Glen and Susie are founders of Greentwig Conciliators (greentwig.org). They joined us for this evening's dinner to share with us the importance of listening in our marriages.

Marriage, Listening, Married Couples

Paul compares the church to a human body to show the need for diversity in the gifts of the church. Not having your favorite gift doesn't remove your importance from the body in fact, there is no one in the church that you can say is unnecessary. God has designed the church just the way he wants it; lovingly working together.

WE APOLOGIZE, THIS RECORDING WAS INTERRUPTED BY TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. THIS IS ONLY A PARTIAL RECORDING.

Twenty-Four years have passed since God has promised to make Abram into a great nation. In that time, the barren Sarai has now passed into a postmenopausal age and the promise no longer seems attainable. Despite Sarai's and Abram's attempt to realize God's word by their own attempts, heavenly messengers visit Abram with other plans. Meanwhile, Lot is also visited by heavenly messengers. These two narratives run parallel but divert and ultimately lead to polar opposite outcomes.

Hagar, Sarah, Abraham, Ishmael, Lot, Sodom, Gomorrah

Spiritual Gifts, The Church, Diversity, Unity

There's something about the human perspective that makes us want to categorize and prioritize every existing group. We bring this same tendency in our consideration of spiritual gifts. We fail to understand that the very confession of Jesus' lordship is a spiritual gift, the diversity of gifts is consistent with even the triune nature of God. This diversity is not meant to be prioritized, but to be a picture of God's personality imparted to His Church for the sake of others. 1st Corinthians 12:1-11

God's redemptive plan hones in on one man, Abram of Mesopotamia. Abram (soon to be Abraham) is often hailed as a perfect man, but we begin to see that his faith, much like ours, develops progressively after failures as well as successes. Serious failures notwithstanding, the faithfulness of the Abrahamic Covenant is contingent upon God's work; not Abram's. Genesis 12:1-15:20

Abram, Abrahamic Covenant, Covenant, Sarai, Sarah, Abram, Abraham

Gifts, Holy Spirit, Pentacost, Jesus, Diversity