My nine-year-old son loves to talk. He can chatter endlessly. And he only knows one volume: loud. I constantly remind him to use his inside voice, but I am still seeking evidence that he even has one. His greatest challenge is that he speaks before...
Through the obedience of Moses and Aaron, we are reminded that obeying God does not guarantee that things will get easier for us. We trust in a God who is sovereign and bigger than short-term suffering; His plans exceed our momentary affliction. ...
When we get older, we often see the events of our past with folly and foolishness compared to where we are now and where our thinking is. What is powerful to me, though, is to see how God is working on and developing us in...
We can all agree that spewing thoughtless, harmful words to others is damaging. But I have another idea to consider—what about the unspoken word, the silence we sit in, the words we withhold? What if we really took the time to listen to the voice...
In Exodus 3, God reveals Himself to Moses in the midst of obscurity. Although Moses’ circumstances are seemingly bleak, God asserts Himself as bigger than the moment while at the same time personally engaged with Moses’ life. Although the timeline of Moses’ life appears to...
Each year from August to May, Grace Church offers an internship called Cultor House. The internship provides recent college graduates with the opportunity to mature in their faith and grow in their ministry capacity, while also gaining experience in a part-time job outside of the...
I somehow made it into my thirties without a major tragedy in my life. My adolescence was peppered with significant trials, suffering, pain, and the like, but I had no battling experience with a mighty all-consuming tragedy. Then last summer the sky opened up and...
24Seven on Mission was a local four-day and three-night mission trip that had 135 middle schoolers and over 50 adult leaders involved from seven Grace Church campuses. ...
Often we find ourselves in seasons where we feel far from the work that God is doing. In Exodus 2, Moses’ circumstances leave him in a foreign land with a new family and far away from everything he had ever known. In what appears to...
Each year, Grace Church sends four adult teams to Nicaragua who focus on pastoral training, church leadership training, and medical care. These teams serve with our partners, Christ for the City, and local church members with the goal of training pastors by equipping the local...
“Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done" (Exodus 1:8). Historically and culturally, Ancient Egypt is fascinating to me. It was home to one of the oldest civilizations on Earth and was a major...
“He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction” (Proverbs 13:3). The word of God speaks clearly about the power of the tongue to wound or heal. Throughout my life I have used the written word...
Much like the cross is the sign of God’s faithfulness to us in the New Testament, the book of Exodus and the cry of God’s people in Egypt is God’s reminder to His people of His faithfulness in the Old Testament. He heard our cry—He...
One could easily be overwhelmed and confused by the many different translations available these days. The Scriptures were originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, which makes translation necessary—but why are there so many? And are they really all that different? Is one better than...
I find myself in somewhat of a unique place when it comes to the power of words and how I have seen their power of death take over not in what was said, but in what was not said. Words that are spoken have the...
When we encounter the Bible, we are encountering God. Through His Word, we are reproved, corrected, and trained in the way we should go; it defines and directs our lives. Will you listen to how God is speaking to you through His Word today or...
I think I came into Kairos misguided—with the expectation that I might have to give Grace Church . . . well, some grace....
Our community group recently finished sharing life stories. The process is challenging as we seek to be transparent—to focus less on what has happened to us and more on where God has been moving and drawing us to Himself....
Have you ever received an email or text that was so delicately worded, so saturated with cordial fluff, that you had to really filter through every sentence to find the main point? The book of James is the opposite of this. James is as straight-up...
It is evident today that in this Information Age social media plays a large role in many of our daily lives. On average, we spend 20% of our waking hours on social media, equivalent to one out of every five minutes. There’s no denying that...
I have found when I am wounded that my natural reaction is to become stronger. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? I don’t typically cower and cry like some might. In the world's terms, "I find my inner strength,” “I pull myself up by my bootstraps,” or...
1 Corinthians 12 is written as both an encouragement and a rebuke to believers about spiritual gifts. Although we are quick to make spiritual gifts all about us, God reminds us that it is through these gifts in believers that He makes Himself known. We...
Each year, Grace Church has the opportunity to send at least four short-term teams to Kenya that are focused on pastoral teaching, church leadership training, children’s ministry, and medical care. These teams serve alongside members of local churches and pastors with the goal of training...
With many people within our body who have come from various backgrounds, we understand that baptism and communion can become a point of tension among believers. However, we feel that there are major practical questions to be considered of each....
God wants to demonstrate His presence with us through the gifts of baptism and communion. Although these might have become “casual” traditions for us as believers, we are reminded that they are blessings given to us from God meant to help us to experience Him...