The Messy Coffee Table

About two years ago I was on a ten-day mission trip in Colombia with a group of college students from three different cities: Boston, Miami, and Las Vegas. The purpose of our mission was to come alongside two churches in two cities - one in urban Pereira and one in rural Jamundi. My role primarily was to lead worship for our team as well as with the worship teams at each church, learning from one another as we engaged in making music for the Lord. Part of this journey involved leading worship during a women's small group (which turned out to be not so small), led and taught by two of our own team leaders. The teaching was from a passage which, to this day, continues to impact me in my walk with God in ways I never expected. The passage was 2 Corinthians 4, which if you've never read through it before, stop right here and go read it and take your time with it. Seriously, do it. It's SO good. I'll be here waiting when you're done. Here we see Paul speaking to the ...

Last time, we gathered around this message of making room for God in every season. The practice of inviting him into our "heart-home" as we talked about can be both beautiful and painful all at the same time. And once we've invited God in...into our hearts, our stories, into each and every moment...then we are invited to abide with Him there. And that's what I want to talk about today. What does it mean to "abide?" Jesus emphasized the importance of abiding in Him in John chapter 15. He compares himself to a vine, and us (believers) to the branches of the vine. It reads: I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in  me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it  abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you ...

I have grown to really love advent. As a kid, it wasn't really anything more to me than a little calendar filled with chocolates for every day leading up to Christmas in December. These days, having grown and learned so much from the Lord and from my local church, advent has become something really special. Childhood anticipation for Christmas morning treasures under the tree have evolved into a beautiful combination of remembrance and waiting for the coming of the greatest Gift of all. I've especially loved learning how our worship can intentionally illustrate this longing in the weeks leading up to Christmas Eve, with songs and readings that culminate in a glorious receiving of our new born King Jesus. Last year in particular, God keept bringing me back to the same theme over and over as we entered the Advent season: We've all heard the timeless carol, Joy to the World... "let every heart prepare him room..." This phrase stands out to me in a different way no...

Welcome back!  This week we are looking at Hebrews 6:13-20. This passage comes in between an encouragement from the author to believers towards a mature faith, which we talked about last time, and another descriptive identifier of Jesus as the high priest "after the order of Melchizedek," which we'll dive deep into next time. This week I want to zero in on one thing: God's promises. What does He promise us? What does He not promise us? How can we trust that His promises are sure? I hope to get into a little of all that with you today, which is why I've kept this particular chunk of Hebrews so short and sweet compared to weeks previous.   Guaranteed with an Oath The author has just been encouraging the readers of this letter to be "imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." Immediately on the heels of this he turns to Abraham as an example. God promised to bless Abraham with a multitude of offspring, and Abraham had t...

Last time we left off in Chapter 4 as the author re-emphasized Jesus as our high priest, who sympathizes with us and is the perfect sacrifice on our behalf. We receive a call to "draw near to the throne of grace" with confidence, because we have Jesus as our High Priest (Hebrews 4:15-16). The author continues this illustration in chapter 5, where we pick up today. Our High Priest, Called & Obedient In chapter 5 the author further expounds on Jesus as our High Priest, and makes a comparison between Him and the high priests "appointed by men": He acts on behalf of men in relation to God, but he himself is also weak (Jesus became "weak" for us). He is called to present offerings and sacrifices for their sins. Furthermore, the role of High Priest is a calling from God, and is not something anyone can take on for themselves just because they want to. I kind of love that. Think on it for a moment...in what ways does God call you into the "royal pr...

The faith-refresher continues! Last week we read Hebrews 1 & 2 with the takeaway that because Jesus is the better sacrifice and the perfect founder of our faith, we should not forget what we've heard or the faith to which we are called. This week, in chapters 3 and 4, we see the author extend this thought using Old Testament history as a warning for this generation of believers to persevere in the faith and not turn from it, so that they may "enter God's rest." Read Hebrews 3 & 4 now and let's unpack this together. Jesus: High Priest and Apostle There's a lot we've been told about Jesus so far in Hebrews: He's the heir of all things, the one through whom God made the world (1:2); the radiance of God's glory and representation of the person of God, the one who sustains the world by his power and sits at God's right hand (1:3). He's better than the angels because he is one with God (1:4), better than Moses and all other prophets...

Have you ever felt like you needed a faith-refresher? Was there ever a season where the weight of doubt, striving and insecurity made you forget why your relationship with Jesus began in the first place? Or have you ever felt a dullness, a numbness to God's work in your life? Every now and then, we need to go back to the place we began. At the time the book of Hebrews was written, the recipients were considering turning away from their new faith in Jesus and back to the old faith practices of Jewish law. Though no specific author or audience is named (some think Paul wrote it, but we can't be sure), it becomes clear that the author is writing to a group of Jewish converts who's faith is wavering. This letter was written to refresh the the faith of these believers by connecting their new Christian faith with all God had promised and revealed throughout the Old Testament scriptures. It was written to illustrate and remind some of these earliest Jewish converts to Christia...