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| Don’t Judge… Help series |

* Don’t Judge.

* Don’t Judge… Help!

* Judgement That’s Loving

* What Does Judging/Helping Look Like?

One of Jesus’ most famously quoted statements comes from Matthew 7:1

Judge not, that you be not judged.Matthew 7:1

Jesus is telling us to not judge, and we cannot ignore His instruction. So, what does that mean? If we see something sinful, should we refuse to decide, to pass judgment on whether it is sin? Does this mean that each person decides what’s right and wrong for them, that morality is subjective? Is every matter of good and evil a matter for conscience – “that’s between them and God”? Should we just “live and let live”? In this series, let’s walk through the passage where we find this verse. Rather than stop at what He says NOT to do, let’s explore what Jesus is telling us TO do.

The Log in Our Own Eye

No one wants to be judged, yet we all so innately judge others. That is human nature. Jesus’ statement is so precisely opposite this nature. He tells us not to judge, the very thing we do so easily. Why not? Because we will be judged, the very thing none of us wants. In fact, throughout this Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus does this over and over: countermands what comes natural to us (e.g., loving our friends and hating our enemies 5:43-48, expecting a “thank you” when we give 6:1-4). In this portion on judgment Jesus goes on to say:

For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye…Matthew 7:2-5a

Jesus exposes the hypocrisy in our nature. Like in Romans 2:1, we often practice the very same things we are judging others for doing.

| Struggling to Conceive series |

* Happy Mothers Day

* A Gift for Father’s Day

* TTC Guide Intro

* IVF Guide Discussion

We are finally releasing a video for our guide for IVF. Something that can be difficult during that process are all the decisions that need to be made and protecting any lives that are conceived. If you have questions regarding when life begins I’d first check out this post based from a scientific perspective. If you’d like to see all the scriptures that point to life beginning at conception you can read those here.

In this guide, we walk you through the process of IVF and each decision that is made along the way that would affect the life of the baby embryo. We will explain and guide you into how to avoid certain situations, the different decisions that will need to be made, and how to deal with decisions that have been made that have lead to a loss of life or in the end frozen embryos that you don’t plan on moving forward with. Join us in this long but very informative discussion that we ourselves felt a huge lack of resources for that was in line with our Christian faith. We have added timestamps to the video to help you navigate to the questions you have a bit easier. If you have any questions please feel free to email us at [email protected] or comment on any of our social media platforms.

The topics we will be covering will be: (Time codes have links in the video description)

* 0:00 Intro (what we will and will not cover) * 1:53 Two approaches to IVF* 2:46 Traditional IVF Process/Decisions * 5:19 Selective Reduction * 7:54 Implantation * 9:34 Message of Grace * 10:40 How Many to Conceive * 15:57 Conceiving means making a parental decision * 17:14 Happy Mother’s Day * 18:55 Frozen Embryos. Now what? * 23:23 Deciding to end a life. * 27:00 Second IVF Process (Oocyte Vitrification) * 33:49 Questions/Healing

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| Make Room to Be Refreshed |

* How to Do More by Doing Less

* How to Be Motivated for Quiet Time

* How to Stay Engaged in Quiet Times

We all want to be consistent in our quiet times! The hard part is getting motivated and staying engaged. The reality is we know our relationship with God is our motivation but why is it that many times we don’t follow through. Forcing ourselves to do it isn’t a good example of being motivated. It’s all about the heart right? So, How do we really be present? How can we really be engaged in our prayer? In this video today you will learn how!

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| Make Room to Be Refreshed series |

* How to Do More by Doing Less

* How to Be Motivated for Quiet Time

* How to Stay Engaged in Quiet Times

When He asks us to pray, He isn’t giving us another to-do; He’s inviting us to put it all on Him and just breathe.

This week we’ll continue this series from last week on making room to receive God’s invitation.  If I can say it simply, God is inviting you to be with Him.  When we’re busy, though, this can feel like an obligation rather than an invitation.  However, God isn’t interested in obligating us to spend time with Him; after all, we no longer live under the law but under grace.  What’s more, God doesn’t invite us to spend time with Him for His own benefit (as if He needs anything from us) but for our benefit.

During Jesus’ ministry, He was very active. He went from place to place teaching and healing so many, but He “would often slip away to the wilderness to pray.” Just a few weeks ago we saw how the Father strengthened Jesus in one of these times of prayer. When Jesus was with people He was constantly pouring out, constantly serving, constantly giving. This was the one time that He could rest and receive. Nothing was expected of Him; nothing was required of Him. I wholeheartedly believe that Jesus was refreshed by these times with the Father. The word ‘refreshed’ in Hebrew is ‘naphash’ and means to ‘breathe in’. The word for ‘spirit’ in Hebrew is ‘ruach’ and means ‘breath’. When we spend time in the presence of God, we can be refreshed by His Spirit. That is, we are surrounded by His ‘breath’ and we can simply ‘breathe in’. When He asks us to pray, He isn’t giving us another to-do; He’s inviting us to put it all on Him and just breathe.

Let’s set aside for a moment everything we feel we’re supposed to do when we pray.  His presence is the one place you can be free of expectations.  It’s only you and God there, and He loves you.  He’s invited you there to strengthen and serve you, to wash your feet just as Jesus did at the last supper.  Just breathe.  Open your heart and tell Him the things that bother you.  Tell Him how you feel; ask Him to comfort you.  Praise Him for how good He is, for what He’s done for you.  Talk about your struggles and don’t be afraid to acknowledge where you’ve fallen. After all, Jesus is able “to sympathize with our weaknesses” because He was

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| Make Room to Be Refreshed series |

* How to Do More by Doing Less

* How to Be Motivated for Quiet Time

* How to Stay Engaged in Quiet Times

God invites us to accomplish more by doing less, to release the strain of busyness and be refreshed by spending time with Him.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed?  If it’s not one thing, it’s another:  another crisis at work, another project with a deadline, another soccer practice, another gymnastics class, another pile of laundry to fold, another errand to run, another problem with the house, another problem with the car, another … you get the idea.  Sometimes there are ebbs and flows to the rhythm of life and other times it doesn’t seem to stop.  It’s tempting to think that this problem is exclusive to modern times.  While some elements of our culture encourage or seem to require us to be busy, the fundamental responsibilities that ultimately drive our tiring schedule are as old as society itself.  Let’s go all the way back to Moses and live a day in his shoes.

Shortly after leading the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, Moses found himself responsible for some 600,000 families.  When they needed food, they came to Moses.  When they needed water, they came to Moses. When these weren’t a problem, Moses would judge their disputes.  In the morning, Moses would sit down, and the people would gather around him to present their cases.  Moses would hear each person and decide who was in the right, teaching all the people about God’s laws in the process.  Because of how many people there were, Moses would sit there the entire day doing this until the evening.  One day, his father-in-law, Jethro, came and saw what he was doing and told him quite simply, “What you are doing is not good.” But wait a minute, Moses was doing good things.  He was providing for people, caring for them, teaching them about God. He was giving it his all from when he woke up to when he went to sleep.  What more could God ask?!  Jethro went on to explain why it wasn’t goo...

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| His Final Hours series |

* How He Loved at His Arrest

* How He Loved When He Was Accused

* His Unstoppable Love

* How to Love Like Jesus Did

Join us in a deep discussion on how to actually love like Jesus did. After all he said it was better for Him to leave so we can have the spirit of truth. this enables us to love just as deeply as He did with His grace! We will specifically talk about how looking and learning more about the love Jesus had for others and the Spirit in which He gave us changes the way we relate to God and others. You’re not going to want to miss this discussion!

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| His Final Hours series |

* How He Loved at His Arrest

* How He Loved When He Was Accused

* His Unstoppable Love

* How to Love Like Jesus Did

Jesus Pain Leading to the Cross

Thus far, I’ve emphasized the emotional, mental suffering Jesus endured leading up to the cross, but even before the cross He also endured incredible physical suffering. While our focus in this series is the emotional suffering He endured, let’s remember what He did endure for us physically.

After He was arrested, He was brought to the Jewish high priest where He was struck, spat on, mocked, blindfolded, and beaten. He was then delivered to the Roman Governor Pilate. When Pilate was unable to satisfy the crowd, he had Jesus scourged (a Roman judicial punishment where He was severely beaten with a whip that had bone and metal in it). Then Jesus was delivered to be crucified. The soldiers made a crown of thorns and pushed it onto His head while they mocked Him. He was made to carry His cross to the site of His crucifixion (though He was unable to do so, having already been beaten so severely). Only after all of this was Jesus crucified: the most painful death allowed under Roman law.

We’ve seen though that, in spite of all this, Jesus remained focused on loving and serving others. Whether it was the very people who abandoned and betrayed Him, like Peter and Judas, or just the people He came across along the way, like Pilate, Jesus’ heart was turned towards us even in His darkest hours.

Loving through the Pain

In being crucified, literally every breath that Jesus took caused Him excruciating pain. He would have to push up on the nail in his feet to be able to breath in. With how weak He was at this point, this was incredibly difficult (which was why He died before the soldiers were able to break His legs). So every word He said came at great cost. Whatever He said must have been very important to Him. What did He say?

The Soldiers

After Jesus was delivered to be crucified, the soldiers continued to mock, beat and abuse Him. How did Jesus respond to this? He forgave them. More than that, He asked the Father to forgive them. As they were crucifying Him, He said this:

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”Luke 23:34

He endured pain to utter these words. Through the pain He made it a point to forgive the soldiers who were mocking and mistreating Him...

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| His Final Hours series |

* How He Loved at His Arrest

* How He Loved When He Was Accused

* His Unstoppable Love

* How to Love Like Jesus Did

We’re in a series going through Jesus’ final hours and what He faced during those hours, the persecution, the sorrow, and the weight of what He endured. Last time we talked about what led up to His arrest. We saw that Judas truly was one of His closest friends and the way that He felt the weight of His betrayal.

What happened next? Jesus was arrested and dragged back to the religious leaders where they accused Him of heresy. He was probably still feeling the weight of Judas’ betrayal only to be confronted with such hostility. What did He face after His arrest? How did He respond to it all? How did He carry Himself?

Abandoned by Peter

Among the 12 disciples, there were none closer than Peter, James, and John. When Jesus told the 12 that they would all abandon him, Peter was the first to say that he would never abandon Him:

Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!”Matthew 26:33-35

However, after Jesus was arrested, all the disciples scattered. Peter did follow discretely. But, when they reached where Jesus was to be tried by the religious leaders, the people recognized Peter. When the people outside confronted Peter, he denied Jesus entirely, saying that he never even met Him. The third time he denied it, he did so vehemently: “he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, ‘I do not know the man.’” (Matthew 26:74) Just then, the rooster crowed, and Jesus looked at Peter, knowing that Peter had abandoned Him (Luke 22:61). Quite literally, even Jesus’ closest friend abandoned Him when He needed him the most.

Betrayed by the Jewish People

While Judas was undoubtedly the deepest and most personal betrayal, the reality is that Judas was not the only one who betrayed Jesus. The ones who were seeking to kill Jesus were the Jewish religious leaders. They incited a mob of Jews to quite literally force Pilate to kill Jesus.

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| His Final Hours series |

* How He Loved at His Arrest

* How He Loved When He Was Accused

* His Unstoppable Love

* How to Love Like Jesus Did

The Suffering He Faced

In His final hours, Jesus experienced incredible hardship. Throughout His life, He faced plenty of persecution. But in the days leading up to His crucifixion, He faced so much more than I can imagine. The one aspect of Jesus’ suffering we are perhaps most familiar with is the physical suffering He endured in His death on the cross. There are many books, commentaries, and even movies that depict the physical suffering Jesus endured in His final hours. However, the suffering He endured was not just physical. He also felt such emotional sorrow while He was enduring these things physically. In this series, I want to call to attention the emotional suffering He endured, and how He carried Himself throughout His suffering.

Betrayed by Judas

Consider, first, how Jesus was arrested. Jesus had many followers, but the closest to Him were the twelve disciples He had chosen. One of these twelve was a man named Judas Iscariot. Judas had agreed to betray Jesus to the Jewish religious leaders for 30 silver coins. After eating the Passover with Jesus, Judas left and brought back a mob to arrest Him. Judas had arranged a sign with the mob to signal which one was Jesus by kissing Him on the cheek (a common greeting for a close friend or family).

And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.”Matthew 26:49-50

Notice how Jesus calls him “friend”. Jesus knew Judas was going to betray Him. But, when he did so by kissing Him on the cheek, I can almost hear a bit of surprise in Jesus’ voice: “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48) Almost as if Jesus had prepared himself for one of his closest friend’s betrayal, but He couldn’t help but feel the weight of that betrayal when Judas did so with the very symbol of their friendship.

Washing Judas’ Feet

But how did Jesus carry Himself leading up to this betrayal, leading up to His arrest? Let’s back up to earlier that night. He was arrested during the Passover; this tradition began with the Passover meal. Between the dirty, dusty streets and the fact that they all wore sandals,

| God’s Rescue Plan series |

* How to Process Pain With God

* God’s Rescue Plan

My (Monica’s) Story

Last week I vaguely spoke about some painful things I had walked through in my life. I wanted to share  of my story of redemption. I want to show you that even though we might go through some horrible things they don’t need to leave you crippled and scarred.

In talking with God and processing some pain with Him I finally understood why I had nightmares for so many years. I can tell you today that I don’t have those nightmares and have seen complete freedom from many struggles that came from that night. I can honestly say that the redemption that Jesus brings through His healing made me better today than if I had never gone through that. His truths and love completely washed away a traumatic moment that it almost seems insignificant. When we go through pain God’s heart hurts for us. He is ready and able to walk you through to a place of peace, joy, and redemption. Today I want to share with you the process I went through with God that really helped me overcome such a traumatic time in my life.

Filtering Our Experience Correctly

First I would get in the right perspective and remember God’s truths and promise. This allowed me to shift my mind and heart to a place where my thoughts and prayers were being filtered through truth. Next, I want to give you time to really think and process through your pain. As you are praying through it feel free to ask God these questions and most importantly wait and listen to what He has to say. It might be right now or it might be in a few days but wait on His words. He will always give an answer and sometimes it an answer we don’t expect. I would love for you to really take time to process so click on the video above and we can do it together!