Redemption HOU podcast

Many of us have been told that people like us can’t belong at Jesus’ table. An odd story. A gatekeeping Jesus. A Canaanite woman who wrestles with God and wins. What’s found at the center of it all is not new, but it is shocking.For more information visit https://www.redemptionhou.com/

"I'm drowning." It is an all too common description for life right now. More and more asked of you. Less and less offered back. It seems life is utterly out of your control. If you're here right now we get it. Here's a story to offer some hope.For more information about us visit https://www.redemptionhou.com/

We live in a new anxious age, scarcity is real, nothing is certain, and it seems everything may be holding on by a thread. You likely feel this. Jesus doesn't offer an escape from this, but an inexhaustible gift in the midst of it — something the world can't produce or sell.The story of the feeding of the 5,000 in Matthew 14 shows that Christ's invitation is to eat and be satisfied.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

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Childish Gambino. Soren Kierkegaard. Jesus Christ. Once you see it, you cant unsee it.

Jesus refuses to let us live in the curated world we keep trying to build. He insists on the one we actually have — weeds and wheat together — which means living alongside and loving those we'd rather not.A great deal of this message was inspired and taken from a sermon by Jacob Breeze, Vicar of Holy Family Episcopal Church and friend of Redemption. Listen Here.

Jesus’ parables help us understand that we do not understand. At the edge of the lake we are drawn no by Jesus into a life beyond our comprehension and control, a life of mystery, of relationship, of story. There we don’t gain control, we gain Him.

Eventually, the music stops and the lights flicker on (literally and metaphorically). This is for those who aren't quite sure if they feel particularly happy or sad, good or bad —perhaps just numb. This is for those who have ever set the goal of simply surviving the day. In other words, this is for human beings experiencing the realities of life. Jesus has an invitation for us.Journaling prompts:“Community” and “doing life together” are not auxiliary to the work of the church – they are central. Jesus’ yoke binds us one to another. How have you understood this yoke in the past and how might this understanding shape your ideas about church going forward? Divine favor rests on infants. How might this shape your picture of living a sent life?What is your relationship with the unknown? Does it make you anxious? Does it make you strive for control? How might Jesus’ invitation begin to gently offer you peace in the unknown?

A sermon by Jordan Rhea. Jesus sends out the twelve, and concludes his charge to them with a message of union. They are told to depart from Jesus, and yet, in this harvest work, they will be intimately connected to him, God, and all believers.

Jesus Christ introduces a new order of things into the world, not merely an updated order. Enter friction. Let’s be honest - none of us are eager to sign up for the hard life, but what if the inherent friction between the old order of things and the way of Jesus is indeed the way to a full, flourishing, and free life.Related Sermon - Would A God of Love Send Anyone to Hell?Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/5s52OsUXYHBYY2961lCzJW?si=dfcca7a80ab64190Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/redemption-hou-podcast/id1747381433?i=1000656189377Prompts:Jesus invites us to follow Him. This is the singular invitation on the table. There is no lite or pro tier, just disciples. What about this might challenge you? What about this might free you?“I sing because I’m happy / I sing because I’m free / His eyes are on the sparrow / so I know He watches me.” This refrain has been sung by people over the years who have had plenty of reason to disbelieve the words coming out of their mouths. Take some time to get honest with God about how these words hit you at the moment. God is cool with honest prayers. Practice: Read and reflectRead Isaiah 60, which opens with a poem about the holy city reflecting God’s light. Then spend some time reflecting. Perhaps grab a writing instrument and a notepad. Have you ever found yourself at the end of your rope - tired and burned out? The light comes from outside of you. The light shines. That is simply what it does. Spend some time reflecting on this and getting curious on how this might allow you to exhale today.

Those called are those sent. Jesus’ call means we’ve been invited into God, which means we’ve been invited to participate in what God is up to, in the way God is up to it. This reality is not always one we would’ve chosen for ourselves, but it is our being faithful to the contours of a kingdom life.

Jesus tells us God is after one very particular group of people. In doing so fundamentalism of any kind is taken off the table. We are not a community of self-certain people. We are a community in desperate need of God.

For those of us burned by versions of Christianity which are about behavior management, culture wars, or bigger, better, brighter performances Trinity Sunday is an invitation to re-consider all of it. If we pay close attention, Matthew 28 and the Great Commission reveals a God who is love through and through and who is drawing all of the world into that love. This means the church is mission — the enactment of what all the whole world was made for.For those of us burned by versions of Christianity which are about behavior management, culture wars, or bigger, better, brighter performances Trinity Sunday is an invitation to re-consider all of it. If we pay close attention, Matthew 28 and the Great Commission reveals a God who is love through and through and who is drawing all of the world into that love. This means the church is mission — the enactment of what all the whole world was made for.Prompts + PracticeJournaling Prompts:what do those around you think about Jesus, think about the church? How does your experience of following Jesus and church resonate or challenge those notions?How do you tend to introduce or describe your faith to those outside the church? What does that reveal about how you see yourself as a follower of Jesus?What does inviting others into God’s life stir in you? What might change if you saw this invitation as an extension of God’s invitation into love rather than a sales pitch about eternal damnation?Practice — Generous Invitation:This week consider who around you might need to know they are loved and welcomed by God. What would inviting them into worship look like? Would it be here with you? Perhaps another church or tradition?Consider inviting them to join you Sunday for worship. Or if not that for a meal as an extension of divine hospitality and care for them. Whatever you do, pray. Pray that they would come to hear that they are loved and welcomed into God’s very heart in Jesus Christ.Journaling Prompts:what do those around you think about Jesus, think about the church? How does your experience of following Jesus and church resonate or challenge those notions?How do you tend to introduce or describe your faith to those outside the church? What does that reveal about how you see yourself as a follower of Jesus?What does inviting others into God’s life stir in you? What might change if you saw this invitation as an extension of God’s invitation into love rather than a sales pitch about eternal damnation?Practice — Generous Invitation:This week consider who around you might need to know they are loved and welcomed by God. What would inviting them into worship look like? Would it be here with you? Perhaps another church or tradition?Consider inviting them to join you Sunday for worship. Or if not that for a meal as an extension of divine hospitality and care for them. Whatever you do, pray. Pray that they would come to hear that they are loved and welcomed into God’s very heart in Jesus Christ.

Pentecost brings forth a radical transformation whether we are ready for it or not. The Spirit descends on all flesh and draws us into the realm be body of Jesus Christ. This forces us to reckon with the work God has done to make us one and the cross shaped postures that we will need to live into that reality.

The same God who raised Jesus from the dead is with us and we are with God. So Peter can tell a community like ours, that our suffering in this world should neither surprise us nor derail us from living into God's new reality — our past, present, and future are secured in Christ. Though it may be hard to see here and now, it is done.Journaling Prompts:What feels overwhelming right now? Where does it feel hardest to believe that keeping Jesus at the center makes sense?Christ has been raised and enthroned, but the world is not yet fully made new. How does living in that friction help you make sense of the tension you feel right now? Where are you tempted to resolve the friction prematurely — either by pretending the resurrection hasn't changed everything, or by pretending suffering shouldn't be a thing?Peter is not offering a coping strategy or escape — he makes a cosmic claim to encourage continued faithful resistance. If you took seriously the idea that something decisive has happened in Christ’s death and resurrection, what would change for you this week?Practice — Liturgy as Lab:Make a list of the things you are afraid of. Sit with each one. Ask: is Jesus inviting me toward something here — a person, a practice, a kind of courage? Or is he inviting me to release something — a need to control, a story I'm telling myself, a load that was never mine to carry?Take these to God one by one — not as burdens to be managed, but as cares cast on the One who cares for you, knowing they are already being carried before the throne of God by Christ himself.The whole pastoral logic of the passage is that something decisive has happened in Christ's resurrection (already), and on the basis of that, something will be brought to completion in us (not yet).

Few passages in Scripture have generated more controversy than 1 Peter 3:18–22. But underneath debate lies a single, staggering claim: the resurrection of Jesus is Christ’s victory announcement. Whatever in your life and this world feels permanent and immovable — systems, empires, powers, addictions, fears — Christ has put them all on notice.Journaling Prompts:What dominions seek to make a claim on your life right now — not just what you are afraid of, but what do you find yourself subjected to?However we understand Peter’s words, the image he points to claims Christ’s work means there is no where anyone can go that is beyond God’s redemptive reach. Where is this hardest for you to believe — in the world, in your own life, in someone else’s?Peter is not offering a coping strategy or escape — he makes a cosmic claim to encourage continued faithful resistance. What would change if you took seriously that the domains that threaten you and the world at large have already been defeated.Practice — Liturgy as Lab:The practice of Baptism becomes a prominent anchor Peter invited the church back to over and over again. It is the whole of our life in Christ, enacted in a single moment. What we are, and what we are catching up to.If you’ve been baptized: What would it look like to wake up each day and live into your baptismal identity as faithful resistance? Each day a death and a resurrection. Where do you find Hell and its domain acting as if it hasn’t lost attempting to claim your allegiance?If you’ve yet to be baptized: What story have you been told about what baptism is? What story is Peter telling? Sit with the difference. For Peter baptism isn’t a religious decision — it is conscription into Christ’s life and His New Creation. What would it mean to consider it on these terms?For everyone: Sit with one person this week and tell them what your baptism (real, anticipated, or questioned) means to you right now. Listen to theirs.To explore baptism with a pastor head to redemptionhou.com/baptism

At the edge of baptism we bring with us narratives — chosen narratives, inherited narratives, and narratives that have been imposed on us. But God consumes these stories, immersing us into Christ's life and story — a people given a new name, a new story, a new destiny. This new story is the beginning, the middle, and the end — our starting point, our ending point, and the pilgrim road we walk in between. A baptism into a people made wholly other by a God who is wholly other.Journaling Prompts:- Where does the identity Peter names — priest, temple, holy nation, chosen people — most press against the story you’ve been telling about yourself? What’s that story, and where does Christ’s story give you a better one?- Peter assumes the gathered church’s visceral enacting of the Gospel — the words spoken, the bread torn, the water surrounded, the songs sung — is how God encounters and forms us as God’s people. How does this challenge what you’ve previously believed church is for?- God’s action forms our identity: birthing us, naming us, storying us in Christ. What would change in your week if you woke up each morning and lived into this baptismal identity?Practice — Liturgy as Lab:The practice of Baptism becomes a prominent anchor Peter invited the church back to over and over again. It is the whole of our life in Christ, enacted in a single moment. What we are, and what we are catching up to.Sit with baptism this week — whether you’ve been baptized or if it still remains a question.If you’ve been baptized: What would it look like to wake up each day and live into your baptism? Each day a death and a resurrection. Where do you find the old story still attempting to lay claim to you?If you’ve yet to be baptized: What is the story you’ve been told to believe about baptism? What story is Peter telling? What would it mean to consider baptism not as a religious decision, but as being immersed into a story that consumes the one you’ve been living?For everyone: Sit with one person this week and tell them what your baptism (real, anticipated, or questioned) means to you right now.Listen to theirs.To explore baptism with a pastor head to https://www.redemptionhou.com/baptism

God is not at work to reform or tear down our institutions. He's doing something far more radical and far more dangerous — building a people who live in the world where sin, suffering, and death have already lost. What emerges is an entirely other way of being and moving in the world. A way that looks a lot like Jesus.Journaling Prompts:What if culture wars on all sides are missing the point? Where is your outrage, your fear, your hope dictated by forces that have already been defeated?What would change about your own suffering and the injustice you see if resurrection isn’t only a future hope but a verdict already delivered?What practices of the Church in gathered worship — confession, praise, the table, listening — might be training you to live as exiles and strangers, a people of the resurrection, wherever you find yourselves?Practice — Liturgy as Lab:Last week’s practice remains this week’s practice — resurrection doesn’t produce a new practice every week, it produces a people formed into a certain shape.Liturgy—the form of our gathered worship—is the place where we are encountered and formed by God. Where we embody God’s new way of being.We gather with those we might not otherwise gather with.We listen for God to speak in a world that tells us the answers are within us.We respond to whatever God has said.We feast at Christ’s table where we are met by Him and leave changed.We are sent to love a world God has not given up on.These movements are formative. They are not just what we do on Sunday—they are forming us into a community that does them everywhere—a people of the resurrection.Consider how our worship trains you to live from a reality the world can’t comprehend. Where could you live this week as though that reality is already true?

In a so-called age of anxiety, the last thing we need is more fear. Yet, one of Jesus' more problematic disciples tells the Church to "Fear God." Within this audacious command is the perspective of a community whose life and imagination have been gripped by resurrection. In week three of our Easter series People of the Resurrection, we continue walking through 1 Peter to discover that perhaps fear is where freedom begins.Journaling Prompts:What are you afraid of? Why?What does this fear reveal about where you might be tempted to find security, hope, life?Where does the act of our gathered worship press against this temptation most for you? Practice — Liturgy as Lab:Liturgy—the form of our gathered worship—is the place where we are encountered and formed by God. We don’t just learn new ideas—we embody God’s new way of being. We gather with those we might not otherwise gather with.We listen for God to speak in a world that tells us the answers are within us.We respond to whatever God has said.We feast at Christ’s table where we are met by Him and leave changed.We are sent to love a world God has not given up on.These movements are formative. They are not just what we do on Sunday—they are forming us into a community that does them everywhere—a people of the resurrection. Sit with the movement you named above. What would it look like to practice this beyond Sunday? Make a plan to do it.

We are being made new, swept up into the living hope. An invitation to be made new as a community of believers, a holy resistance, knowing that because of the resurrection death will not win.

Easter deeply matters, not as an escape from the oppression and darkness of the world, but as God's response made in the face of it. Today we are invited to inhabit a whole new reality, being whole new people, people who refuse to give way to despair — resurrection people.

Palm Sunday exposes our desire that God conquer on our terms. But in our turn towards Holy Week we finally begin to see God. A God who reveals an entirely different Kingdom altogether, a people of a different shape, different logic—a people who exist as a different politic. Journaling Prompts:Where do you see the ancient account of sin as an attempt to grasp and possess what God offers as gift in order to secure your life expressed in your desires, beliefs, and life? What are you reaching for and what do you believe it will give you?At Christ’s Table we behold and participate in God’s life. In what ways does Christ’s table reshape your imagination for what success and the good life are? What does Jesus invite you to desire instead?If Christ is our Politic—the shape of our common life offered as an alternative to the world, how does this shape your imagination of what Church is for? What would it look like for Redemption to live this way? In what ways does this implicate you personally?Practice — Contemplation:We do not arrive at Easter without passing through Holy Week. This is the week that exposes us — our desire to seize life on our own terms, and the way our grasping unmakes the world around us. And it is here we behold God most clearly as we see Jesus move towards the cross. This week, journey with Jesus through Holy Week.Monday — Mark 11:12–25 | Tuesday — Mark 11:27–33Wednesday — Mark 12:1–11 | Thursday — Mark 14:12–25As you read each day, sit with the question:Where is Jesus refusing what I would have chosen for Him?

Lent invites us to get honest. Honest about longing, grief, doubt, and the dead places in our lives. In Jesus’ encounter with Lazarus, He meets Martha, Mary, and Lazarus in deeply personalized ways revealing that the God we often wish to keep at a distance is the one who knows us completely and loves us fully. Journaling Prompts: God created us uniquely, knows us intimately, and relates to us accordingly. In this season of your life how has God encountered you? If you struggle to formulate a response take this prompt as invitation to get curious and honest.Historically have you found the idea of being known (especially being known by God) more comforting or scary? How might the story of Lazurus inform your feelings around being known going forward?Practice: Notice the flowers.Spend some time outside. Sit at a park or go on a walk. Try doing this without headphones in and be present with the world around you. In this season of Spring what might nature have to say to you about decay and rebirth? What conversation might you want to have with God?

In John 9 Jesus heals a man born blind, and suddenly everyone has to reckon with what they now see. Including themselves. The light of the world does not expose to condemn, but to love.Journaling Prompts:What parts of you and your life are you afraid of being fully seen by Jesus? What would it mean for you to accept that Jesus sees this and loves you in it?Where has grace changed something in you you didn’t necessarily ask to have changed?What or where has God’s grace cost you? What have you lost or what are you afraid of losing?Practice — Confession:Take some time this week to name before God the things done and the things left undone in your life. As you do, know that in this act God sees you, knows you, and loves you.After naming these, ask for God’s grace to transform and remake you. End in a moment of thanking God for his forgiveness and promises rooted in Christ’s faithfulness. Take a moment of silence in God’s presence knowing that you are carried by God.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

The God revealed in Jesus is scandalously present among those we’ve written off—and that love dismantles our assumptions about who God is and what God is doing in the world.Journaling Prompts:- Does the grace Jesus displays here — forgiving, gifting, transforming — feel refreshing to you or scandalous? Take a few moments to explore why that might be.- Who, in your mind, seems most on the fringes — most undeserving of Jesus’ gift? What does Jesus extending God’s generosity to someone like them stir in you?- In what ways are you on the fringes? What might you need to confess here? What might you need to trust that God is doing for you?Practice — Attentive Intercession:This week's practice is called "Attentive Intercession." The invitation is to pay closer attention to those you encounter this week. Notice who seems most on the fringes. What would being present with them look like?Commit to pray for them throughout the rest of Lent. Set a reminder in your phone, write their name on a sticky note, or place it somewhere you’ll see each day. Pray for them regularly, asking God to bless them, care for them, draw near to them, while also praying for your own heart towards them. Remain attentive to simple ways you might be present with them.And as Easter approaches, consider whether inviting them to join you for Easter Sunday might be a natural expression of that presence and care.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Beholding God will mean undergoing death—of ways of life, of ideas about God and ourselves, of things we think will save us. And for this God death ends in resurrection.Some call it conversion, others repentance.Jesus calls it “being born again.”And it is God’s work. Journaling PromptsWhat would a new way of being in the world mean for you? What would you lay aside, what would you take up?Consider your responses above. What frightens you about this? What feels like it could be liberating?How does the notion that the Good News is God’s work and is good news for the poor strike you? Where do you want to wrestle with this and why?Practice — PrayerThis week carry a simple prayer with you.“Lord, I am yours, may your will in me be done.”Set a reminder in your phone. Jot it on a card and carry it with you in your pocket. Set it to memory.Whatever method you decide works for you, pray this as an act of surrender and dependence on God’s work in you. Allow it to interrupt your day, or moments where you may feel the urge to operate in non-Jesus centered ways.Any thoughts, objections, or bursts of faith that arise while praying this, take to God in prayer.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

This sermon begins the season of Lent. It concentrates on one psalm, Psalm 32, traditionally labeled a "penitential psalm," and it holds out God's promise not only of forgiveness but also of instruction. Repentance involves release from the past as well as learning a fresh new way of life.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

In the body of Christ, heaven and earth meet, and the transfiguration invites us to witness that glory. Let us marvel in it. Let us be warmed by it. And let us listen to it.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus doesn’t hand us a list of rules. He names our identity. Salt. Light. A city on a hill. A people whose life together makes the invisible God visible right here in Houston. Journaling Prompts:Reflect on the notion that “y’all are salt, y’all are light.” How does this shape what a Jesus-centered life means to you?What might a Jesus-centered life mean for the people you encounter each day?What might a Jesus-centered life cost you? Not in theory. Keep this real.In Jesus, you already have everything you need. Sit with this for a moment. Where do you resist this? Where are you drawn to it?Practice — Attentive Reading:Spend the week with the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7). Read as an act of listening—not study. Consider reading it aloud with others.As you read, notice what stands out. After each reading, pray. Be honest with God about what you’ve just heard.If you miss a day, just return the next. Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Are we in the middle of a silent era from God? A look at world events and our personal lives makes a strong case for the affirmative, but the scriptures invite us to engage with a living God - especially in times when this God seems distant and removed.Journaling Prompts:Have you ever been surprised by a living God? What was that experience like?Where in life are you tempted to take on God’s work as your own?God loves us and shows us the way of love. How can you put this into practice this week?Practice - pray. The world is quite noisy at the moment. Make a plan to be still before God this week. Perhaps you have 5 minutes or maybe 35, but make a plan and set aside distractions for a specified amount of time. Spend some time in silence. There is no need to produce anything in these moments. Pray the serenity prayer: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can,And wisdom to know the difference." From there, just talk to God. Bring your burdens to God; God cares for you.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Your search for God may have brought you here—but Jesus turns and asks: What are you seeking? In John 1, Jesus does not extend tidy conclusions, easy answers, or spiritual certainty, but an invitation: Come and see. A journey centered not on arrival or mastery, but on Jesus Himself.Journaling PromptsWhat are you seeking? Sit with Jesus’ question for a moment and answer honestly, without editing or spiritualizing your response.How might Jesus’ invitation to come and see reshape what you are seeking? How might it change what you believe Jesus is offering you?What would shift in your life if you moved toward “coming and seeing” Jesus? What obstacles—internal or external—stand in the way?Practice — PrayerBegin by returning to the first question above. Sit with it slowly. Notice what arises in you without judgment.Now hold Jesus’ invitation—come and see—alongside your answer. Sit for a few moments in silence and stillness, allowing both to remain present.Notice what images surface, the posture or disposition of Jesus, and any emotions that arise.Bring whatever you notice to God in prayer.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

What do you believe God is like—and where did that belief come from?In the baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3), God reveals something shocking about who God is. This sermon opens the Epiphany series Manifest by asking a simple but life-altering question: What does God really think about you?Journaling PromptsWhen you reflect on your baptism, how are you continuing to discover what God has done—and is still doing—in those waters?What does Christ’s solidarity with humanity in its lowest places stir up in you—gratitude, resistance, relief, discomfort? Where do you think that response comes from?What assumptions about God does the baptism of Jesus challenge or disrupt for you? Where do you think those assumptions came from?What does Jesus’ baptism reveal about the story God invites you into? How does this resonate—or clash—with the story you currently find yourself living in?Practice — Baptism.In baptism, we step into what God has already done in Christ. We are cleansed of sin, met by God’s Spirit, and named God’s beloved.Any Sunday is a good Sunday to be baptized. If you have not yet been baptized and feel drawn to Jesus’ invitation into the waters, take time this week to pray and consider that invitation. When you’re ready, we would love to [email protected] you have already been baptized, take time this week to remember what God has done—and is still doing—in your life. Consider how baptism continues to shape a life of dying, living, and loving in Christ.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Matthew shows us the unsettling heart of Christmas—a God who refuses to be confined by our expectations. Born in obscurity, made known to outsiders, and missed by insiders, Jesus is revealed as the king whose presence reshapes power, worship, and the whole of our lives. This Christmastide sermon invites us to consider a God who shows up in ways that resist our categories and reorient our lives. Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

You and your life have been taken up into Christ so that God can be with you.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Into the darkness a light has dawned.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

The baby in the manger is the reigning Messiah, the very crucified Jesus who will come again in glory, that the one who is to be delivered up is the one who will dispose of all earthly power and authority with imperial ease. This very God who is not against us, but for us in an upside down kingdom.Additional Readings: Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 , Romans 1:1-7, and Matthew 1:18-25Songs of Waiting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tla4bHwi9fQGenerosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

In a world ruled by entropy, God promises a new world where desert wastelands erupt into flourishing life. But what do we do when we feel disappointed, discouraged, and even doubt that these promises will ever come true?Advent names our disappointment and carries our doubt, while training our eyes to see—right in the midst of our waiting—that God’s future is already invading our exhausted present. Additional texts: James 5:7-10, Matthew 11:2-11, Luke 1:46-55Songs of Waiting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tla4bHwi9fQ&t=1sGenerosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Everything seems to be collapsing, our certainties are gone, and it feels like the whole world is on fire—so what now?Advent dares us to hope an incomprehensible hope—a dangerous hope.Not a hope rooted in our wins or losses, but in a relentlessly faithful God.In Isaiah 11:1–10, the prophet dares us to believe that God can pull peace from the wreckage, light from utter darkness, life out of death—and calls us to be a people who actually believe this will be true.Songs of waiting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tla4bHwi9fQGenerosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Advent begins with Isaiah’s vision of God’s mountain—an unshakeable kingdom of peace inviting us to walk in the light of its God.Songs of Waiting - follow this linkGenerosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

The Church offers the world the gift of knowing and being known by God—the gift of what it means to be a human fully alive.The Song of Songs reminds us that beyond all, the God who created the world is the God who delights in it–delights in us–and longs for all of creation to enjoy God together. Journaling PromptsWhat might it mean for you to enjoy God, enjoy others, and enjoy creation? Where might God be inviting you here?How and why does the idea of delight as spiritual practice resonate with you or confront you? What assumptions are challenged and what hopes does it offer?If God’s mission is to be with the world, and the Church exists as an embodied experience of that reality, how does that reshape what you imagine Church is for?What shifts for you personally? What shifts in how you imagine our community’s life together?Practice — FeastThis week, feast as a spiritual practice. 
Wherever you are—and whoever you may find yourself with—take a moment to see God’s gifts which surround you. And dare to enjoy them.Whether you’re sharing an extravagant meal with people you can’t imagine life without—or a less than ideal spread with someone you don’t see eye to eye with—receive whatever is before you as gift.Let this be a week of feasting that embodies the joy God has for you—and for the world.Generosity https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

God’s story ends not with rescue from the world, but with God making the world His home.Revelation gives us a picture of the world made new—a world with God. When we forget that ending, we forget who we are and what God is up to in and among us.Journaling PromptsSit with the idea that God is the First and the Last, the Arche and the Telos, the source and the point, the means and the ends. Spend a moment writing your reflections.How does the idea that God’s mission in the world is to be with us affirm and challenge your ideas of the Gospel? If the Church is both a recipient and conduit of God’s withness, how does this shape your understanding of the point of Church? What are some common ways you’ve seen the church stray from this purpose? In what ways have you seen God fulfill this purpose through and maybe in spite of the Church? Practice — ShareThis week, what might it look like to join in the work of providing communion and encounter with God through Redemption Church?If you’re new to Church consider that your next best step is simply to show up—to participate in what God is doing in our gathered worship.
Your presence—sharing yourself—is what God desires most and is your most profound act of sharing. What might it mean for you to commit to showing up through the end of the year?Or maybe you want to contribute to the ongoing work of Redemption—
by supporting our work financially,
by inviting a friend or neighbor to join you next week,
or by joining one of our teams that helps make our Sundays what they are.Take some time this week to pray about what it might look like to join in God’s work of presence happening in and through our community.Generosityhttps://www.redemptionhou.com/give

The God who refuses to be without us forms us into a certain sort of people—a subversive alternative to the world’s divisive norms, where Christ’s table becomes participation in holy resistance. In Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus, we glimpse God’s new world: the sinner becomes a site of salvation, and divine welcome initiates a new social order.Journaling PromptsThe God who refuses to be without us draws us in and forms us into a people. What hallmarks of that people—what ways of being—might most subversively reflect this sort of God in the world? Which of these feels exciting for you, and which feels challenging?Christ’s nearness reorders Zacchaeus’s entire life.Where might Jesus be rearranging some of your furniture? In what ways are you resisting this—or being invited to trust it?Which patterns of Christ’s table—inclusion, forgiveness, unity, embrace, and others—most challenge the way you want to relate to others, especially those unlike you?How might the simple act of sharing Christ’s table become an act of holy resistance in your corner of Houston? Don’t let this stay theoretical—get practical here.What might it look like for you to extend Christ’s welcome to someone through a shared meal—one rooted in enjoyment, not expectation or agenda?What’s holding you back?Practice — FeastThis week, share a meal with others.Grab lunch, host a dinner party, or invite someone new to family dinner—perhaps someone outside your usual circle, of a different generation, political ideology, or socioeconomic background.As you eat, practice delight.Be curious. Listen.No agenda, just enjoyment.Let the table you share act as an extension of Christ’s table—slow down, create space, be together.Break bread as an act of holy resistance.Generosity https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

The story the Church tells is the story of a God who refuses to be without us—the poor, the helpless, even those who’ve made God our enemy. In the story of David and Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9), we see the heart of God: a God of communion. And we realize the table God sets is a table of strange friendships.Journaling PromptsIf God’s work in New Creation is all about communion, what kind of world is God making? What might that world feel like, look like, sound like? What could participation in that world look like for you now—and what obstacles stand in the way?If God’s desire is to be with you, not use or fix you, how does that change the way you imagine what God is up to in your life and what responding to God could look like?When we consider that God’s communion involves strange friendships, who might be missing from the table and what keeps them (or you) from sitting together?Practice — FeastThis week, share a meal. Consider someone who might represent a “strange friendship”—someone outside your usual circle, perhaps someone of a different generation, political ideology, or socioeconomic background. As you eat, practice delight. Be curious. Cultivate a friendship rooted in enjoyment of who they are, not what they do for you (or you for them).Let the table you share be an extension of Christ’s table—a place of presence and enjoyment. Who knows, this may be the beginning of something beautiful—a strange friendship in the making.Generosityhttps://www.redemptionhou.com/give

How’s your prayer life? If that question makes you sigh, you’re not alone. Maybe prayer isn’t something to perfect or dutifully perform. Maybe it’s the life-giving response to the God who is already with you.Journaling PromptsWhat portion of the Lord’s Prayer challenges you the most right now?What might it mean for Redemption to become a community that inhabits the Lord’s Prayer? What would this mean for you personally?How might asking even though God already knows make prayer more approachable and practical for you? In what ways might you begin to awake to God’s presence through approachable prayer?Practice — PrayRead the Lord’s Prayer slowly.Find a phrase or refrain that feels important for you to speak back to God right now (ex. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us). Take some time to repeat that portion of the Lord’s Prayer multiple times back to God.Share with God whatever else is in your mind. Speak freely. God already knows.Conclude your time praying the Lord’s Prayer.Generosityhttps://www.redemptionhou.com/give

How’s your prayer life? If that question makes you sigh, you’re not alone. Maybe prayer isn’t something to perfect or dutifully perform. Maybe it’s the life-giving response to the God who is already with you.Generosity:https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

In a world crowded with our words, preferences, and interpretations, Recovering the Bible means listening to the voice of the risen Christ who still speaks to us here and now.Journaling PromptsHow does the idea of Deus Dixit—that God has Spoken—challenge your understanding of the Church, the Bible, and what God is up to in both?Has there been a time in your life where your engagement with the Bible looked different? What changed, and why? What do you think this could look like in this phase of your life?What might it mean for you to engage with the Bible sacramentally—as a means of encounter of the Risen Jesus who still speaks?Practice — ListenDo the following alone or with a small fellowship of others.Slowly read Job 38:1-40:5 & 42:1-6. Let the text speak for itself. If there are things you don’t understand or questions that arise, set them aside for now—or jot them down and come back to them later. For now let the text read you as much as you are reading it.Don’t read looking for takeaways but read anticipating that God speaks through these words still.To be clear. You will likely not feel anything. You are not broken. You are not doing it wrong. God’s speaking in the scriptures often works in us and on us slowly—often imperceptibly.Consider sharing how the practice went with those you read with or with someone you trust after the fact.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

What is the Bible for? Many of us have a complicated relationship with Scripture—it has been misused as a tool of exclusion, harm, and control. But what if Jesus is right, and the Word of God is actually a good gift meant to give us life? Recovering the Bible begins with receiving God’s word, not as a weapon, but as a locus of divine encounter where we are formed into a liberated people of hope.Journaling PromptsWhat does your relationship with the Bible look like right now? Why do you think this is? What do you wish it looked like? What would a small first step in that direction be?In what ways do you see yourself reading the Bible to gain information? In what ways is this helpful? In what ways is it restrictive?Does the idea that the Bible is a gift of God for the people of God resonate with you? Why or why not? In what ways does this challenge or change what you expect from the Bible?Practice — Lectio DivinaDo the following alone or with a small fellowship of others.Lectio: Read Luke 4:1-13 slowly, notice any words or phrases that stand out.Meditatio: Pause and ponder what God might be bringing to your attention.Oratio: Respond to what’s been unearthed in prayer with your own words, desires, hesitations, or questions.Contemplatio: Rest in God’s presence by sitting in silence, receiving His love and peace as a generous gift.Consider sharing with those in your group or with someone later what God impressed upon you through meditating prayerfully on this passage.Generosity⁠https://www.redemptionhou.com/give⁠

In God’s gift of worship, we are caught up in a counter-liturgy that makes us a different kind of people — a political alternative to the world.Journaling PromptsWhere have you seen the Church lose the plot of Jesus’ story in the way it shows up in the world? Where have you seen it offering a hopeful alternative?What might it look like to center “worship” on strange fire—forms of worship that seem more powerful or practical but deviate from the story of Jesus? Which of these more common forms are you tempted toward—ideology, morality, vibes, something else?In what ways does our gathered worship serve as “an embodied counter-vision” of your life in the world? Are there particular moments you find compelling and others you find challenging? Why might this be the case?Practice — Reflection and CommunityRead Hebrews 11-13 and notice the story these chapters place us within.Take a few moments to ask where living into Jesus’ story in gathered worship resonates with your vision of the world and where it disrupts your vision of the world.
Take some time either at a Redemption Table, or over a meal with a friend, unpacking what you noticed. Listen to their reflections as well.Spend a moment praying with and for one another. Generosityhttps://www.redemptionhou.com/give⁠

Recovering a vision for what Church is meant to be begins and ends with Jesus.Journaling PromptsWhen you hear the word worship, what pops into your mind? Where, if at all, does Christ being our High Priest fit into that picture? Consider why that might be.
What is your relationship with “Church?” How does the claim that the Church is necessary as a worshipping community compatible or incompatible with that current relationship? What resistance to this idea do you feel? What relief?How does worship being something Christ does for us rather than something we do for Christ help you begin to reimagine worship’s place in your life?Practice — Silent PrayerSet aside a few minutes of quiet. Draw your attention to Christ mediating you to God and God to you—to the commune you have with Godself in Jesus.As you are able hold this reality in your mind: in Christ, you are being offered to God, and in Christ God is being offered to you.Simply sit in that reality. God is with you and you are with God in Christ. In this moment you need not do or say anything, have nothing to prove, nothing to perform—just be with the God who is with you.Generosityhttps://www.redemptionhou.com/give

In the midst of manipulation and deceit, God sees Leah, hears her, and listens. God elevates the otherwise overlooked.Generosity https://www.redemptionhou.com/give