Choosing the paradigm of praise means we see and interpret life through a framework that doesn’t deny the challenges we face, doesn’t deny the heartache and suffering all around us, isn’t afraid to be honest when we go through hardships and disappointments. We see those things, but we see God as bigger. Praising God isn’t about denying reality, it’s about seeing God as the biggest reality! The greatest reality!

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. Draw near to Him. Draw near to God. He is generous. He is loving. He is life. As we follow him, he restores our soul, he protects us, he invites us, and he pursues us with goodness and mercy.

Guest speaker Jeff Simpson speaks about courage in the life of Benaiah from 2 Samuel 23:20-23.

The psalms are raw and honest covering the range of human experience and emotion and then connect all of that to God. The psalms are a blessed place to park our hearts.

God’s grace, love, and friendship energizing us to pick up hammers, paintbrushes, and circular saws to build broken lives in the name of Christ and do the work God has given us to do.

With our roots firmly and deeply planted in Christ and the gospel of grace, let’s make every effort to abide in Christ, rely on the Spirit’s power, be what we are, and do the good God has called us to do.

Jesus is for the weak and struggling. He goes after the straying lamb. Don’t examine yourself with a condemning eye, examine yourself in the light of Christ’s love and ask him to deepen the roots of your faith, and grow the fruits of your faith.

How can we minimize mess and maximize grace in the church? In our families? In our relationships? Three good lessons from Paul: don’t give up easily on relationships just because they get messy. Dial down the pride. Don’t keep score. Or, in one word, love each other.

There is a beautiful strength in weakness when it causes us to fall upon the grace and strength of Christ.

We were created to be reflectors of God’s glory, not projectors of our own glory. God’s goodness, God’s grace, God’s plan, God’s power becomes our glory. This doesn’t shrink us, it enlarges us.