True gratitude is found when we experience moments of grace as unexpected gifts and not simply part of God's "job description".

Faith in the God who raised Jesus from the dead is not something we can ever fully understand- we simply stand in awe of the mystery.

Thoughts for the week: What do you place your faith in? Is it something you can fully understand or control, or something much bigger?

We always live in the tension between the joy of life and the sorrow of death, but God's promise is that death will ultimately defeated by life. We celebrate Holy Communion to renew and strengthen our faith in this promise.

Our actions should demonstrate the love of God so clearly that words are unnecessary.

Thoughts for the week: How do your actions demonstrate the love of God to those around you?

When we are able to forgive others, we are set free from the prison of anger and resentment.

Thoughts for the week: What are the healthy relationships in your life? What are the difficult relationships? What would it take to find forgiveness in those difficult relationships?

When we faithfully give from what little we think we have, God uses it to bless many more people than we ever thought possible.

Thoughts for the week: What do you have to share with the world? Could God use what you think is very little to bless a large number of people?

Lent is a time for us to focus on our own mortality, embrace simplicity in our lives, and open ourselves to ways that God can use us as part of his work of redemption in this world.

Thoughts for the week: Where is there excess in your own life? What would it mean for you to remove the excess and embrace simplicity in those areas?

God brings life out of places that seem completely overrun by the powers of death and destruction.

The bodily Resurrection of Jesus demonstrates that the ultimate power of our world, death, does not have the last word in creation. That last word belongs to God, who continues to redeem and shape this world to the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed.

Thoughts for the week: Where do you see the power of death ruling in the world? How do you experience God breaking that power? What would it mean for you to live as a citizen of the Kingdom of God?

God offers us free grace and forgiveness that is beyond our ability to comprehend or grasp by our own power. We repent and begin to allow God to change our life in response to the grace we have already been given. The person who truly grasps the depths to which they have been forgiven then extends it to others who may not understand their need for it or unwilling to repent, trusting that God’s grace will work through us and be made known to them.

What do you need to be forgiven for? What do you need to forgive someone for?