Grace City Denver

God wants us experience happiness and joy even in the midst of the pain and brokenness and darkness of this life – and God will ultimately deliver from anything and everything that could steal our joy.

n his first coming, Jesus party fulfilled the prophecy about the Messiah bringing peace. He brought us peace with God, enabled peace between believers, and brought the possibility for us to experience a "peace that passes understanding." We long for Jesus to return to complete the fulfillment of the prophecy, ending conflict between nations and ushering in an eternity of perfect shalom in a restored creation.

We live in a world where many people are anxious, stressed, exhausted, and hopeless. And it’s easy to see why, given the amount of conflict and brokenness we experience in everyday life. But the Advent season reminds us that hope is a person – a Savior who came and will one day come again.

Every follower/apprentice of Jesus is called to continue his mission. We are disciple-making disciples. The one thing we're sent into the world to do is to proclaim the Gospel in word and deed so that others follow Jesus with us. Whatever else we do must serve this end.

When we are sinned against – and especially when that sin is extra hurtful or harmful – we struggle to forgive. It feels like we’re just “letting them off the hook” for what they did. How will they ever learn their lesson if we don’t teach them? Shouldn’t they have to pay? What does it even mean to forgive someone, given that some things are impossible to forget?

Jesus never told us to express ourselves or simply add him to our already-self-determined lives. He told us to deny ourselves, to lose our lives for his sake. Far from encouraging the life of an ascetic, Jesus was urging us to give up something lesser in order to receive something far greater. Simple practices like fasting remind us of this larger truth.

In modern America, there's no such thing as Sabbath. There's no real rest – certainly no intentional rest in Christ. We just run from one thing to another. God gives us a better way. In his wisdom, we were given the rhythm of work and rest long before sin entered the world. And we're even told why we should rest and what we should do with our rest.

American Christians give on average about 2.5% of their income to charitable causes. They give even less of their time. This is problematic, given that Jesus said what we do with our resources reveals what we treasure. We can’t serve both God and money. But the good news is we can be transformed by the grace of Jesus so we give not only generously, but also cheerfully. It can become a true joy to invest in the things that are near and dear to the heart of God.

Jesus’ disciples often patterned their idea of greatness after their culture: get other people to serve you. Jesus flipped this on its head, reminding his followers that they were servants, just as he himself had come to serve others. Those who follow Jesus will imitate his pattern of looking after and meeting the needs of others. They will invest their own resources in sacrificially serving their families, churches, coworkers, and neighbors.

Worship – what is it? If we think of worship as little more than worship services and worship music, we're barely scratching the surface. Worship is looking to someone or something as our source of identity/self, safety, satisfaction, or salvation. Worship glorifies someone or something by giving it authority in your life. When directed at God, worship is giving back to him everything he is worthy of – which is inclusive of our whole lives.