Often it's difficult to recognise when we're in a season that God is using to prepare us for the next thing He has in mind for us to do. Recognising the season of preparation is not always easy, but once we recognise that we're always in a season where we're being prepared for something bigger - we can begin to position ourselves to take make the most of the season. 

We read in the book of Leviticus that God's people must take action in order to be prepared to receive God's blessing. With this in mind, we look to Jesus to find out how he prepared himself for his public ministry and ultimate conquering of the enemy.

Happy Fathers' Day! We're opening the book of Esther to discover 5 characteristics of the Father's heart that we can see exampled through Mordecai. Mordecai is a supporting character to Esther in her story, and yet we are able to learn some valuable insights into God's own heart for his people, and crucially, how we're able to example these characteristics into our own world and communities. 

The Father: Adopts; Protects; Never Leaves; Calls; and Restores. 

In Genesis 22 God asks Abraham to take his son up a mountain to sacrifice him as a burnt offering. Through this story of Abraham's incredible obedience and faith, we saw a miraculous provision of God. God spares Abraham from sacrificing his son, and instead provides an offering for him to us. 

In response, Abraham declares that Jehovah Jireh - the Lord provides. Our final week in this teaching series, Samantha unpacks some of what it means that the Lord is our provider. In order to see the true provision of God, we must put ourselves in a position where the faith is required that God will provide. 

After God delivered him from some fairly bleak situations, David was able to declare in Psalm 18 that the Lord is his rock - Jehovah Sela. Throughout the Old Testament there are many images of the rock being a place of refuge and safety, but also provision - as we see in Exodus 17. 

We're continuing with our study into the names attributed to God in the Old Testament, this week Olivia explores what it means for us that God is our rock, and how we see the rock imagery continued in the New Testament through Jesus Christ - the cornerstone on which the Church is built.

In Exodus 17 Moses build an alter to God and calls it The LORD is my Banner. What does it mean to have the LORD as our banner. This week David explores some of the meaning of Yahweh as the one we raise high, and under whom we conduct our lives. 

What does it look like to live lives under the banner that is God?

Gideon experiences the peace of God in Judges 6, when it seems likely that he would face certain death. This week we explore the story of Gideon and how God brought a sense of peace to him, such that he declared "Jehovah Shalom" - the LORD is peace. 

We can see how the peace of the Lord is embodied in the person of Jesus, and what this relevation and truth means for us in our lives now. 

In Philippians Paul talks about a peace of God that transcends our understanding, it is God's desire that we live in that peace.

In Jeremiah 23 God declares that He Himself will be the righteousness of His people. But what is righteousness? Why do we need it? How is our righteousness fulfilled by God? 

This week we explore what God means when He tells us that He is our righteousness, and we begin to explore some of what righteousness means in context of its opposite - sin. We'll go on a whistle-stop tour of the biblical narrative to try and understand the impact of this declaration. 

Finally, we come to observe how it is Jesus who earns righteousness, and how our righteousness is awarded to us by our faith in Him. 

In psalm 23 David describes the God of the bible as being a shepherd, and we can read all across the Old Testament various scriptures where the relationship between God and His people is likened to that of a shepherd and his flock. In this epiosde we study what God means when He declares that He is our shepherd. We then look at how Jesus is the embodiment of the shepherd described in psalm 23, by analysing the evidence from His earthly ministry.

Finally, we unpack some of what this revelation means for us, today.

Samantha begins a new series discovering some of the character and nature of God, extracted from the names and story of God found in the Old Testament. This week we're looking at the name that God gives himself in Exodus 3, when speaking to Moses at the burning bush. 

We're looking at 1 Samuel 17 and beginning to understand the vision that God has for our church. David spent time in a season of preparation before he was able to step out, and then step in to what God had called him to do. We're believing that God has called this church to be a field of preparation. Super mega announcement contained within this episode!

We're super excited!