We will one day see those that we have lost, and our Church family is the most lasting impact that we have on the world.

People tend to think that we can think ourselves into new ways of behaving. But a far more effective way to begin to live the Christian life is by imitating more mature Christians. The Church has a lot of these role models in our family.

We often underestimate the difficulty that ancient people would have had in not worshiping idols. Many idols have a serious hold on us. Idolatry is slavery to something intent on destroying you.

Many of the Thessalonians had to leave their families to follow Christ, since they were disowned for not worshiping idols. As a result, Christians found a surrogate family in the Church. In Christ, we have been baptized into the enormous family of God, and this should be a part of our witness.

Our church won’t be able to offer flashy light shows and a concert-like atmosphere, but what we can offer is ourselves. The content of our message is carried in the way that we live as a family, showing the world that we have a different way of being human.

Jesus was the second Adam; the beginning of a new humanity as part of the beginning of the New Heavens and New Earth in the Church.

In Christ’s resurrection, the long-awaited hope that God’s faithful dead would rise again began to be accomplished. Now an entirely new nation of people is born from the dead, and given a different kind of life patterned after Christ’s new body.

Jesus was the promised King who finally trusted God, but humans found the beauty and glory of God intolerable. But God will overlook our sins for the sake of Jesus' righteousness.

Jesus was the long awaited king of Israel, who saves them from their sins and sets them free from captivity. But it wasn’t done in the way they expected. Instead, Jesus came to make peace.

Christ’s death is the perfect expression of God’s faithful love for his people, and it is the culmination of God’s plan for creation.