Scripture: Colossians 3:12Have you been impatient, harsh, or focused primarily on yourself? The good news is that God’s grace offers a fresh start. Today, take a moment to examine your heart. Invite God to renew your mind and help you begin again, clothed in compassion and kindness.Prayer: Lord, thank You for new beginnings. Renew my heart and help me reflect Your kindness today.......

  Scripture: Ephesians 4:15Many people think kindness means avoiding difficult conversations, but biblical kindness is rooted in truth. Genuine love seeks the highest good of another person. Sometimes that means offering encouragement; other times it means providing honest, gracious feedback. Truth without love can wound. Love without truth can mislead. Christ calls us to both.Prayer: Jesus, help ...

  Scripture: Luke 10:33-34The Good Samaritan saw a need and responded. He crossed social barriers, interrupted his plans, and spent his own resources to help someone who could offer nothing in return. Biblical kindness is more than sympathy; it is compassion in action. Ask God to open your eyes today. Someone around you may need encouragement, assistance, or simply a listening ear. Don’t walk past...

  Scripture: Colossians 3:12There is a difference between being nice and being kind. Niceness often seeks comfort and approval. Biblical kindness seeks the good of others, even when it requires effort, sacrifice, or difficult conversations. Real kindness helps people grow, serves practical needs, and is rooted in truth. Today, consider your recent interactions. Were you simply being nice, or were ...

  Day 1: Get Dressed for the DayScripture: Colossians 3:12Every morning we make a choice about what to wear. Paul reminds us that believers also have a spiritual wardrobe. Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience are not automatic; they are attitudes we intentionally put on each day. Before rushing into your schedule, ask God to clothe you with His character. The way you are dresse...

  I love this summary of how Jesus extends grace to us and what it means for today and eternity. Eugene Peterson shares it in Romans 5:17-21- If death got the upper hand through one man’s wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, absolute life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus C...

  Ok, let’s finish the chapter. Genesis 3:22-24- 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the ...

  Let’s finish the chapter and see more of how God responds to a broken and lost world. We’ll pick up in Genesis 3:21- 21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Do you notice the care and compassion God shows them? They were naked, tried to solve it on their own by sewing fig leaves together. God, knowing that they were going to be exiled out of Eden into the wi...

  Reflect back on Genesis 3:14-15- 14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”God spoke to the...

  We are back in our Genesis series- creation, failure, redemption, repeat. We are just finishing up with chapter three, and I realized the last time we were together in this series; I left you on a cliff hanger, literally.For those of you who were with us, I shared about how I was camping, hiking, exploring the backcountry of SD with some college friends and as I was climbing the face of this str...

  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...

  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...

  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...

  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...

  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...

  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...

  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, ...

  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...

  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...

  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...