At Christmastime we joyously celebrate that God’s love came SO FAR to rescue us. But so little about that vast distance is understood. It’s unexplored. Unfathomed. That’s the big task we’re going to start with, to set the stage for these weeks of Advent. We’re going to try to find the jaw-dropping awe and wonder in the furthest journey ever traveled, “From Cosmos to Cradle”.

Pastor Dick Foth shares a very special Thanksgiving message with us this weekend. Please join us for his message entitled "A Grateful Heart"

The resilience – the integrity – the ‘wholeness’ of your faith as we’ve been talking about throughout this entire series, is tested and proven amidst hardships – like sickness. In a season where this is particularly relevant, we look at the way the local church has always found ways to head towards those suffering illness with the love and power of Jesus.

Whole people trust God for tomorrow - ‘Trust God’ being the emphasis of this title, not ‘for tomorrow’, because James’s point is that that isn’t promised. But one thing that is promised - that we especially trust God for - is that Jesus WILL return. So ‘Live beyond the mist’ (James 4:14)!

This world is not our home. According to Matthew 24:14 the way home is through the nations. Jesus came to redeem a multitude from all peoples, languages, and cultures to Himself (Revelation) and it cost Him dearly. We are invited to join Him in His missionary redemption plan, and as it cost Jesus, it will cost us. We are going to have to fight as Jesus fought, bleed as Jesus bled, and pray as Jesus prayed. If we will do so among and for the 6500 unreached people groups of earth (who total 3.2 billion people), King Jesus will return, and we can all go home.

Episode notes:

Song credit: "Till The Whole World Knows"

Artist: Ascent Project, Matthew McGinley

Licensed to: BMI- Brodcast Music Inc.

We expect wisdom to primarily be a conceptual matter, dealing with our thought-life. But when James calls us to wisdom in this weekend’s passage, he deals more with our relational and character posture. This weekend, ask yourself: If it REALLY is his Kingdom that he’s building and it REALLY is his life living through you (not your own), how would you live differently? That’s wisdom!

James is clear that we are to live differently than the world in conduct and character. He specifically charges believers to "look after orphans and widows in their distress". We operate with a different value system from our culture- and it should be evident in how we treat one another. The question for us to consider: is it? Who are we overlooking? Because no one is overlooked in the Kingdom of God.

What does it mean to play favorites? Join Pastor Dick Foth as we look at what the Bible says about this as we continue our sermon series on the Book of James.

As we continue our series in the New Testament book of James, we learn that our faith will lead to fruit in our lives - and if there’s no fruit or life change, James questions the authenticity of the faith we profess.

One of the most prominent themes in James is the wholeness of the believer’s speech aligned with their faith. But what would our relationships and our communities look like if the people of God faithfully were quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to be angry? How rare and desperate is the world for people like that!