We all have family and friends who simultaneously make life easier and harder. When we’re planted in Jesus’ love— obeying that commandment first and foremost should impact all our relationships. We’re all human and will fail at loving each other at all times. But leaning into the Holy Spirit can impact it all for God’s good

The word trees in the Bible comes up over 800 times, so when something is repeated it’s something to pay attention to. In the imagery we can see how similar humans and trees are. As we follow Jesus we need to stay planted in Him to grow and let Jesus flow into every area of our lives.

John 15 teaches us to abide in Jesus as the vine, and we as the branches. In that, Jesus calls us to prune the things in our lives that cause us to miss out on the sweet things he has for us. When we shape our lives with Christ, we can experience true freedom.

Austenn continues to encourage and remind us what it means to follow Jesus today. That we don’t have to wait but the Holy Spirit is always working in us whether we realize it or not!

Austenn Akers from Branches HB brings spoken word, his story and scripture all together for us to be reminded Jesus was the same in Y2K as he is in Y22K (today). If you didn’t have a chance to be there, you want to take a listen!

As we look at the parable of the four soils in Matthew 13 we see not only the soils but the seed and the sower. We look at parables not to compare but to reflect on how Jesus is encouraging us to live our lives. Knowing the sower gives us life to be both the seed and to actively choose what soils we live in. We should never feel shame from a parable but encouragement to take steps towards Jesus.

As we look at our lives, it’s probably easy to find times where we stopped actively following Jesus and forgot to invite him just into our daily lives. If we can remain planted in Jesus, through all the seasons we can continue to grow and show what it looks like to live life with in through it all.

Putting our hope in Jesus allows us to experience true joy. This joy allows us to outwardly express an internal reality, causing us to shine BRIGHT to our friends and family around is

We hear the phrase “Merry & Bright” every year when Christmas rolls around. But what would it look like to live defined by the hope we have in Jesus that it makes our souls merry? Elizabeth and Mary had hope, their babies felt tangible hope. As we hear may our days be merry & bright we want to be encouraged to live that out after the Holiday season is over.

As we’ve sat in John 4 and the Samaritan woman’s story we can look to ourselves and where we fit into the kingdom story. How are our lives reflecting our encounter with Jesus? The Samaritan woman didn’t let her encounter with Jesus mean nothing-- it changed lives. Our stories and our encounter with the Holy Spirit mean something and are worth sharing. It’s the encouragement to share our stories so Jesus can be highlight and celebrated.