Articles & Stories
Resources to inspire, challenge, and inform
Digital communication, including texts and emails, is a great way to communicate information and facts quickly, efficiently, and effectively. But what texts and emails can’t communicate are emotions, your heart, eye contact, non-verbal cues, forgiveness, love, etc…all the things that are required for a relationship to really flourish. Those things can only be experienced in true relational connection…face-to-face.
Let’s face it…many of our kids have been struck by the “arrow” of entitlement. They’ve developed an attitude that says “I deserve more and better”. You can quickly spot entitlement if you hear your kids constantly complaining, “It’s not fair!”. Entitlement is destructive because it results in the act of greed. In order to kill greed, we must to train our kids to be grateful. How do we help foster an attitude of gratitude in our kids amidst a culture of entitlement?
“Bad company corrupts good character.” We’ve all seen this play out again and again. A “good” kid gets in with the wrong crowd in high school and ends up addicted to drugs. An NFL player making millions of dollars gets arrested for robbery. His coach’s response: “He’s gotta get a new crew.” A high school student who is “on fire” for Jesus, goes off to college, makes new friends, and comes home no longer believing in or following Jesus. Why do stories like this happen?
As parents, how do we protect our kids’ hearts from being destroyed by the consequences of their choices? We all need to understand The Principle of Consequences. The Principle of Consequences is this: If we’re on path A, we will end up at destination A. We choose the positive and negative consequences we will experience later by the path we choose to be on today.
One of our greatest desires as Relevant Community Church is to be a difference-making church. There are some key differences between people who “go” to church (“churchy people”) and people who are the church (“difference makers”). If we really want to be difference makers and be a difference-making church, we need to take a long, hard look at our lives and consider whether we are living as churchy people or as difference makers.
Words are a powerful thing.
Words have the ability to BLESS another…to inject the LIFE of God. Words also have the ability to CURSE another…to inject hurt and ultimately DEATH. Words can literally change a person’s life. In some way or another, we can all attest to that. All of us have our own stories of words that have been said to us that have changed the trajectory of our lives.
“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still SINNERS, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7-8). In case you missed that, read it again. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were still sinners – literally, ENEMIES of God – Christ died for us. Have you thought about that?
What if I told you there is ONE THING that would… Transform you? Draw you closer to God? Lead you to experience His active presence in your life more? Improve your relationships? Proclaim the good news and love of Jesus in the world louder than anything else? Would you want to know what that one thing is? Would you do it?
Winning can be an exhilarating experience. Often, winning produces a physical action like shouting or jumping. No matter how big or small, whether it’s winning a game, a prize, or the lottery, we internally rejoice. But what happens when we lose? Losing also results in a physical reaction. Slumped shoulders, pouting, or a fake smile that covers up the angry emotions inside are just a few gestures we witness. While winning brings a sense of pride and joy, losing can make us feel jealous and ashamed.
"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." – Mahatma Gandhi. How many times have you heard of people leaving the church or speaking against Christianity, not because of God but because of us, because we love so contrary to the Jesus we say we follow? We have made it hard for people to see Jesus because of how we love…or how we don't love. We must change this!
Do your words fill others with joy or kill their joy? The words we speak to others are a really big deal to Jesus and an issue of obedience. Our obedience to what Scripture teaches is make it or break it in our experience of Jesus…Joy Himself. Choosing to be joy-filling people to others probably affects our joy much more than how they treat or speak to us.
This post is a summary from our Your Marriage Can Thrive sermon series. You can listen to the series on our Sermons page. Regardless of the past or what stage your marriage is currently in…your marriage can THRIVE! But a thriving marriage will require… 1. Two good forgivers, 2. Accepting one another’s faults, and 3. Spiritual oneness.
Have you ever noticed yourself behaving like those you’re around? We’re all part of a family in some way, shape, or form. From a young age, we see how children resemble their parents. Kids take on the mannerisms, vocabulary, attitudes, and even beliefs of their parents. How often do you hear, “You remind me so much of your mom/dad”? We become and behave like those we identify with.
Jameson and Harrison were both born 3 months early at 27 weeks. They weighed just 2lbs 3oz and 2lbs 4oz. They entered this world covered in prayer. Cassie was hospitalized when the boys were 23 weeks and she was able to remain on bedrest and carry the boys to 27 weeks. We spent our days in prayer that we would be able to carry the twins until they were viable.
