For many of us, our most hopeless moments happen as we reflect on our inability to make meaningful changes in our lives. Addiction feels too strong, and fear too real for us to keep hoping to become something different, something better.⁣

What would change if we were to come face-to-face with a supernatural power that was committed to championing the process of bringing meaningful change into our very hearts? Answer: Everything. Everything would change. Starting with us.⁣

Everyone takes their turn going through hardship. If there is power to strengthen us for our journeys through dark times, surely we’d all like to know. Good news: Jesus sustains. He’s more committed to you than you are to Him.

Everyone is enslaved to something, and some things all of us are enslaved to. We need a redeemer who can remove guilt, alleviate fear, defeat evil, and conquer death. So, can we be set free? Yes, because Jesus Saves.

Sometimes it’s important to pause, reflect on all we’ve learned, celebrate stories of God’s faithfulness, and agree together on the path God has called us to walk in unity for the season to come. This year’s journey to Easter will be different than any before. We’re going to do all we can to create spaces of safety, risk, and joy so MANY can hear the Good News of Jesus.

The story of the Prodigal Son is really a story of a father who creates a space of safety, risk, and joy for his kids. Through the Gospel, God invites all of us into such a space. Our mission is to create such spaces for others.

The Apostle John is the perfect person to write a biography of Jesus. In his story we find reasons to hope and footsteps to follow.

Happy snowy Sunday! There are no gatherings today, but here's a short devotional to help facilitate a time of scripture reading and fellowship in your home.

Discussion questions:
1. Have you embraced your freedom in Christ?
2. How much are you consuming and for what purpose?
3. What opportunity - small or large - do you have to serve someone this week?

What happens when Jesus is not the center of our lives? What are we to do when we realize He isn’t in His rightful place? This passage doesn’t just pose the questions, it provides the answers. He’s provided the map of how people get lost — it’s on us to follow it back home.

It all comes down to this: Jesus is either God, or He’s not. If He is, He gets everything we have and everything we are.

Many avoid authority at all costs, believing that total autonomy is the path to joy. But the authority of Jesus is marked by love, and submitting to it with our entire lives is where satisfaction is found.