Christ followers are not just responsible for what they do – but also for the impression they give. This week will be a paradigm shift for each of us as we transition from an easy and average perspective of judgment to one of mercy. Mercy is diffi cult and must be learned – because where it is absent, God is blasphemed, Satan will gain a foothold and Christianity becomes a joke.
Mercy Over Judgment | Vertical Living: [09]
Matthew 9:9-13
Offense is an obstacle to love. And the cost of unresolved offense is great. For this cause, God takes it very seriously. No matter your personality, the prescription for resolution is universal. God is the resource and reason for loving others. Matthew 5:21-47
The Necessity of Resolving Offense | Vertical Living: [08]
Matthew 5:21-47
What is your love story as it pertains to love for God? Jesus said, the sincerity of your love for God is on display in the record of your actions toward the person in your life you find hardest to love. As followers of Christ we do this willingly and gladly. And while love is not the only thing that matters – it is the method to accomplish everything that does.
Love: The Greatest Thing
Matthew 22:34-40
We Need A Downpour
Hosea 6:1-3
How to See God Working, Part 1
John 9:1-23
God is ALWAYS at work – the problem is that we don’t always recognize it. From minor distractions to massive trials, it isn’t about whether God is working in those things, but about how we see them. Have you reached the place where you can admit that honestly? It isn’t easy, but with God’s help we can sharpen our focus together through the lens of His Word. Let’s turn together to John chapter 9…
Loving Jesus means keeping his commandments – and most of them are about loving our neighbors. Loving others is loving Jesus because He commands it – and it leads to a deeper experience with Him.
Vertical Living | Love Gone Right
John 14:21 & 1 Corinthians 13
You cannot live – really live – until you love God. Love to live! And you cannot really love God unless that shows up in your loving of one another. God has given each of us the capacity to love. Vertical love is God before me. Horizontal love is you before me. But as with anything, the enemy has something else in mind.
Satan can’t create anything – he just takes the beautiful things that God has created – twists them and attempts to use them to destroy us. One such twisting is taking a love for God & others and converting it to “legalism.” Maybe you have been the recipient of a pointed finger or found yourself with the “three pointed back at you.”
In Vertical Living, God will take you to the mat with the full weight of all that He is. Watch and learn how to LOVE2LIVE2LOVE.
Love Gone Wrong
1 John 2:15-17
You cannot live – really live – until you love God. Love to live! And you cannot really love God unless that shows up in your loving of others.
In fact, the two are so closely interrelated that God is not interested in our expressions of love when we have hatred in our hearts toward another person – especially another one of His children, and most especially those of God’s family who are hardest of all to love.
In Vertical Living, God will take you to the mat with the full weight of all that He is… watch and learn how to LOVE2LIVE2LOVE.
Vertical Living | Introduction Part 1
Matthew 22:37-40
Conquering Insecurity Part 1
Exodus 4
God has a plan for every person – He wants to work for you, in you, and through you. But when God calls us to live out our purpose, we often encounter paralyzing insecurity… the awareness of the gap between who we want to be and who we actually are.
This week in Exodus 4, we return to Moses’ story, as God calls him to boldly follow. Though filled with flaws and failures, God teaches Moses (and us!) an important message about how to truly conquer that insecurity.
There are no enduring relationships without forgiveness.
If you think you have the right to withhold forgiveness it is because you have not properly calculated the debt of sin owed to a Holy God. Even when it’s hard… Even when it’s hurtful… Forgiven people forgive people. You might be surprised what Jesus said hangs in the balance when it comes to forgiveness.
Forgive without limit…THIS is what we do.