Derek Wu looks at the story of David and Bathsheba. Why would such a scandalous tale even show up in the scriptures and what does the fact that it is there tell us about God's heart for us?

Support the show

How does Jesus practice self-care and what does that have to say about our popular scripts for self-care and the way Christians should care for themselves? Pastor Ian Graham looks at the way Jesus rests and retreats to solitude, serves in compassion, and even plays in order to empower us to live a life alive to God. 

Support the show

Pastor Ian Graham gives lenses to begin to establish an understanding of our vocation as we live out of our true self received from God. 

Support the show

Pastor Ian Graham looks at four questions that God asks throughout the scriptures in order to reveal himself to us, to reveal us to our neighbors, and us to ourselves. We look at our need for fellow pilgrims, companions on the road of discipleship.

Support the show

Pastor Ian Graham delves into the way that we live in bondage to our false selves and how Jesus wants to restore us to our true selves so that we can create and curate beauty in the world. 

Support the show

We continue our exploration of the self by asking the question, what does God see when he sees us? And how does the fact that our whole selves are known to God enable us to know and live as ourselves. Psalm 139 is a masterclass in knowing our selves and we explore its beautiful, piercing poetry together as we seek to live as our best selves in the way of Jesus. 

Support the show

We begin our teaching series on the self looking at Jesus and his own self-understanding. We compare Jesus' sense of self with the script of achieving our true self that our culture hands us. Scripture text Luke 3vv21-22; Luke 4vv1-30. 

Support the show

Jesus tells his followers to ask him for anything. Pastor Ian Graham calls us to be a people who heed this command and pray expectantly in the new year. 

A simple prayer practice can be found on our website: www.ecclesianj.com/ask-seek-knock

Support the show

Pastor Ian Graham responds to some questions from our congregation. 

Support the show

The story starts in a garden and ends in a city. Pastor Ian Graham looks at John's description of the New Jerusalem and how the only ending fitting to a story so epic is a new beginning.

C. S. Lewis: And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

Support the show