Throughout Scripture God's reveals His plan to His people, not for approval or input, but graciously invites them in to participate in what God is doing. In Genesis 18, the Lord invited Abraham in, and Abraham drew near to God and boldly interceded. Abraham could be bold, because He knew God and appealed to the character of God. When we pray, we can boldly intercede, because the Lord has invited us in to participate in what He is doing as we appeal to His character.

In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul highlights the good news of Christ’s resurrection, the power of His resurrection, and the result of His resurrection, what it means for us today. Through this passage, we get the heart of the story of Scripture: Jesus died and rose again to save sinners. The truths taught in this passage demand our attention as well as our affection as we are strengthened in our faith by thinking about the substitutionary life and death, resurrection, and return of Christ.

Christian persecution around the world is one of the biggest human rights issues of this era. These people do not live in the same region, or even on the same continent. But they share an important characteristic: They are all Christians, and they suffer because of their faith. While Christian persecution takes many forms, it is defined as any hostility experienced because of identification with Jesus Christ. From Sudan to Russia, Nigeria to North Korea, Colombia to India, followers of Christ are targeted for their faith. They are attacked, discriminated against at work and at school, and risk sexual violence, torture, arrest and much more.

We live lives full of uncertainty in a world that is unpredictable and beyond our control. While we can be tempted to try to live by our own strength, we find in Daniel an example and an admonition to live lives of prayer that are fueled by the character and promises of God as revealed in His word. Trusting that our sovereign and loving Father has better plans than we could hope. Trusting in His goodness, we can humbly confess our weakness and plead with Him to glorify Himself in the world.

Easter is the most important day in history, the pinnacle of God’s plan to redeem people from sin through Jesus Christ. Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, and death prompted great fear in His disciples, but we will see that when they encountered the risen Christ, that fear gave way to belief, joy and obedience. The resurrection of Jesus offers the same to us today.

In these passages from Isaiah and Luke, we will see that Jesus would come to be the Gift of Hope, the One who would bring light, joy, freedom, justice and righteousness. While God's people in Isaiah's day would have viewed these promises through their national struggles at the time, we see in these verses a greater hope: the Gift of Hope, Jesus, rescuing us from sin and providing peace with God. 

Followers of Christ have a responsibility to grow up in Christ. Ephesians 4 gives us ways to evaluate our growth as a body. The body has a specific way of design, development, destruction, dress and deportment. How are you doing in your growth?

God expects His followers to share the good news about what He has done. Scripture reminds us that as we are going, we have a responsibility to make disciples. The first way we can accomplish that goal is by sharing the gospel with others. Evangelism must be done because it is a reflection of the Father's heart.

Jesus had a specific way that He wanted His followers to be. Between the time Jesus says "Come" and then "Go", Jesus describes the kind of followers He is looking for. Jesus makes many statements which ended with, "cannot be my disciple." But he also gives us clarification on how His disciples should be. They are followers who are marked by incomparable love, continuing in the Word, sacrifice, cruciform life, obedience, stewardship and the one another's.

In God's letter to the church of Ephesus, God was calling them back to their first love. Encouraging them to live out of the overflow of devotion to Him. Devotion to God is compose of fear of God, love for God and desire for God. Many Christians have left their first love but God has given us a way to rekindle the fire by encouraging them to remember, repent and repeat what they did at first. 

When it comes to the question of the resurrection, we no longer argue whether it happened or not, but instead we argue whether it is helpful or not. Paul is going to speak into this as he writes about the resurrection essential to the faith. He is going to give us five consequences if there is no resurrection.

In a world of urgent need, God has sovereignly placed His people in certain positions and certain places for His purpose. We should response in these ways to see the need, seek God, and take action. 

God has a message for us all knowing that in the midst of God's correction there is always a message of hope. We need to continuously evaluate our hearts, according to God's word, to make sure we have a servant's heart willing to go, share and serve wherever God sends us.

The best attempt to define a disciple is that Jesus is at the core of transforming everything about us. First, He transforms our heart then triggers a continuous process as we grow in knowing God. He transforms our heart, mind, affections, will, relationships and purpose for His glory. 

As exiles scattered on this earth, we continue to pray and work for the prosperity of the community that we live in. Our mission is that we are passionate in our pursuit of Jesus as we desire to reproduce a Christ-centered culture in our church, family and community. This drives our relationship with Dr. Brown Elementary School as we celebrate our third year of Upgrade an after school program.

Jesus commands us to follow Him but know that he takes the initiative to choose us, provides the power to use us, and gets the glory through us so that we can be disciple-makers. As disciples, discipleship or disciple-making is our mission. 

God's Word teaches us how to lead our family so that we can be a Christ-Centered family that prays, worship and serve together.

We are called to be the church with the purpose of glorifying God, building up believers and serving our world. Out of all the things that we could be likened to, we are likened to the bride of Christ. The reason we are called the bride is because God wants intimacy with us, He offers protection and we have privileges.

Listen as JP our missionary to Asia challenges us to devote ourselves to prayer and to make the most of every opportunity to share the Gospel as our conversations are full of grace and seasoned with salt.