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Topic: Forgiveness
Forgiveness Is Personal
Rob spoke about forgiveness and one common challenge to it—revenge. When someone hurts us and we turn to revenge, we are essentially saying that we don’t like the way God is running the universe. Read More
Don’t be Like the Pharisees
In this section of Luke, Jesus gives four distinct teachings that on the surface seem unrelated. But when taken in context with each other, they highlight four different aspects of how we are to live in Christian community with one another.
The Porcupine Dance
Forgiveness is always easier to talk about than to actually do. But without it we are alone and isolated, and can be consumed by hurt. Jesus taught about how we should forgive each other through parables: because we experience God’s great forgiveness, we share the same with others who have wronged us. And as a result, we learn how to live our lives with each other and experience the freedom that God wants for us. Read More
Daily Bread, Daily Forgiveness
In the next part of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches that prayer is about daily dependence on God to meet our needs, even though most people in our self-sufficient world do not think this way. We also discover the crucial role that forgiveness plays in our lives and the surprising freedom it can bring. Read More
Extravagant Forgiveness, Extravagant Love
When we look at the fallen world around us, we often see division, separation, and seclusion. Whether it’s separation by family, country, ethnicity, religion, there is a tendency to sort ourselves into people groups by what we like or do not like. Though this may be natural in this world, it is completely opposite of what the Kingdom of God is about. Jesus came and demonstrated a radical willingness to associate with people of all walks of life with the love of God. Read More
A Gracious Mess
Judgment of other people is a vicious cycle that destroys human relationships. Only God has the wisdom, power and ability to be an accurate judge of a person’s life and character. Instead of creating self-centered little kingdoms for ourselves, we can follow the path of Jesus by living in perfect love. Read More
Sabbath People
The Lord Jesus was truly a Master Teacher to his disciples. Using his unique wisdom in the midst of tense and controversial situations brought on by the Pharisees, he was able to teach people deep truths about God…even without them knowing it. In Luke 6:1-5, we have an account where Jesus is doing just this very thing. Jesus and his disciples were being confronted by some of the Pharisaic religious leaders for picking grain on a Sabbath day, a religious offense that warranted serious punishment. He responded to them by mentioning how King David once did the same thing. Jesus further went on to say that he was, in fact, the Lord of the Sabbath. Read More
Fishing with Jesus
Jesus desires to be a part of every area in our lives. Following God is not a spiritual exercise or ritual that is relegated only to church. Rather, it is a relationship that consists of giving to God everything about us, and being obedient to God’s calling and direction in our lives.
Kingdom Parenting, Part 2
Greg reviewed the main points from last week which were: individually, we all need to “get a life.” By this he means we need to get out life from Christ so that we are operating out of a fullness, rather than a deficit. Then as couples, we need to get a life together! One of the best things parents can do for their children is to model what it is for parents to love one another and have a rich, vibrant life together. This week Greg focused on a third principle. Breaking the domino effect of generational curses through the power of forgiveness. Read More
You are the Prostitute
Greg read the story in Luke of the prostitute who interrupts Jesus’ dinner at a Pharisee’s home to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears, kiss his feet, and anoint them with oil. The Pharisee looks down on her because he considers her sin greater than his own, but when God is the standard, neither he nor the prostitute has any advantage over the other. They both fall infinitely short. We too must relate to the prostitute because of how short we all fall compared to the perfection of God’s standard. Read More
