In this episode of the LBCF podcast, Pastor Ryan discusses the biblical pictures of the Church as a body, and a family where we are all siblings. When we learn how transformational that is we can be better neighbors and more filled with the awe and gratitude at the fact we are seated at the table at all.

In this message on Church as family Barb looks at Romans 12 as a great pathway to a beautiful interdependence with each other.

Deepening our sense of community through the spiritual practice of listening+seeing one another. This message explores Acts 10 (Peter's Vision) and how setting aside religious and societal norms to truly see and hear one another expands the kingdom of heaven here in Long Beach and beyond.

God, by the power of your Holy Spirit and a growing knowledge of your Son, could we: Do Justice, with you, Love Mercy, for each other, Walk Humbly, for ourselves; All for the sake of making your name great, through Love, in all the places we live, work and play, and all the new places your spirit will call us.

As we discern God's vision we are called to repentance, rest, quietness, and trust. Each of those behaviors builds in us a new-creation mindset and combats the anxiety, pride, and self-reliance that much of our world considers assets.

In order for us to understand the joy of the first people that celebrated Christ’s birth, we have to understand the context in with Jesus came. Jesus came in the fulness of time—a time marked by darkness and evil. A time of great misunderstanding of who God is. Jesus came to show us what the Old Testament could not. He showed us what God is like. Jesus shows us what love looks like in this darkest of times.

The love we see in the advent story of John 1 is this: God refusing to be distant, drawing near, making us not just neighbors but goes even further to be called the sons and daughters.

In baptism, we exchange our broken and missing/incomplete humanity for the life of Christ, which also empowers us to join in that creative, redemptive work of making peace. Restoring what's missing, healing what's broken.

In this busy season, it's easy to be in a rush that we miss seeing and participating in the divine presence of God. Like the first advent, when God came disguised in a humble state, the sacred is often concealed in the ordinary and mundane. But if we can pause and listen, we can be brought into wonder over God's creation.