Did you know that God the Father loves you as much as He loves His Son, Jesus? It's hard to believe isn't it? One of the greatest lies of the Enemy is that God's love for you is based upon you, your actions, your behavior, your thoughts, or anything else about you. This couldn't be further from the truth. The truth is that God is unconditional, one sided love! He doesn't know any other type of love.

Many of us struggle to really believe that the One who flung the stars into space loves us in this way. It affects our daily lives. We all want to be loved like this, but are we willing to believe it?

We are loved like Jesus is loved! As we grab a hold of this truth, it changes our lives.

One of the greatest lies of the Enemy and Religion is that, as a believer in Jesus, you are still wicked, sinful, vile, dirty, and even evil at the core. Just recently a prominent Church in America announced that Jesus has fellowship with believers even though we as believers are still dirty and sinners at heart. How can that be? How can the Holy God of the Universe be in fellowship with dirty sinners? As the animals were incompatible with Adam and so God created Eve from Adam--100% compatible with him for she was from him, in the same way, dirty, sinful humans are not compatible with a Holy God. Therefore, God created a new creation, a new people from His very Spirit that is 100% compatible with Him--the Bride of Christ!

So what does that mean we now are? Are we who believe in Jesus dirty sinners still? No one would suggest sin doesn't still manifest through a believer, but who are we at our core? John answers that for us with a simple statement that has been in our bibles for 2000 years but is more profound and fresh each time we read it: "As He is, so are we in the world!"

So who are you, believer? You are as He is! Is He a dirty sinner? No, and neither are you! Let us discover who we really are now...not what the Enemy nor Religion teach, but what the Spirit of God through the Word of God teaches!

Jesus is all over the Old Testament. Today, Brandon shares Jesus from Daniel!

Adam & Eve had a wedding reception (of sorts) in that after they were married, they had a meal. The meal cost them their lives. Today, in the New Covenant, we have a reception in our marriage to Jesus! This doesn't take our live, but rather gives us Life! The first reception was founded on rebellion and independence. The last reception is founded on total dependence. Where do you find your marriage? Are you trying to do it independent of Jesus who lives in you? If so, death will follow. However, if you learn to see just how dependent you are upon Jesus, then you will see life in your marriage!

Love and marriage may in fact go together like a horse and carriage, but what if you have no trust? If you have no trust, you likely have no love! We've been seeing how our marriages to our spouses are a glorious shadow of a glorious substance--Christ & His bride, the Church. Just as Jesus loves the Church, husbands are to love their wives! But the Apostles also taught that just as the church submits to Jesus, wives are to submit to Jesus. What is that all about? In order to know what it looks like for a wife to "submit" to her husband, we must wrap our minds around what it looks like for the church to "submit" to Jesus. At the end of the day, the church submits to Jesus by TRUSTING Him! In the same way, a wife being able to trust and actually trusting her husband makes for a great marriage!

It sounds weird doesn't it? But has God been through a divorce? Jeremiah 31:32 says, the new covenant will “'not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I WAS THEIR HUSBAND,' declares the Lord.” God’s “first marriage” was to the Jews and the vows were based on the faithfulness of both the husband (God) and the bride (Israel). The Jews said, “We do! We will do everything required of us!” (Exodus 19:8). However, it didn’t take much time for them to break their vows. In the breaking of their vows, the marriage covenant dissolved even though God Almighty was their HUSBAND. However, because of the deep love of God, He had in mind a new marriage to Israel. This new marriage would have new vows. The new vows would no longer be based on the faithfulness of the Husband AND the bride. The new vows would be based on the faithfulness of the Father of the Groom and the Groom/Husband himself alone! So much so, that in this new marriage to Israel the Heavens will be measured and the core of the earth will be traversed before the Husband will end the marriage because of something the bride has done (Jeremiah 31:36-37). And oh wait, there’s more! There’s a hidden mystery. This new marriage is not simply for those born physically from Israel, but for those who believe in the promised faithfulness of the Groom--which includes gentiles too! So whether you are in a difficult marriage, been divorced, or whatever your situation is, know that God is not finished with you! If you are His bride, He will never leave you and never forsake you!

We've been doing marriage for millennia, but what do we really know about marriage? We know our experience of being married, but what is it really? As we continue our new marriage series, we will rewind all the way back to the very first marriage and possibly learn more about our own marriage to Christ than Adam's marriage to Eve, for marriage, at its core, is a glorious shadow of our union with Christ! So, as we've been saying, if we want to learn how to do marriage here in this world, we must discover what marriage is fashioned after--our union with Christ! Click here for the bible app notes: http://bible.com/events/284598

As we wrap up our "Christianity: ALL NATURAL" theme, we are given some of the most practical wisdom possible. The enemy shall attack! How do we stand up against it? Is it by trying harder? By committing more? By loving Jesus better? Maybe it's by learning to put on things that we already have!

We have all heard that Christianity involves a new birth. We have been told so many times that we need to be born again that, unfortunately, for many this beautiful truth has simply turned into a mundane slogan of the Christian faith. What if we looked at the first time a discussion mentioned new birth and got to the bottom of this mystery? Who first talked of new birth? To whom was it spoken? Why is new birth required and how do you receive it? We try to answer all of these questions as we tackle one of the most beautiful passages of Scripture ever written.

Ephesians 5:1-6:9 There are many differing opinions on how we are to grow as christians. Unfortunately, the biggest "tool" religious christianity uses is to put born again believers back under the Law of Moses, thinking it will curb sinning and produce a fruitful life. But what do the Apostles teach? What actually matures us?