Last Sunday, Ociel, one of our leaders, continued the series Empowered for Purpose with a message titled "Awakened to True Identity."   Over the past several weeks, we have been exploring what it means to be empowered for purpose. We often teach in a series because...

Jesus, Our Liberator We celebrated July 4th this weekend, marking 250 years of American freedom. That is worth pausing over. The freedoms we enjoy in this nation did not come cheaply. Our forefathers, and many along the journey after them, paid a great price. In many...

Empowered for Purpose, Part 2: A New Identity You cannot walk in kingdom purpose while clinging to an old identity.That is a simple statement, but it carries tremendous weight. We cannot move into the fullness of what God has for us while still holding on to our past,...

Empowered for Purpose, Part 1: From Failure to Purpose God created you with purpose. You were made in His image, recreated in Christ, born anew by the Spirit, and called into a life of meaning, assignment, destiny, and influence. Purpose is not something reserved for...

There are some storms we would avoid if we could. Yet storms are part of life, and learning to navigate them is vital to fulfilling our God-given assignments. In this series, Navigating the Storms of Life, we have examined three different kinds of storms. Each has a...

Walking in Healing, Wholeness, and Kingdom Compassion Last month, we discussed Christ the Healer—how divine healing is not a fringe doctrine or merely the emphasis of a modern movement. Healing is a revelation woven throughout Scripture. From the beginning of the...

Storms can arise quickly. Growing up in the Midwest, I learned this as a young boy. I am from Iowa, and like much of that part of the United States, tornadoes were a frequent reality. When I was about eight years old, a devastating tornado hit my parents’ hometown in...

Life brings storms. Some storms come suddenly. Some build slowly over time. Some are caused by circumstances beyond our control. Some are the result of human choices. Some are allowed by God to strengthen, refine, and prepare us. And some storms are sent by the enemy...

Tell God What You Need Last month, I discussed our rights as God’s children to ask Him with confidence in prayer.  While we can’t control the outcome of prayer, we can control our response to situations. Jesus lived in response to the Father, not to the devil or to...

Jesus came to redeem us—to restore us, to bring us back, if you will, to His original intent. That intent was for us to walk with God in the cool of the day, and to live in His abundant life—to live continually in God's presence. From the very beginning, the theme of...