we had planned for our lives. They can end our dreams. But what do pain and loss look like when we try to see the world as God sees the world, and to do as God says?
We tend to view our time the same way we view our money—we spend, invest, and waste it. The question is: how does God view time? If we saw it as he sees it, it might affect the way we use our own.
Seeing your money and possessions as God sees them will make you more inclined to do with them as God says. That can revolutionize your life.
How you see the world affects everything you do. It even affects how you see God. What would it take for you to broaden your view so you can see God more accurately and connect with him more deeply?
What do you do when you feel stuck at work? You’re grateful you have a job, but you feel like there’s something else you need to be doing. How do you pay the bills and still pursue a dream job? Many people give up. You don't have to be one of those people. In the conclusion of Dream Job, we talk about what to do in the middle of the Monday-morning blues and the search for your dream job.
Jeff Henderson
Once we understand the purpose of work, we have to understand the answer to another important question: "What does God specifically want me to do with my career?" This question sounds similar to a question we all were asked as kids: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" For many of us, these questions seem mysterious. The good news is that in Part 2 of Dream Job, we will look at a tangible biblical principle that puts us on the path toward discovering the answer.
Jeff Henderson
Many of us spend over 30% of our lives at a job and, according to Gallup, almost 80% of us are dissatisfied while we’re there. That’s rather depressing, isn’t it? We’ll spend almost a third of our lives on something that creates dissatisfaction. Are we okay with this?
Perhaps we need to hit the reset button and rediscover what “work” is all about and where it came from. When we do, we discover something remarkable: the idea that work came from our heavenly Father. It’s his idea. And when we understand work from God’s perspective, we discover the real meaning and purpose behind it.
When we discover the purpose of work, we discover that there is no such thing as a job without purpose. This means that all of us can experience something remarkable: a job with purpose, meaning, and satisfaction. In other words, a dream job.