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.
What a morning to celebrate how Jesus has changed people’s lives and their choice to follow Him. It’s amazing to see what God is doing. Baptism is also a time for all of us to reflect on the death and resurrection of Jesus, and celebrate the freedom He brings us.
How can you tell what’s right and what’s wrong? Fortunately, many would say, we live in an age where objective truth has disappeared. What’s true for you isn’t true for others, and what’s wrong for you isn’t wrong for others. But is it truly good for us when morals change from generation to generation and you can write your own? Or, are we missing something?
Why would anyone living today trust the Bible? After all, it’s so full of terrible instances of violence and oppression that it has to be both barbaric and outdated. Besides, you can’t really rely on a document that’s over 2000 years old. It’s been translated so often there’s very little likelihood that what we’re reading is what was written. Right?
Why would anyone living today trust the Bible? After all, it’s so full of terrible instances of violence and oppression that it has to be both barbaric and outdated. Besides, you can’t really rely on a document that’s over 2000 years old. It’s been translated so often there’s very little likelihood that what we’re reading is what was written. Right?
Religion is basically how ancients understood the world, but science has taken us so far beyond that. Between what we know about evolution, astronomy, genetics, biology and so many other sciences, we’ve explained what we used to attribute to God. If science explains or will explain everything, why do we really need God?
We celebrated the incredible hope of the resurrection of Jesus at our Easter services and it was a powerful morning! Tune in for to catch our online experience of this service.
We’ve hosted a meaningful Good Friday services across all locations that included a reflection on the death of Christ and an opportunity to mark the moment with communion. These services are a little different and are always a special time.
Most of people either feel not very good about themselves or too good about themselves. Both are problems. And both are rooted in something sinister that Jesus would love to root out of your life. Once it’s gone, a much better understanding of what true success is can emerge.
So how do you know you’re good with God? How deeply do you have to obey? How often can you mess up? If you blow it, will God give up on you? Will he be mad at you? Will he punish you? These are good questions...but only religious people ask them. Christians ask a whole other set of questions, and Jesus shows us why.
It’s so easy to worry, and if you’re honest, it probably seems a little annoying when Jesus tells you to simply stop worrying (which he does). The real questions is how? We’ll look at what Jesus says the chief causes of worry are, and what to do about them.
Family life comes with decisions and challenges every day. How we see and approach our families is important, but there’s also some everyday practical stuff. How do you tackle screen time, bedtime, dating, when do they get a phone, how do you manage their behaviour - this list could go on! On this week we had a panel of parents at different phases to answer the tough questions and have a conversation about the everyday challenges, opportunities, and rhythms of family.