"We are to show the same mercy to others that God has been given to us. This is convicting for me when I look at my own life. I think of all the ways that I sin everyday and feel the weight of the judgement I deserve. However, knowing that I am saved by the sacrifice Christ made on the cross makes that weight disappear."...

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? ...

...the Revelation of John for things to come points to a people so engrossed in their self-sufficiency that the thunder of heaven cannot turn their unrepentant hearts - how much like that are we? How much like that am I? ...

My trials and suffering feel like the squashing of color and blurring of lines to the point that my portrait isn’t the perfect and skilled mimesis of what the world expects. Yet, there is so much more depth, so much more character. ...

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. ...

There’s nothing like a natural disaster to inspire people to ask deep questions about the meaning of life, justice, and the existence of evil and hardship. ...

I sit there and soak it up with a candle lit and music playing, because the orderliness of the house makes me feel in control and relaxed for the 5 minutes that it stays that way. Maybe heaven will smell like cleanliness and soap... ...

"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....

There is such an urgent need for Jesus in this city that it becomes overwhelming and easy to give up on people and our mission. ...

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. ...

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......

Our God taking destruction and disaster, creating restoration and reconciliation time and time again in both what we read in the Bible and within our own lives....

We forget what it is that brought us to the foot of the cross, in the first place - our sin and helplessness to do anything about it ourselves. The veil of distraction and ignorance so easily envelops us and soon we become desensitized and disengaged from the incredible and profound message of a God who loves us like no other!...

As we are recipients of God’s love, we all have the vocation of being conduits of God’s love toward others. ...

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....

In this real world where we live, God calls us to have faith, both in doing the works he puts in front of us and in trusting him for the results (visible or otherwise) that they may or may not achieve....

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. ...

If we get nothing else from Amos, we should get some holy discomfort....

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....

Lament is to be a regular rhythm of our worship. Lament awakens us to the realities of our world and the disorientations of our life. This past week has seen violence and revenge along racial lines. It won't be done away with by a quick prayer. Lamenting helps us to remember and repent and cry out to the only One that can help. ...