Grace Gathered

“Let Grace abound…” a prayer that covers a multitude. Join us as we explore a Psalm of David, written from a place of devastation due to sin, but nonetheless full of hope. We can learn from David to take an honest approach to our sin, therefore realizing new depths of gratitude. As He transforms us and renews us, we learn to love what He loves and hate what He hates, rejoicing always in the grace that makes it all possible.

We forget so easily how much we need God. We reduce the value of grace in our lives, forget about it, and steward it recklessly. Today we challenge each other to dare to ask God to remind us, and to show us His glory and grace. In the hours we do deeply know our hopelessness and helplessness, let us not also forget the second half of the story of grace: that He meets us in that place to redeem us and pour out grace upon grace.

For further reading & reference, explore the following verses and literature: Stephanie is reading from the ESV, unless otherwise noted.

Join us and our guest, Lana Lamkin, as we begin our new season talking about "Grace Upon Grace." Lana reminds us that grace is something easily overlooked, but it comes to us every day in the form of something even so simple as the air we breathe. Lana's testimony involves being a double-lung transplant survivor, and the story - full of God's grace in small ways and big ways - reminds us that each of us have the same story through Jesus: we get to live because someone else has died.

We are honored to have you join us here in this space, and we hope you'll join us for a LIVE! event soon!

You can also check out more of Lana's story in her recent book, "Breathing in the Unexpected."

In many ways our relationship with God is shaped by our relationships with others - it is also limited in many ways if we only know Him as "God." Join us as we study some of His names in the Bible, and let us introduce you to the God we have each come to know by different names. Discover with us where these names are revealed in Scripture, as well as some practical ways to pray them over and into your life. Our prayer is that you would know Him by many names, including Savior and Friend!

To start your exploration, the following includes just some of His names as introduced in the Bible.

For further reading & reference, explore the following verses: Libbie and Stephanie are reading from the ESV. Genesis 1:1-27, Genesis 3:8, Genesis 16:1-15, Exodus 17:8-14, Job 42:5, and John 15:12-15.

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We are all intentional about something, be it decorating our homes with perfect details, cutting calories, or making plans and hitting certain goals. In this episode, join us and two of our friends as we talk about love languages, and how learning a "second language" should be our number one intention and goal, whether it is the primary love language of a spouse, child, or friend. We read in the Bible that loving God and loving those around us is the greatest commandment, and it is the way we can most closely resemble Jesus.

Join us as we begin our mini-series on relationships as Christians, starting off with our relationships to who we are as a part of the whole. God gifted us each with spiritual gifts, "an act of faith designed to strengthen the faith of those around us." This episode started out by looking at one of the spiritual gifts tests (you can find it here https://gifts.churchgrowth.org) and then flipped... God showed us that we don't begin by defining things such as gifts, but by praying for the desire to strengthen those around us! It is then that we see the Holy Spirit develop a gift in us. Join fellow "students of self," Stephanie and Libbie to discuss how knowing who we are in Christ is an essential beginning to our relationships with others around us.

Our first year at the Grace Gathered Podcast is coming to a close with a summer mini-series on relationships! Before we start a new season alongside our Live at the Gathering events in the fall, join us as we talk about who God gifted us to be, how we can learn to love the people around us well, and how our relationships with others effect our relationship with God (and vice versa). In the last episode, we will be learning together about God's many names in the Bible, and we pray that it blesses each of us with an even greater understanding of who He is. Thank you for joining us!

As we wrap up our season of study on Flourishing, Libbie teaches us that to Flourish is to be as close to God's original design for us as possible, and that this is demonstrated in practicing Sabbath rest. Along with the other spiritual practices and disciplines we studied through the year, Sabbath rest is one way we lay claim to what God has for us and accept the invitation He lays before us to live life abundantly. We focus again on the ways the world has warped God's design, making it legalistic and impossible to attain, where God's design is a life-giving covenant where His name is glorified and grace abounds.

Green pastures, our souls restored, a banquet set before us, goodness & mercy following always... these images from Psalm 23 paint a picture of what it looks like to Flourish. We have been studying spiritual disciplines and practices all season long to teach us how to begin, and this episode shows us how we might know when we have truly begun to Flourish: when we follow the Shepherd, our "cup overflows," and we will have confidence that we will "dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

The ESV is used by Stephanie in this episode. Psalm 23, contrasted with Psalm 69.

Our constant attempts to flourish without really hearing from God are like trying to grow a plant without sunshine. And just think of the things we might miss out on if we don't hear His voice! We believe that God's plan for us to flourish not only includes a sensitivity to His direction, but chances for us to hear Him speak love into our lives. We hope to do more in this episode than simply encourage a practice that will allow us to know the path ahead, but also to build a relationship with the One who walks beside us. Join us as we talk about practicing silence, from implementing a "quiet time" into your day all the way to the practice of absolute silence (as unfamiliar to us as it probably is to you! If you are an expert on this, we want to personally hear from you because we need some tips!) Here, we challenge each other to identify the things that are noisy in our lives - externally and internally - and to take them captive to a reverent hush so that we can hear God's voice.

For further reading & reference, explore the following verses: Libbie and Stephanie are reading from the NASB. John 10:10, 2 Corinthians 10:5, Psalm 46:10, Exodus 14:14.