House Church

Faithfulness to Jesus doesn’t just mean refusing to deny Him - it means refusing to drift from Him too. When our affections are set in the wrong places we can get caught in a current that takes us from following Him closely. God’s grace in community is the lifesaver we need to get us safely to shore.

It’s a sad reality, but people can use their words to damage our reputations and cause us pain. It can evoke negative emotions, panic, and chaos in our lives and our hearts. How does Jesus call us to respond when it happens so that we can remain steady and trust Him through it?

In His letter to the Ephesian Church, Jesus reminds us that how we love is more important than merely doing the right things and grinding through the motions of ministry and life.

Jesus came to bring us new life like the bursting forth of green in spring, but with spring inevitably comes storms. Will we choose to focus on Him and grow in faith or be distracted by the storms around us?

Jesus entered Jerusalem at the start of Holy Week to be the King who would free His people. But we shouldn’t mistake freedom for independence. He came to set us free, but to lead us into a freedom that submits to His rule and compels us to serve others.

We often have a false assumption: that as we mature we should become more self-sufficient, that we should need others less. The Bible offers us a different reality - that we were made to need God and one another. Good community can comfort us and counsel us in the weariness of life.

God promises to provide for the needs of His people. Through providing manna in the wilderness and Jesus’ miraculous feedings, we learn that God provides just enough for what we need. Yet, God being our Provider is about forming us into people of trust and obedience not about being our Genie in a bottle.

It looked like the Israelites were stuck - the Red Sea behind them and the Egyptians in front of them. Out of fear, they panic and complain rather than remain ready to move when God says to act. Sometimes we fall into the same spot in life: camped out complaining rather than remaining in a ready posture of faith that allows us to take the step of faith when God says GO!

Following Jesus is more than just spirituality or loving Jesus with our hearts - it’s complete surrender and submission of our hearts and lifestyles to Him. Anything less is not what He requires.

The Plagues in Egypt feel dramatic, but distant to us. What does God’s work there have to do with our lives today? Turns out, we’ve got our own idols that need to be exposed so that we can be freed from what enslaves us.