Embracing Brokenness

Happy New Year everyone. Can you believe it?

Princes’ song is rattling around in our head, 1999, released in 1982. Had to open with a few bars in the intro. 2022 is a done deal – in the books as they say - and we now look forward to the uncertainty waiting for us in 2023.

Are you excited?

The way you answer that question says a lot about where your heart is right now. And that’s not passing judgment. It’s just the truth.

Steve provides a few suggestions on how to approach the new year.

Everyone has a story. In this series, we introduce you to God's people sharing God's stories in each of their lives. Craig tells of his incarceration and how Jesus met him in that place and changed his life.

Listen in and be blessed by the amazing ways that God intersects our lives, in the good, bad, and ugly. But He gets the glory in our story.

If we don't talk it out, we'll act it out. What does it mean to be a peacemaker? What does the Bible say about conflict, and how we should best resolve our differences?

We dig deeper into the subject of peacemaking on today's video podcast.

Brokenness is the state in which we enter this world. No one escapes the ravages of sin. What we do with that is paramount in our healing journey toward wholeness in Christ.

On today's podcast, Michael Kurtz joins Steve to have a conversation on what it even means to embrace your brokenness and why you would even yield to the notion that embracing our condition of brokenness is a good idea.

Music and Lyrics by Roots and Recognition Featuring Dominique Calvillo  

Licensed for Use Adobe Stock Asset ID: #356515268

God is at work all the time. That means many different things to many different people. What often is missing in our understanding of that truth is the ability to notice Him. To notice Him in nearly every aspect of our lives as Believers. He wants to be in relationship with us constantly. Not just in an emergency. Even in the simple things.

In today’s podcast, Steve discusses hearing from God from a different perspective.

It’s been a rough couple of years. Most of us have experienced some level of trauma around a host of issues that can go unnoticed – until – something sets us off.  What is that something for you? What pushes your buttons and elicits an unexpected reaction?  

Sometimes the reaction may be termed an overreaction. Many times our responses to the simplest annoyances can have severe consequences. Mostly those consequences are internal and need to be processed with a safe person in a safe community.  

None is safer than God.  

In today’s podcast, Steve provides multiple examples of buttons being pushed, in his life and others. Better yet, a few observations to consider as you process what’s happening in and around you.

For many of us, the notion of dying to self is a foreign one. What does that even mean? Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Luke quoting Jesus said, "And he said to all, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.'"

The idea of denying our own self interests is at the core of our Christian belief system. It starts with a posture of humility and understanding that our life is not our own as Christ followers. In today's Podcast Joe D'Orsie and Steve Adams go deeper into that conversation.

In today's Podcast, we examine the sometimes devastating fact that we believe lies about God. When lies are adopted as truth the consequences show up in dysfunctional behaviors and in ways that lead to confusion and mistrust. God is not a God of confusion. He's a God of Love not fear.

We are created in His image and with His attributes. Those attributes have become distorted by sin and an enemy that would have us believe lies about God, ourselves, and others in an effort to isolate us from the truth of who God says we are. It's part of a master plan of deceit to keep us from pursuing an intimate relationship with our Creator and Savior.

Being tempted is not a sin. Being tested can be challenging. How we respond to temptations and testing defines us. We must understand that we were not made for this world. We were made to exist in perfect harmony with Him. That is the only way toward wholeness and freedom in Christ.

We have an enemy bent on taking us out. We must not be complacent about that fact. Don’t let the enemy win. Don’t let the enemy sideline you from your calling and purpose, even when that liar would have you believe differently.

Don't listen to or live in the false belief that your life doesn’t matter and you might as well just quit. Pack it in for a better way of life. That better way doesn’t exist apart from God.

In today's podcast, Steve shares a recent experience targeting him for a takedown.