Central West End Church

Discipleship to Jesus doesn't mean adding burdens, it means trading burdens. It means, as Dallas Willard said, to be with Jesus in order to learn to live like Jesus. Join us as we explore twelve spiritual disciplines that Jesus uses to make us more like himself.

The warfare between what Paul describes as “the flesh” and the Holy Spirit is an unremitting struggle. For believers in Jesus, and in this life, there can be no escape from the need to depend on God’s grace. The difficulty of life now weighs upon us, but, as we learn in this passage, a remarkable and heavenly “fruit of the Spirit” grows in our embattled hearts that transforms our daily lives.  As we believe and follow Jesus, we are not only cultivating the fruit Paul mentions here, but in this fruit we are experiencing Jesus’ own character. Here and now we can taste what it means to belong to Him, to be changed by Him, and thereby gain the encouragement and assurance we need to continue in the struggle, not only for our own joy and happiness, but for the sake of others, too

Do you ever feel like there’s someone you’re supposed to be, but you can never quite become that person? Why is that? And is there any hope of ever becoming that person? There is. This passage shows us how.

It’s common to think of Christianity as a colonialist instrument of oppression. But what if the gospel is the only thing in the world that can truly bring different cultures, nations, and people together in a unifying love that transforms the world?

We all long for love. We also long for truth. But is it possible to have both truth and love? Is it possible to love one another across our differences? And if so, can a letter like this possibly help us?

What does it mean to be born again? The term originates with Jesus, and it’s everywhere in the New Testament. But what does it mean, and why is it so important? This passage shows us. 

We all experience moments of both doubt and belief, and we all experience moments of longing. But we wonder, “How can I trust anything, especially about spiritual reality?” In this passage, John helps us with our questions and our longings by pointing us to a testimony we can trust.

What if following Jesus in everything he said, especially the hardest things, is the way to a peace, a joy, and a fullness that nothing in this world can offer? That’s a big what if. But this passage shows us how. 

Modern people struggle with the question: How can God be both a God of love and a God of judgment? This passage shows us that the presence of judgment doesn’t contradict love. The presence of judgment gives us a far deeper love.

Why do Christians have to say that Jesus is the only way to God? As problematic as that sounds, it raises the deeper question of the nature of spiritual reality. This is a question that matters for all of us. This passage shows us why.