Jesus walking on the water is a super famous story, and I've always beaten myself up a little by it.  Not only do I long to have the kind of faith that his disciple (Peter) had, who walked on the water with Jesus ... but when Jesus says, "You of little faith" I always feel a little told off for all my failures too!  So let's dig a little deeper into what Jesus actually says and how the first readers would have heard it ... maybe there's something else going on here that we can learn from.

One of the main authors of the New Testament described a golden chain of what it means to be a believer.  It uses 5 words known well to his audience in the first century, but a little removed from us today.  Here we dive deeper into what those words are and what his audience would have 'heard' when they read or heard them ... and then what that might mean for us today. 

What does the creation story in Genesis have to do with what it means to be called to represent God in the world today?  Could it be that being made 'in God's image' is more than just a feel-good message, but central to our call to care for creation, and a mirror to the way God moves in us and longs for us to lead each other ... as shepherds and gardeners?  

As we think through the final in our season about the 10 commandments, we see that all that follows in this 10-strong, world-famous list is the way to accomplish number 1.  If faith communities across the planet lived more and more like this - how abundant would the world be?  How much stronger would faith and life and love be?  So - be inspired as we engage with the first commandment in the list of 10.

The second commandment in the Big Ten is not to make idols and worship them.  There are definitely things we do today which are unhelpful in worshipping the one true God - things that pigeon-hole him, or narrow our focus, or things that start off as helpful but then become THE way we worship.  Here we look first at what those things might be, but then we spend a little time looking at how God actually reveals himself to us and touch the tip of the iceberg around who he really is.  Maybe it'll become clear just why nothing else will ever match up to knowing the actual, real, living God personally!

There is a commandment that asks us not to 'carry' the Lord's name in vain.  I was always brought up to read that as "don't swear using God's name", but what does it really mean?  And why is it so important to God that he also follows it up by saying he won't hold anyone innocent who does this!  Seems a little harsh.  More importantly though - what has that got to do with living this abundant life that God has for us??

Taking a day off can be tough - but what if there's much more to the Sabbath than simply a day off?  What if a whole people-group committing to honour God weekly together in prayer, thought, action and presence could be something revolutionary for the planet?  

There's a command in the 10 Commandments where we are told to honour our parents.  Here we look at what 'honour' means, and what an abundant society we could have if we truly honoured (in words, actions, time and resources) those in the stage of life ahead of us.  We will look at how good parenting reflects the heart of God for humanity, and that as we honour our parents here on earth, we are actually also honouring God.

Around half-way through this season (moving backward thru the 10 commandments), we've got to MURDER!  You're hopefully not considering becoming a murderer, but what could a life even free from hate or grudges feel and look like?  What could it be like for whole nations as well as us as an individual?  

In this episode of Deeper Season 3 (Abundant) we look at the commandment "Do not commit adultery".  The episode focuses almost exclusively on a biblical understanding of what it means to be a human being, and then looks at how we so often de-humanise people for our own gratification.  But what could an intimate relationship actually look like, and how would all our relationships change if we remembered that God has made us to represent him?