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Liturgy and liturgies are practices, rituals, routines, they are something that you do, that do something to you. What makes liturgies religious, what makes rituals spiritual, is not that they just plant ideas in our heads, it’s that they are actually inscribing a desire in our heart for some...

The ancients appreciated that we are aesthetic beings, we are very much shaped by what we imagine and the imagination is a core faculty of the human person, but it also means we are embodied beings, we are material beings, our bodies are integral to our identity, which is why bodily rituals, to...

1 Peter 15-16, holiness, often misunderstood as perfectionism or unattainable purity is about being set apart for God, it means aligning every aspect of your lives with his will, becoming vessels for his glory. The weight and beauty of this call, holiness is not about earning God’s favor, but...

1 Peter 1:8, Peter calls believers to rejoice, though you have not seen Jesus Christ, you love him and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. This joy is not rooted in circumstances, but in the relationship believers have...

Galatians 3:1, Paul doesn’t sugarcoat the situation, to Paul, this wasn’t just a disagreement about religious practices, it was a betrayal of the good news message itself. The heart of the crisis lay in a fundamental question, is salvation by grace alone or is it grace plus law, Paul’s answer is...

The New Covenant has begun and of course what happens at Pentecost is directly tied back to what Jesus did on the cross and his resurrection. In the Old Testament, prior to the New Covenant, the notion of being elect and being a believer in Yahweh, a follower of Yahweh are actually two separable...

Jesus was the faithful Israelite, who truly loved God and neighbor and as Israel’s King, he died to take the curse and consequence of Israel’s failure into himself and bring redemption. So now, through Jesus the offspring of Abraham, God’s blessing can come to all people, regardless of their...

John 1:15, John tells about how he and his friends actually met Jesus and how they made the choice to follow and trust him and so we’re transformed by his light. John 1:16-17, John was an Israelite, part of the family that received through Moses the generous gift of the Torah that shared God’s...

God and the need for repentance, because John proclaimed the Kingdom of God is at hand. It’s a decision of which kingdom you want to be in. Repent, is the way John is caste in the Old Testament. This baptism, John’s baptism would give way to being baptized with the Holy Spirit. John’s baptism...

Now, this profound understanding of what Jesus accomplished, it has huge implications for who can now be included in God’s covenant family and for what it means to live as a member of that family. Paul turns to the stories about Abraham, how he was justified or declared righteous before God by...

There is a reward for those who endure, Revelation 3:11, a crown is at stake, a reward that Jesus himself will place on the heads of those who do not give up. 2 Timothy 4:7-8, the crown is not given to those who start the race, it is given to those who finish. You’ve been faithful to God, but...

Acts chapters 13-14, Paul wrote the Galatians from a place of deep passion and frustration. Christianity began as a Jewish Messianic movement in Jerusalem, but it’s message was for all humanity and it quickly spread beyond Israel. By Paul’s time as a missionary, there were as many non-Jews, as...

1 Peter 1:3, Peter, who had stood before an empty tomb, who had touched the scars on the risen Christ, knew this hope was no abstract idea, it was alive, just as Jesus was alive and it had transformed his own life, but what does Peter mean by living hope? It is the confident assurance that no...

John 15:5, do you go to church, is fruit growing in you, the question is not, do you believe in Jesus, it’s are you being shaped by his Holy Spirit and if not, then who is ruling your heart?

Galatians 6:9, the enemy wants you to give up, whenever you try to get serious about your faith, distractions increase. You commit to waking up early to pray, but suddenly your schedule becomes overwhelming. You decide to get back into the word, but then your phone won’t stop buzzing. You try to...

Luke 14:33, Jesus leaves no room for creative interpretations, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples, he doesn’t say some things, he doesn’t say the things you don’t need, he says everything, everything you own, every relationship you value, every dream you...

Philippians 4:6, nothing, not your job, finances, health, children, the chaos in the world, nothing. Worry is like carrying a backpack filled with bricks, every new fear, adds another brick and after a while, you start to believe the burden is just part of you, that you were built to be anxious...

Ephesians 5:21, introduces a principle that precedes and underlies everything about relationships, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. This instruction is not directed to a specific group within the community, it is universal, addressed to all believers without distinction.

Romans chapters 9-11, Paul takes you into an intricate discussion about Israel, a nation chosen by God, with a unique purpose in his unfolding plan for the world. Israel is God’s covenant people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, through whom God promised to bless the Nations. Yet...

In a world, where love often feels conditional, temporary or transactional, Paul’s message is radical. God’s love for you doesn’t depend on your performance, your strength or your circumstances, it’s a love that pursues you, even when you feel unworthy, even when you struggle to believe in it...