This past Sunday, Jesus tried to explain some deeper spiritual truths to Nicodemus, one of the 71 most highly educated men in 1st century Judaism. What does it mean to be born again? How is it possible for us to be made new, to be washed of our sins, to be made acceptable before a holy & righteous God? Although our solution may be denying we have a problem of sin or seeking to make ourselves acceptable through religion and self-righteousness, God has provided us with the answer to the venom of sin which corrupts our hearts, our lives and our world. The solution is Jesus. The solution is Jesus lifted up on a pole that all who look to him shall be saved. It is by faith in Jesus that we are born again, born afresh, born of the Spirit! So who are you putting your hope, faith & trust in?

This past Sunday we witnessed the very first miracle of Jesus, "a sign given to corroborate, authenticate, validate" that Jesus was much more than just a man. The question is did Jesus do this miracle at the prodding and pushing of his earthly mother Mary? Did God use Mary to help push God's one and only son across the starting line towards the finish line of redeeming all of mankind?

As many of you may know we just had a team return from an experience in Israel and unlike years past, we are looking forward to what we may do now to make it possible for anyone interested in going in 2020.

This is a recording of this past week's information meeting introducing anyone interested in going in the spring of 2020.

The practice of comparison can be a dangerous place to find yourself and one to be avoided, most of the time. The final statement needs to be knowing you are called by God removes the need to compete with people.

Apologies for the poor sound, something we'll have fixed next week.

This past Sunday in our "Jesus: Year One" series, we were introduced to the very first followers of Jesus. Some of these future world-changers were deliberately seeking out the Savior, while others were brought to Jesus by others who first sought them. Some were "lead with their heart" followers, and others were "lead with their mind" followers. Jesus' team was not cookie-cutter! There is great diversity of background, personality, even perspective in the body of Christ. Yet God has a place for each and every one of us on his team! We have a part to play!

We had the chance to visit Isreal and have some amazing experiences there. Jerry and Lisa sat down with us and shared some of their more memorable stories from their time.

Our hope and our goal is to return to Israel in 2020 and create another opportunity for people to visit the Holy Lands. We'll have an important information meeting on May 6th right after the service.

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Jesus suffered when he was tempted, just like we do. He understands physical frailty. He understands what it feels like to be tired, to be weak, to feel alone. He understands what it feels like to be physically or spiritual oppressed and attacked. Yet in the midst of his suffering, Jesus kept his eyes on God's promises so he could weather the storm. Jesus has shown us the way out of temptation, which is through clinging to the truths of God's Word rather than the lies of our enemy Satan. If we don't defeat the lie with the truth, the truth is the lie will defeat us!

As part of the SENT series at RISING Church this past fall we've been able to send out various family and adult mission encounters and this conversation is with mother and daughter, Kimberly and Camden sharing their experience going to Haiti with Young Life | Haiti.

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We are very comfortable with the divinity of Jesus, but what about His humanity? Did Jesus ever think about His identity in the same way we do? At the site of his baptism, God gives Jesus three very important statements that would have put Jesus at ease in His identity and allows us to have the same.

We've had the great chance to know Harrison and his family over the past few years and we wanted to take the opportunity to share the beginnings of their story in the way they are changing lives.