17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)What do you notice about the simplicity of this passage? How do you become a new creation?Much like Jesus’ death, old life buried, sin buried, new life rises again, rises from the depths of the grave. Jesus does the same thing in our life when we surrender and trust him. Our old...  Read More

  The next passage I want us to look at is from the Message version and it is Romans 6:3-5- That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old countryof sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace - a new life in a new land! That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the bu...  Read More

  The next passage I want us to look at is from the Message version and it is Romans 6:3-5- That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old countryof sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace - a new life in a new land! That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the bu...  Read More

  We are going to take another passage today and look at it not only through the lens of baptism, but the lens of faith.The words we are looking at in Matthew 28 are the last words of the gospel of Matthew. According to Matthew these are the last words of Jesus to his disciples. What do you notice?Matthew 28:19-20- 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of th...  Read More

  This past Sunday we had the opportunity to celebrate people’s choice to obediently declare their faith through baptism. My desire this week is to share some reflection pieces around baptism, but the encouragement isn’t reflecting on this faith practice, as much as it is, reflecting and challenging the steps of our faith journey.The reason I share it that way is because baptism is a declaration o...  Read More

  Yesterday we looked at the power of pain, grief, loss, anxiety, worry in conceiving to raising children and all points between. Ultimately naming the fact that those things happen, but how do we trust God in the midst of those things, because the world is broken and God didn’t do this to you. Building trust is inviting God into your grief and unfulfilled dreams.Let me fast forward briefly to how...  Read More

  Let’s keep going. Notice God’s interaction with Eve. Genesis 3:15- 16 To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children.I’ve always understood this passage to mean, guess what ladies, giving birth was going to hurt. I got it easy with our two kids, besides not having to do anything, both of our kiddos came as C-section, ...  Read More

  Genesis 3:15- 15 And I will put enmity (hostility) between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”What else do you notice about the offspring?Point of reference, some translations also have seed for offspring. For the sake of the rest of our discussion, we are going to look at this passage as seed.The seed will crush the hea...  Read More

  This week we are unpacking Genesis 3:14-24, if you listened to the message from Sunday, you will know that we only got so far. There is much within this entire passage. It was also cool to hear of people taking time to unpack portions of this passage for themselves, not just unpacking during the message. That’s the value of giving you these faith challenges, to take what is shared on a Sunday an...  Read More

  If you missed last week, I strongly recommend going back and watching it because it sets us up for this week. Let me give you a quick recap.We talked about how the serpent confronted Eve with misleading questions and statements, Eve responded with some truth, but also some fallacies, Adam was an observer, not a protector. Eve took the fruit and gave it to Adam and sin broke into the world, which...  Read More

  This week we’ve been unpacking the first 13 verses of Genesis 3. My desire has been to help you “unsee” all the ways you have perceived Genesis 3 and begin to see the chaos of disorder that came through the serpent, the satan, sin. But to also see how God pursue us despite our choosing chaos over trust.I do want to draw our attention to hope. I do want to draw our attention to the significance o...  Read More

  Yesterday I shared this quote from Tremper Longmen from his commentary . “The story of Adam, though does expose the nature of sin. What is sin at its heart? Sin is rebellion against God, a refusal to accept him as Lord. Sin places oneself in the position of God, and like Adam and Eve, humans substitute their own ideas of right and wrong in the place of God’s definition. Sin rejects God… The acco...  Read More