2016 Commitments1. Pray2. Come to church - commit to it fully3. Get involved in a discipleship group4. Serve5. Commit to justice & reconciliationLuke 11:1-4

2016 Commitments1. Pray2. Come to church - commit to it fully3. Get involved in a discipleship group4. Serve5. Commit to justice & reconciliationLuke 11:1-4

2016 Commitments1. Pray2. Come to church - commit to it fully3. Get involved in a discipleship group4. Serve5. Commit to justice & reconciliationLuke 11:1-4

2016 Commitments1. Pray2. Come to church - commit to it fully3. Get involved in a discipleship group4. Serve5. Commit to justice & reconciliationLuke 11:1-4

Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never dies. -- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (The Message)1 John 4:7-18John 13:35"The trouble with emotional memories is that they can be fiendishly difficult to eradicate. The brain seems to be wired to prevent the deliberate overriding of fear responses. Although there are extensive neural pathways from the amygdala to the neocortex, the paths running the reverse direction are sparse. Our brains seem to have been designed to allow the fear system to take control in threatening situations and prevent our conscious awareness from reigning. This may have been an optimal design for predator-rich environments in which survival was a minute-by-minute question, but it is not a good adaptation for modern environments in which the stressors can be job performance reviews."How do we overcome fear?1. Get fit2. Be in community. Do not isolate yourself from people - both those "like" you and those "different" from youMatthew 1:18-25Emmanual – God is with us.The reality of Emmanuel is the:Alternative to scarcity – for God is with us – there’s enough.Alternative to fear – things will work out because God is with us.Alternative to oppression – God is with us and also with them.Alternative to death – God is with us and will give life alwaysAlternative to division – God is with us breaking down walls and boundariesAlternative to indifference – God is with us and love compels usAlternative to self – God is with us and God is more important than us3. Think positively about situations and people. See the best in people and know that God will get you through any difficulty. Trust God's word over your own or the world's. 4. Change the frame. Instead of panicking in the face of a crisis, try to see the situation from another perspective. Try to see the good that may result instead of just the bad. Identify how God may be working here. Have compassion and empathy. 5. Think small. Instead of trying to solve "the world's crisis" identify what you can do to make a difference and do it. 6. Pray Inviting God to transform your fear into love - acknowledge your fears to God and pray the Spirit's help to move past them and to give you eyes to see from God's perspective, not just your own.

Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never dies. -- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (The Message)1 John 4:7-18John 13:35"The trouble with emotional memories is that they can be fiendishly difficult to eradicate. The brain seems to be wired to prevent the deliberate overriding of fear responses. Although there are extensive neural pathways from the amygdala to the neocortex, the paths running the reverse direction are sparse. Our brains seem to have been designed to allow the fear system to take control in threatening situations and prevent our conscious awareness from reigning. This may have been an optimal design for predator-rich environments in which survival was a minute-by-minute question, but it is not a good adaptation for modern environments in which the stressors can be job performance reviews."How do we overcome fear?1. Get fit2. Be in community. Do not isolate yourself from people - both those "like" you and those "different" from youMatthew 1:18-25Emmanual – God is with us.The reality of Emmanuel is the:Alternative to scarcity – for God is with us – there’s enough.Alternative to fear – things will work out because God is with us.Alternative to oppression – God is with us and also with them.Alternative to death – God is with us and will give life alwaysAlternative to division – God is with us breaking down walls and boundariesAlternative to indifference – God is with us and love compels usAlternative to self – God is with us and God is more important than us3. Think positively about situations and people. See the best in people and know that God will get you through any difficulty. Trust God's word over your own or the world's. 4. Change the frame. Instead of panicking in the face of a crisis, try to see the situation from another perspective. Try to see the good that may result instead of just the bad. Identify how God may be working here. Have compassion and empathy. 5. Think small. Instead of trying to solve "the world's crisis" identify what you can do to make a difference and do it. 6. Pray Inviting God to transform your fear into love - acknowledge your fears to God and pray the Spirit's help to move past them and to give you eyes to see from God's perspective, not just your own.

Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never dies. -- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (The Message)1 John 4:7-18John 13:35"The trouble with emotional memories is that they can be fiendishly difficult to eradicate. The brain seems to be wired to prevent the deliberate overriding of fear responses. Although there are extensive neural pathways from the amygdala to the neocortex, the paths running the reverse direction are sparse. Our brains seem to have been designed to allow the fear system to take control in threatening situations and prevent our conscious awareness from reigning. This may have been an optimal design for predator-rich environments in which survival was a minute-by-minute question, but it is not a good adaptation for modern environments in which the stressors can be job performance reviews."How do we overcome fear?1. Get fit2. Be in community. Do not isolate yourself from people - both those "like" you and those "different" from youMatthew 1:18-25Emmanual – God is with us.The reality of Emmanuel is the:Alternative to scarcity – for God is with us – there’s enough.Alternative to fear – things will work out because God is with us.Alternative to oppression – God is with us and also with them.Alternative to death – God is with us and will give life alwaysAlternative to division – God is with us breaking down walls and boundariesAlternative to indifference – God is with us and love compels usAlternative to self – God is with us and God is more important than us3. Think positively about situations and people. See the best in people and know that God will get you through any difficulty. Trust God's word over your own or the world's. 4. Change the frame. Instead of panicking in the face of a crisis, try to see the situation from another perspective. Try to see the good that may result instead of just the bad. Identify how God may be working here. Have compassion and empathy. 5. Think small. Instead of trying to solve "the world's crisis" identify what you can do to make a difference and do it. 6. Pray Inviting God to transform your fear into love - acknowledge your fears to God and pray the Spirit's help to move past them and to give you eyes to see from God's perspective, not just your own.

Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never dies. -- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (The Message)1 John 4:7-18John 13:35"The trouble with emotional memories is that they can be fiendishly difficult to eradicate. The brain seems to be wired to prevent the deliberate overriding of fear responses. Although there are extensive neural pathways from the amygdala to the neocortex, the paths running the reverse direction are sparse. Our brains seem to have been designed to allow the fear system to take control in threatening situations and prevent our conscious awareness from reigning. This may have been an optimal design for predator-rich environments in which survival was a minute-by-minute question, but it is not a good adaptation for modern environments in which the stressors can be job performance reviews."How do we overcome fear?1. Get fit2. Be in community. Do not isolate yourself from people - both those "like" you and those "different" from youMatthew 1:18-25Emmanual – God is with us.The reality of Emmanuel is the:Alternative to scarcity – for God is with us – there’s enough.Alternative to fear – things will work out because God is with us.Alternative to oppression – God is with us and also with them.Alternative to death – God is with us and will give life alwaysAlternative to division – God is with us breaking down walls and boundariesAlternative to indifference – God is with us and love compels usAlternative to self – God is with us and God is more important than us3. Think positively about situations and people. See the best in people and know that God will get you through any difficulty. Trust God's word over your own or the world's. 4. Change the frame. Instead of panicking in the face of a crisis, try to see the situation from another perspective. Try to see the good that may result instead of just the bad. Identify how God may be working here. Have compassion and empathy. 5. Think small. Instead of trying to solve "the world's crisis" identify what you can do to make a difference and do it. 6. Pray Inviting God to transform your fear into love - acknowledge your fears to God and pray the Spirit's help to move past them and to give you eyes to see from God's perspective, not just your own.

•Luke 2:1•Luke 2:8-14•The “joy” we see in the Gospels is thus not simply the natural human delight in times of healing and reconciliation, though it is that as well. It is the fresh instantiation, in a new (messianic) mode, of the joy expressed in Psalm 126 and elsewhere: the joy of discovering that Israel’s God was at last doing the thing he had promised, rescuing the people from their ‘exile’ and providing forgiveness, restoration, and new life. And it is the joy to be experienced in the fresh presence of God – not now, after all, in a rebuilt temple, but in the person and actions of Jesus – and also the fresh act of God, rescuing people not from Egypt or Babylon but from death itself. –NT Wright•Luke 10:21•Joy is the discovery that we are not by nature liars and violent, but rightfully we are those who desire to know the truth and to live at peace with ourselves, our neighbors, and most of all God. Joy thus becomes the disposition born of a hope based on our sense that it cannot be our task to transform the violence of this world into God’s peace, for in fact that has been done through the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Our joy is the simple willingness to live with the assurance of God’s redemption….Ours is a true joy that derives from finding our true home among a people who carry the words and skills of God’s kingdom of peace. That such a people are joyful does not mean that they think that their struggle is over…rather their joy is possible because of their assurance that they are at least in the right struggle. -Hauerwas•Luke 10:38-42•“We would be wrong, then, to see Martha and Mary, as they have so often been seen, as models of the ‘active’ and the ‘contemplative’ styles of spirituality. Action and contemplation are of course both important…but we cannot escape the challenge of this passage by turning it into a comment about different types of Christian lifestyle. It is about the boundary-breaking call of Jesus. As he goes up to Jerusalem, he leaves behind him towns, villages, households and individuals who have glimpsed a new vision of the kingdom, and for whom life will never be the same again. –NT Wright•Phillippians 3:7-11•James 1:2-4•Psalm 51:12

•Luke 2:1•Luke 2:8-14•The “joy” we see in the Gospels is thus not simply the natural human delight in times of healing and reconciliation, though it is that as well. It is the fresh instantiation, in a new (messianic) mode, of the joy expressed in Psalm 126 and elsewhere: the joy of discovering that Israel’s God was at last doing the thing he had promised, rescuing the people from their ‘exile’ and providing forgiveness, restoration, and new life. And it is the joy to be experienced in the fresh presence of God – not now, after all, in a rebuilt temple, but in the person and actions of Jesus – and also the fresh act of God, rescuing people not from Egypt or Babylon but from death itself. –NT Wright•Luke 10:21•Joy is the discovery that we are not by nature liars and violent, but rightfully we are those who desire to know the truth and to live at peace with ourselves, our neighbors, and most of all God. Joy thus becomes the disposition born of a hope based on our sense that it cannot be our task to transform the violence of this world into God’s peace, for in fact that has been done through the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Our joy is the simple willingness to live with the assurance of God’s redemption….Ours is a true joy that derives from finding our true home among a people who carry the words and skills of God’s kingdom of peace. That such a people are joyful does not mean that they think that their struggle is over…rather their joy is possible because of their assurance that they are at least in the right struggle. -Hauerwas•Luke 10:38-42•“We would be wrong, then, to see Martha and Mary, as they have so often been seen, as models of the ‘active’ and the ‘contemplative’ styles of spirituality. Action and contemplation are of course both important…but we cannot escape the challenge of this passage by turning it into a comment about different types of Christian lifestyle. It is about the boundary-breaking call of Jesus. As he goes up to Jerusalem, he leaves behind him towns, villages, households and individuals who have glimpsed a new vision of the kingdom, and for whom life will never be the same again. –NT Wright•Phillippians 3:7-11•James 1:2-4•Psalm 51:12