The ECC Podcast

Peace is a word packed full of emotion. All of us want peace in our life and all of us struggle to have it. In fact, quite often we find peace elusive.  Not only for us personally, but for our community and for our world. Does scripture have much to say about peace?  
Let us take a peek at Scripture and see what we can learn about personal peace and peace in our community.

We live in an impatient world characterized by convenience and immediate gratification. So it’s no surprise that patience is an increasing challenge in real life. But the Fruit of the Spirit reveals the way to cultivating patience. In this message, Gray continues our “Fruit of the Spirit” sermon series as he takes a deeper look at patience and how we can go beyond just feeling guilty about it to learning what patience really is and how we can choose it in our lives.

What's the first attribute that comes to mind when describing Jesus? For most of us, it's not gentleness. But when Jesus describes His heart, He says it is "gentle and lowly." This was radical in that day, and it is today as well! Join Andreas as he looks at Jesus' gentleness and how we can are invited to emulate Him in that.  

Is it kind to tell your friend she has a chunk of spinach in her teeth or is it rude? Kindness is another one of those complicated terms that we nuance a good deal. God’s kindness, however, is not elusive.
The Pslamist says God’s loving kindness is better than life itself.  It is good and steadfast and “endures forever.” Kindness has all sorts of benefits, it even is a cure for physical pain. It gets even better when we add Jesus to the equation!
Let’s learn together how to invite a tad bit more of the kindness of God into our life.

Modern day prophets say “All You Need is Love” (Beatles). Of course that’s mostly true, we all need and want more love in our lives. Furthermore, most of us want to be people who give more love as well. But it just seems to elude us.Maybe we are trying too hard? Or have given up because our lack of success?As we unpack this foundational part of the Fruit of the Spirit…LOVE…maybe we can understand how to have just a little bit more!

Sometimes in life we all feel stuck "in between a rock and a hard place.” In the first century, the new Galatian followers of Jesus were stuck.  Paul writes them to show them the way of freedom.  What Paul tells them applies to our own lives today, especially when we feel stuck. The answer is crazy hard yet very simple.   

Carl Armerding wraps up our series in Judges, showing how leadership isn’t always what we think it should be and maybe not even what we want it to be. Ultimately, Israel (as well as us) needed to depend on the Spirit of God to lead them, not a king or ruler of some sort. Carl takes the lessons learned from Judges and shows how the Church can allow God’s Spirit to work in each and every one of us if we allow Him.

Charlotte Sakaki takes us to Judges 19-21 where we see the Israelites’ moral decline shows how far we can stray from God’s truth when we don’t recognize Him as sovereign. Are we walking closely with God to avoid indifference to sin and following our own standards of “right”? What happens when we believe we know better than God?

When you think of the word ‘worship,’ what comes to mind? This Sunday, we will explore the obscure attempts at worship from a man named Micah in Judges 17. Through this story and by engaging with Romans 12:1, we will explore worship and consider what pleases and honours God.

In this story, we meet Deborah, Barak and Jael--each used in unexpected ways by God to further his purposes. Although God works through Deborah, Barak and Jael, the true deliverer remains to be God who worked, is working and will continue to work to accomplish His will despite the circumstances.
 
God can use unexpected people and unexpected situations for His purposes. How prepared are we to be surprised by God?