Diving In

After spending the past four weeks talking about who God made us to be as a church, this past Sunday morning we started a new conversation about what’s next.  Now that we know who we are, what are some of the specific things we can start doing now to make sure we are able to move all together in the direction He has designed us to go?  Keep reading to find out.

 

Diving In

Wasn’t last week fun?  If you were not here for whatever reason number one, we missed you.  Number two, you will want to get your hands on a video of the service so you can experience some of the Spirit moving as we did in the room.  After three weeks of unpacking the key pieces of the identity God has built into this church for the purpose of building up the larger body of Christ and expanding the kingdom starting in Oakboro and moving on outward from here, we finally put everything together as we celebrated the resurrection and found ourselves in the larger story God is writing across the ages.  I thought it was a really exciting morning and I hope you did too.  It was definitely a morning that I have been looking forward to for quite some time.  Several of you have told me how excited you are to race forward to see what God has in store for us in the days ahead as we become fully the body of Christ He made us to be—a place where people connect to grow in Christ and reach out for His kingdom.  And yet this week…everything looks about like it did last week.  So…what’s next? Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Mark 10:28

“Peter began to say to him, ‘See, we have left everything and followed you.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

What Peter says here is no small thing.  Have you left everything and followed Jesus?  Have you really left anything to follow Him?  What did you leave behind?  If you have indeed not left anything behind, there is a rather uncomfortable question you are going to need to answer: Are you really following Jesus? Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Acts 20:24

“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been asked the conversation-starting question of with whom in history you would most like to have dinner?  I’ve heard several people answer that they would like to have dinner with Jesus because who wouldn’t want to have dinner with Jesus?  I’ll tell you who: Just about everyone who actually did.  From the various reports of people eating with Jesus in the Gospels, He would have been a terrible dinner guest. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: John 21:17

“He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’  Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’  Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Have you ever told someone you love them?  I suspect you have.  I suspect you’ve even meant it.  But, how deeply did you mean it?  Were they merely sincere words, or was there more behind them?  Were they primarily emotional words, or was there a conviction that ran deeper?  Saying, “I love you,” is easy.  Loving someone is entirely more difficult. Read the rest…