Spiritual practices are gifts God gives us that help us to know him better and become more like him. This morning we think about weekly gathered worship, a difficult topic when many of us are unable to gather because of the pandemic. Yet weekly, gathered, worship is an indispensible part of our faith practice. Why does God create us with a need for community, and how can we practice the principles of gathered worship when we’re not in the same room?
The Gift of Rest
Spiritual practices are gifts God gives us that help us to know him better and become more like him. This morning we focus on rest and Sabbath. More than an archaic demand to “reserve a day for God,” Sabbath is God’s gift to restore and refresh us spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally. So why do we not take advantage of it? Listen as we parse the true ground for Sabbath, obstacles we face to practicing Sabbath, and how Sabbath can refresh us in our modern world.
Marinating Prayer
Spiritual practices are gifts God gives us that help us to know him better and become more like him. This morning we spend some time thinking about prayer. Jesus teaches us, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you.” (John 15:7) But we have all asked God for things and not gotten them. What did Jesus mean? What is the true purpose of prayer? And how can we pray better?
A Bigger Story
The Book of Ruth ends with what, to our modern ears, sounds like a boring anti-climax: a list of names we can’t pronounce in a family tree we don’t understand. But when we read through the lens of an original reader and remember what we know about ancient cultures, we find that the author of Ruth makes a meaningful point with this list of names: God is writing a bigger story than you or I could imagine. How will you be a part of God’s cosmic story?
Know the God Who Knows You
In Ruth 3 Naomi instructs Ruth to take a very unusual—and some may say, suspect—series of actions. Though they had the best of intents, we might wonder at the wisdom of their actions. The text is vague enough that we don’t know for certain, but could the story of Ruth 3 still point us to Christ, and perhaps even more effectively, if Ruth turns out to be less savory than we thought?
What's Next?
In Ruth 2 we see two pictures of active faith from two very different perspectives. Naomi and Ruth demonstrate their faith from a position of weakness, while Boaz demonstrates his faith from a position of strength. Does your faith feel weak right now? Strong? Somewhere in between? This morning we ask how a simple question—“What’s next?”—can act like starter fluid for our faith.
Bitter Mercy
The story of Ruth is a story of bitterness and mercy. This morning we ask, “How could Ruth still follow the God who had allowed so much bitterness into her life?”
Jonah: God's Priorities
This is the third and final part of Doran’s study and look into the book of Jonah. Part three focuses on God’s priorities and the final ten verses of the book.
Jonah: God's Compassion
In part 2 of Doran Morford’s 3 part study of the book of Jonah, the third chapter is explored. This time, Jonah listens to God and does what he commands. When Jonah tells the people of Nineveh that their city will be destroyed, they repent, which is exactly what God wanted. Doran helps us to understand why exactly God did this.
Jonah: God's Sovereignty
In Part 1 of Doran Morford’s three part study of the book of Jonah, he explores the first 17 verses of the book and takes a deeper dive into the meaning. Below are two study sheets that were alluded to during service on Sunday.
The Good Samaritan
Most Christians are familiar with Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. Most American states even have “good samaritan laws.” This morning we spend some time with a very familiar story, asking the same question as the Jewish expert in the law who talked with Jesus: “What does it mean to love my neighbor?”
Merit and Mercy
This morning, as we look for guidance in the racial tension so prevalent today, we look for God’s heart in the Old Testament law. What is the purpose, spirit, and goal of the law, and how does God show his compassion through the law?
Repent
With the deep racial tension in America today, how do we respond? The answers aren’t clear, especially in a majority-white church in one of the whitest states in America. We feel that we have to do something, but we’re not sure what.
Our first step is to listen to the stories of our brothers and sisters of color; our second step is to lament as we hear their stories of being treated unjustly. This morning we begin to look at repentance. To repent means to change—it’s a change of mind and a change of action. Both must be present. How does God call us to repent of the racial sin present in our world?
Love One Another
Love is at the heart of the Christian faith. Jesus tells us the greatest commandment is to love God with our whole self, and the second is like it: to love our neighbor as ourselves. But it’s very easy to leave love in the abstract.
This morning Doran helps us to see more of the specifics. What does love actually look like, not just as an abstract idea, but as a concrete reality? How does love change your life?
Lament
With the deep racial tension in America today, how do we respond? The answers aren’t clear, especially in a majority-white church in one of the whitest states in America. We feel that we have to do something, but we’re not sure what.
As we take time to carefully listen to our non-white brothers and sisters, we will inevitably find ourselves drawn toward lament. Although lament seems dark and hopeless, it actually paves the way forward. Hear how the gospel empowers us to lament well.
Stop and Listen
With the deep racial tension in America today, how do we respond? The answers aren’t clear, especially in a majority-white church in one of the whitest states in America. We feel that we have to do something, but we’re not sure what.
Our first step as Christians is to stop and listen. To hear the stories of our non-white brothers and sisters, and even to lean into the discomfort we may feel. And as we listen, we can become like Christ to our brothers and sisters whose voices have for so long been ignored.
Relationship and Right
How should Christians disagree? Disagreement is inevitable, especially in gray areas where right and wrong isn’t clear.
Paul gives us a window into two disagreements that early Christians faced: whether it was ok to eat meat, and whether they should still observe a Sabbath.
When we sacrifice our relationships on the altar of our rights or being right, Paul says we get it wrong. How will we relate to one another, and potentially disagree, as we think about our response to the coronavirus?
The Word and Work of God
God wants to transform us—to make us more fully human. He transforms our lives through his Word. This morning we look at how God uses his Word to draw people who are far from him near to him, and to draw people who are near to God nearer to him.
Remember and Persevere
When we’re stuck in the wilderness, and there’s no end in sight, what do we do? The Israelites are at the beginning of a 40-year “exile.” How can they cope with that?
God gives the answer: perseverance comes through remembering. Here’s how one simple practice can sustain us almost indefinitely.
God on Trial
In this third of three consecutive stories, God leads the Israelites further into the wilderness, they find themselves without water, they complain to God, and he provides water.
It sounds familiar, but now the Israelites are really fed up. So, in effect, they put God on trial, accusing, convicting, and sentencing him.
How does God respond when his people put him in the defendant’s seat?