Kurt Arens’ life is a story of the Lord’s redemptive power to change our hearts and teach us His ways. He grew up knowing there was a God, but his faith was not fostered by his family as neither parent attended church. It was common...
Like so many of us, Kathy Scully was raised in a home that often succumbed to tension, dysfunction, and brokenness. Her parents’ actions communicated a confusing message that she was both the very best thing and the very worst thing....
God reveals Himself to a world that doesn’t recognize Him, He redeems a world that is too bound by sin to hear what He is saying, and He extends hospitality to a people who are too broken to notice Him. How are you engaging...
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....
Last week I decided to do some cleaning which entailed cleaning out my closet. In the process of that daylong chore, I found two things that I would have sworn were gone forever; a pair of earrings and my journal from the college years....
When I lived in Wilmington, NC, I attended a church there that encouraged us not to make New Year resolutions, but to choose one word that we would like to see God work out in us for an entire year. I loved this challenge while...
I first found out about Cultor House because a friend from my university did an internship through Grace Church and had a really positive experience. At the same time that I found out about the opportunity to intern at Grace, I became aware of sin...
Many of us like to pretend that we have it all together, that all of our ducks are in a row. No one can know that we struggle, and we certainly hesitate to admit needing assistance of any kind. We are constantly chasing what we...
For us to have access to Jesus, we have to declare that we are in a state of emergency. Things are worse than what we can handle and we don’t have the resources to handle it. We need help....
In Ephesians 1:15-23, Paul gives thanks for the Ephesian church and prays that they may be made conscious of the hope to which God has called them. Hope is a central theme in Paul’s letters, and it informs much of the theology of the New...
God loved you, chose you, created you, adopted you, purchased you, redeemed you, forgave you, and sealed you. You are His. There is nothing you did to earn these spiritual blessings. They are solely rooted in His character, desire, and good pleasure. ...
One of the great questions of the Bible is how God will bring all things back under His authority and direction without destroying everyone and everything. In the book of Ephesians, Paul will bring some light to this great question in the writing of his...
This weekend, Chris Curtis taught on redemption in marriage from Ephesians 5:31-33. In this passage, Paul explains that marriage is not about us but about illustrating the relationship between God and His people. Marriage is not characterized by emotion or duty, as our culture teaches, but...
This weekend we continued our series exploring the miracles of the Old Testament. The consistent theme running alongside our teaching has been that God has chosen to reveal Himself in a variety of ways, and this revelation necessitates a response from us. This week’s teaching was...
Exodus 4-12 describes a time in Israel’s history in which the Jews were greatly oppressed by the Egyptians. They were afflicted with heavy burdens and hard labor, and yet they multiplied in number. God hears the cries of His people, and He begins to move...
A lot of times, I think the goal of my story is to be as clean and perfect and put-together as possible. That’s the kind of story, my pride thinks, that will leave a lasting impact. I couldn’t be more wrong. Those stories don’t resonate...