If you ask any priest what his wish for his church would be, he’d probably say SPIRITUAL GROWTH. And I don’t disagree. But what does that look like?
In this week’s message, I talk about 4 things I as a priest wish for all the members of my church in this coming year. It’s more than just read the Bible and say your prayers. These are four things that I believe God wants to use deepen your faith and bring you closer to His perfect plan for your life.
Read MoreWeek 3 of our Seasoning Life series and this week we're on our second habit which is: I WILL LEARN CHRIST FOR ONE PERIOD OF TIME this week.
What does it mean to "learn Christ"? It means to deepen our relationship with Him - to invest in Him as we would any relationship with any person. Learning a person (Christ) is not the same as learning information. Information is stagnant but a person is dynamic. Information can be mastered, but a person is always growing and therefore the relationship can always go deeper.
We need to spend more time learning Christ and our goal this week is to do just that. Check out the video message above and join us on our Lenten challenge of five habits that make for a questionable life.
"God uses COMMUNITY to lead us to MATURITY."
God's plan for humanity has always been clear - that we "may GROW UP in all things into Him who is the head—Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). As any parent, God isn't content for us to merely be born into His family; He desires that we would grow and reach the point of maturity. His desire is that we wouldn't just grow OLD, but that we'd grow UP as well.
How does that maturity happen? I believe that a major portion of the process takes place in the context of community. Without community, you'll never reach the level of spiritual maturity that God desires for you life.
How can I say that? Check out Part 4 in The BodyShop series as we continue to look at the different markers that make for a healthy member of the Body of Christ.
“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because,having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.” (James 1:12)
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! Hope you had a great holiday week and are ready to get back into the normalcy/routine of life (I know I am!).
We got back into the swing of things at STSA by going back In The Waiting Room. This week our message focused around God's purpose for our trials. We all know we're waiting for something, but what? What is the intended outcome that God is trying to achieve from this? What exactly am I "waiting" for anyway?
The answer may surprise you. Make sure you check out this week's message to find out for yourself.
And as a special bonus, somewhere in the middle of the message I made my first "BOLD PREDICTION" for 2015. I guarantee you'll be interested in finding out what that's all about...
We wrapped up the Crazymakers series yesterday and this final message might have been the most powerful. In it, we talked about 6 commitments that we need to make in order to keep the crazymakers from making us crazy. 6 commitments. That's it. If you can do your best with these 6 commitments, I promise you, you'll find a new level of peace in your life - one that you never knew was even possible.
“When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” Proverbs 16:7
Check it out and leave a comment to let me know what you think.
