"Injustice and sin in our world should stir up anger in us and move us to action. This means standing up for the powerless and defending the weak and most importantly praying for God to bring justice. I am reminded of these lyrics from a song by Jenny and Tyler: “Where there is hatred, let me sow love Where there is injury, let me pardon Where there is darkness, let...

"As Jesus enters Jerusalem, the anticipation builds and the expectation that He will fulfill the people’s need for deliverance from worldly rulers is what’s celebrated. But disappointment is going to follow when people watch their expectations crushed through the literal death of their foretold Messiah. Yet, this is the avenue for our saving grace. The parade we ente...

"Friends we don’t come to church just to be enlightened or informed by God’s word. We come to hear our Great King speak through ambassadors speaking on his behalf (aka Justin). This word spoken is so alive that it creates the reality of which it speaks. When we hear about the dry bones of Ezekiel 37 coming to life we aren’t just reading about a future reality or a...

"What are some reasons we stop lamenting as adults? Maybe there’s a sense that we don’t want to be a bother to others - after all, they have their own difficulties, many of them worse than ours. Is this situation really important enough to seek help from other people, let alone from God? And then of course there’s the way we as a culture idolize self-reliance and ind...

"I showed up to a Sunday morning service recently where Pastor Justin spoke the words: “Never stop starting,” and I am really trying (and often failing) to apply that throughout my life. This is the message of the Gospel: through Jesus we are always given a fresh start. He is there to cover our sins and our failures so we are free to “never stop starting,” to never...

"One of the most consistent questions in my Christian walk is “what do I need to do?” Confronting that head on is Isaiah 30:15, one of the most comforting/convicting passages in the Bible for me: “For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” But you would not.�...

"I want the Lord to renew all of this, and his answer for me is himself, His presence. The renewal I want only comes from Jesus. And I must repent of my own sin in this- my sin of anger, bitterness, harsh words behind a back, etc. Only in my repentance, in recognizing my weakness and inadequacy to fix this or change it, do I receive God’s unlimited mercy. And that mercy ...

"I’m a culprit of looking for renewal from God without recognition of the right mood or posture, without praise offered because of the previous mercies extended by my renewing God, or without attempting to sacrifice my pride and reach the end of myself with full recognition that renewal is not at all from my own works. I like to look at my life in the dark places as a bo...

"As I have considered this inevitability of balance in the Star Wars universe, I have been reflecting upon how much better the Christian story is. Where the Star Wars universe is left with either adhering to the rules of the universe and leaving off a story in a “balanced” state of good and evil or breaking the rules and allowing good to triumph, we live in a story whe...

"I look to traveling to get away from the work that I have to do at the house and in this city. All of these things are good and can have a positive impact on my life. However, without Christ, I will be met with the same stresses and frustration that existed before. We live in a broken world that is going to continually bring us down. The sin, sickness, tragedies, hurt...