Oakhaven Church Podcast

We begin a journey through the Book of James today. The oldest of Mary and Joseph's other sons, James eventually becomes the leader of the "mother church" in Jerusalem in spite of not believing in his older brother at first. James writes with a voice of practical authority, with themes of (1) facing trials in the Christian life, (2) the need for godly wisdom, and (3) issues surrounding wealth and poverty; all themes we need to visit two millennia later. 

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There are plenty of times when we go through our day - whether it’s a complicated, challenging kind of day or a whistle while you walk kind of day - and forget to check in with the One who’s always with us. Sometimes until we are in over our head and finally cry out for help. As we enter a new season (a little tardy but based on the Jewish calendar), we remind ourselves of the basics of connecting with God in prayer in good times and in bad, for better for worse, for richer for poorer…. Luke 11:1-13

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On the heels of our special 50th Anniversary Jubilee celebration last week at Oakhaven, we revisit the concepts of perspective, priorities, stewardship, and freedom that God prescribes for His people at Jubilee. Key among those concepts is God’s call upon us to bear that message of freedom to those around us, to think practically about what it looks like to come alongside people as God shows us through Emmanuel, God with us. We are called to think and act intentionally about the world around us and be the church not of the past but of the present, and even the future!

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As we celebrate 50 years of service to the Lord and His people in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, we hear words of encouragement and commission from founding leaders Don Truitt, Vic King and Deb Cleveland. 

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Jesus accomplishes so many things in His mission, and there are layers to our salvation that the Apostle Paul delights to mix together in his descriptions of what the Lord has done for us, especially in the Book of Romans. 

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This week we summarize the Arc of Redemption in Scripture, starting with having been created in God's image, walking side by side with Him in the Garden of Eden, then separated by sin, with the rest of time devoted to repairing that rupture. In the end, we are left with a Father who is nuts about every single one of us and has done literally everything He can to rescue and redeem us. Primary texts are John 3 and Acts 2. 

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We turn to the dramatic story of the fiery furnace in the Book of Daniel today to discern important takeaways for our own walk through trying times. Read the story in Daniel 3. 

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Today's text is a great swath of 2 Chronicles 20. We step into that story starting with our own: When we are overwhelmed by problems, circumstances, relationships… it’s okay to be afraid. How we deal with our fears is what counts. When we bring our fears to God, we start with praise that reminds us WHO we are talking with: the POWERFUL and FAITHFUL Lord of the Universe. When we process the situation with Him, He works on our hearts and spirits to trust more fully in Him, to remember that we are powerless, but HE IS NOT. His promised presence empowers us to step up and deal with the situation as He brings about resolution. And brings us back to praise again!

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Our identity is in Christ is multi-faceted, centered on God’s love for each of us and on the lengths to which He has gone to restore our relationship. That restored relationship is made possible by the coming of Jesus to reveal His Kingdom and His core identity as King of the Universe. The life He brings through His own life, death, burial, and climactic resurrection constitutes God’s Good News for the human race. We are recipients and benefactors of God’s Good NEWS, and are made the primary messengers of that NEWS to the world around us as we NARRATE the story, EXPRESS the story’s primary point, relay WHAT we should do in response to it, and convey the SIGNIFICANCE of the SALVATION given us when we respond to God’s invitation. We are not merely on a quest for self-improvement or in an evangelism program. Our pursuit of our identity as followers AND sharers of Christ must start in our prayers calling on God to work in and through us.

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As we pursue a Spirit-led Identity in Christ, our choice to be intentional about our choices is the intersection at which our path is set. We choose to act in love rather than to REACT according to our automatic, fleshly programming. If we are not actively engaged in making choices, we are impassively choosing the path of inaction. “If one chooses not to decide, one has still made a choice.” The Spirit-led and Spirit-fed character bears fruit when we cultivate the soil of our own spirit and life to be healthy and oriented toward the Son. The fruits of the Spirit are hallmarks of a mature walk with Christ, keeping in step with Him, honoring Him with the temple each one of us made to be.

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