"The practice of reading the Apostle’s Creed, or stating what we believe in the church, is a good practice. It is a practice that turns our hearts to remember and relive the Gospel. But stating our beliefs is greater than just a mnemonic trick for our brains. It is a shaping tool to help us live into the fully revealed mystery, not something that is evolving and slowl...

"We are narrative animals, and I hope the Gospel of Abraham causes the story of the Gospel to reenacted in us, in City Pres and in our city." ...

So here I sit, wrestling through this reality, all the while examining areas of my life where my worship is misplaced. How have I been duped? ...

I may feel exhausted or discouraged or wounded by events in my life, but do I recognize the underlying battle? ...

Turns out, I may be pretty good at structuring a prayer, and asking for spiritual-sounding things, but this weekend God reminded me that I’ve also been pretty good at missing the point of prayer....

I don’t have to deny or hide my weakness because the beauty of them is they point to a God who promises to make me new....

When I realized a few months ago that Easter fell on April 1 this year, I initially saw it as incongruous - the high point of the Church calendar juxtaposed with the a day of playful trickery. ...

Despite the fact that Jesus literally states in the verse that he will be with us “always, to the end of the age,” I often feel alone when confronted with the idea of trying to share the Gospel. ...

Living under the new covenant of Jesus’ blood, we also get to see the beautiful picture of Jesus drawing people from every nation, tribe, and tongue to Himself....

Adam and Eve based their hope on Cain, as a result of an incomplete and flawed understanding of God’s promised redemption....

We look forward and say there is a better day coming because of Jesus. And not only do we look forward, but we hasten it by living today as a renewed people in the midst of that broken world. ...

Entering into moments of vulnerability consciously and intentionally is risky, but it stops shame in it’s tracks....

We were made for this interdependent community. We were made to share those extreme differences in order to produce extreme growth. We were made to be with one another in order to remove the possibility of the bad: loneliness. ...

The tree of knowledge of good and evil represents the fall of men and the tree of life reflects the way God designed us to exist. Between these two trees, there stands the tree that Jesus died on to pay the price of the fall and reconcile us to God. ...

It’s not that God was any less present to them or working any fewer miracles of deliverance and preservation among them over those years; it’s just that they stopped seeing Him. They stopped recognizing His faithfulness to them. And I do the same thing. ...

God addresses the chaos of humanity through the living Word, the incarnate Jesus. Do you believe that? God has intervened. God is still intervening....

Sometimes, hard things happen, and they’re just hard, and no ah-ha moment comes later when you realize how every painful piece of the puzzle was indeed working together for your good. ...

How often do I “rest” by binging on show after show? Or fritter my time away on silly articles on Twitter or Reddit? Or squander my Saturday on a unimportant book?...

"Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul" -Mark Twain ...

This Sunday, as we unpacked hospitality, and love was intertwined in every part. Fear creates exclusive community, but love gives way to inclusive hospitality....

If I truly understand that God loves me, not just in some generic sense but intensely and personally, it changes everything. Love like that isn’t something that can be met with indifference, any more than I could respond to a marriage proposal with a shrug....

Developing a regular practice of exercise is beneficial, but establishing godly practices builds spiritual muscles with benefits that extend way beyond the physical body. We get a glimpse of these benefits in Daniel chapter 6....

When we are faced with “the writing on the wall”, when God’s Holy presence in our lives unsettles and awakens us to reality- where do we run?...

You see, I’m not that different from Nebuchadnezzar. He wanted to build a legacy for himself, and he did. Just like him, I’m trying to build a legacy… And I’m anxious when I think that I might not accomplish these goals or, even worse, that having accomplished them I might see them taken away from me. ...

How silly to think that large statutes and grand works will last beyond a lifetime! And yet, as Pastor Justin reminds us, we must see ourselves in Nebuchadnezzar’s quest for transcendence, for meaning, for a legacy. ...

"There cannot be a God because if there were one, I could not believe that I was not He." -Friedrich Nietzsche...

When my head and my heart forget what is true, I find myself sacrificing my life to the myriad gods of health, wealth, work, marriage and home...So how, in the face of both external and internal pressures toward alternate values and identities, can I maintain my identity in Christ? ...

I wonder how the priests felt every day when they went into the temple and saw the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple. Did they look at it with dread? Or curiosity? Or maybe they longed to be in God's presence just for a moment even if it killed them......

We want to be the hero, taking away our need for a savior. But that’s not the way God designed us, and that’s not how he promises to bring restoration....

I love the rooster, because it reminds me of my need of Jesus, my call in the world, the glory of grace and the wonder of the Gospel. ...

A theology that cannot be sung is not worth having......

We, as Christians, have the privilege of engaging with our Creator, demanding a response for evil that seems contrary to His very character, and throwing ourselves into the eternal love that began between the Trinity and has been mercifully extended to us....

That God would give us hearts desiring to see justice "roll down like waters" so that bearing the name of Christ will be much more than an adjective in our lives. ...

I can engage in the political sphere without fear ...

Sunday we heard a call to action for the Christian church. The Bible tells us that it is important for us to work towards uniting God's people together. It will help us to become outward oriented and compel us to humility, as we see the fallenness in ourselves and others and the glimpses of God's glory reflected in others around us....

The Gospel not only reimagines race, it turns our conception of race in America on its head, completely upside down, and gives us a perspective and reality of a truly diverse people seen and celebrated for their distinctiveness while at the same time abolishing any and all disparity between them....

Jesus was not an inspiring person who called his followers to inspiring, yet ultimately impossible tasks. Instead, Jesus is the creator and king of all that there is, and with full authority over it all he sends his people to the work of drawing all men and women to himself, while he walks by our sides and never forsakes us....

Unpacking Psalm 121 as a picture of life's journey and God's protection. ...

Maybe you vacillate between "having it all together" parenting and "I'm drunk" parenting. Maybe you want to fix your kids. Maybe you want to have compassion but don't, want to be interested, but aren't. Maybe you don't really know or aren't really sure, because you have checked out... Parenting does expose. It shows us our idols. ...

Practical steps for cultivating intimacy in marriage. ...

Marriage isn't always perfectly romantic, but in the rhythm of the ordinary, God is revealing Himself and His love for His people. ...

Today's culture sends all kinds of messages about sexuality, and God's Word speaks to each and every one of them. ...

Our priority as a church is to be a faithful presence of Jesus in a broken world, that we would live, speak and serve as the very presence of Jesus, and this includes in the area of sexuality....

Gospel Thoughts from My Week at Liberate...