Did Jesus really call a woman a dog? It sounds very unlike Jesus, but in Matthew 15 we find him interacting with a woman who wasn’t like him. She was an outsider…dirty. What did Jesus mean? What can we learn from this interaction? Explore the deeper meaning in this complicated passage, and discover God’s heart […]

Everyone has different opinions about what’s dirty. Some people like tattoos, while others don’t. Some are okay with flip-flops in public while others think seeing feet is gross. When we factor religion into all this, we have a mess of rights and wrongs that can be confusing. When the rules of religion are so varied […]

Throughout history, there have always been things Christians defined as dirty. It used to be sinful to play billiards or poker. It used to be wrong to wear a hat in church, or for women to wear pants. But culture changes and time passes. As it does things that were once forbidden by religion become […]

When was the last time you felt desperation? Desperation so great it felt like everything could come to an end? Maybe someone you love was so sick there was nothing more the doctors could do. Or your financial situation fell apart so much that you weren’t sure when you would be able to eat again. […]

We are all afraid of something. Spiders, snakes, heights…even dogs. Fear is an emotion everyone feels at some point in life. Whether that fear is manageable or crippling, people structure their lives so that they don’t have to be afraid. But what if the ways we manage our fear are actually keeping us from being […]

Insecurity is something that everyone battles. It’s the feeling that I’m not good enough, smart enough, or talented enough. That I can’t do what other people can. But, no matter how insecure you feel, you are not alone. God sees your insecurity very differently than you do. Rather than causing us to give up, discover […]

To understand what a person really wants, we have to really know them. We have to know what they like and don’t like, What motivates them, and what they care about. We need to understand how they feel about things. This is also true in our relationship with God. There’s one feeling that powerfully motivated […]

If you’ve ever struggled with negative emotions like grief, depression, or anxiety, you know how difficult it can be. Maybe you looked for help in the church and were told, “You’re struggling because you need to pray more and give these feelings over to God.” Maybe you were treated as if your emotions were a […]

Everything has a beginning. An origin story that explains our history and values. They are the myths and legends of the past that inform how we live today. And, while some legends fade over time, others gain strength in our imaginations and have the power to change the course of history. Some origin stories have […]

If you ask people if they believe in God, many of them would say yes. But their explanations of who God is and what he’s like would be radically different. Even in a church setting, we would find surprisingly different and varying beliefs about what God is like. And while belief is crucial to a […]