The Heart of Faith: UnChristmas (Chris)

“There has never been a gift offered that makes you swallow your pride to the depth that the gift of Jesus Christ requires us to do.  Christmas means that we are so lost, so unable to save ourselves, that nothing less than the death of the Son of God himself could save us.  That means you are not somebody who can pull yourself together and live a moral and good life.”  [Hidden Christmas by Tim Keller]

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The Heart of Faith: UnJoy (Randy)

The Christmas season offers a time to remember how much God wants for us. Yet we lose sight of him in the hustle and bustle of life, and that saps the joy from our lives.  God offered the ultimate gift – our Savior Jesus Christ – to redeem us from our UnJoy and restore us to a life full of abundant joy.

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The Heart of Faith: UnServe (Chris)

Our lives as disciples focus on loving God and loving each other.  Earlier lessons explored trust and obedience as ways in which we love God.  This class considers service as the primary way in which we love each other.  Service means many different things, but the most important and accessible also is the most simple: be kind.

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The Heart of Faith: UnThankful (Chris)

In keeping with the season, we explore the topic of "UN-Thankfulness."  There are powerful teachings in the Bible related to harvest and gratitude.  What is thankfulness?  What did Jesus give thanks for?  How do we apply gratitude to our lives as Christ's Disciples?  What impact should thankfulness have on us and on our faith?

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The Heart of Faith: Hope (Randy)

For all the pain and suffering we endure in this life, our faith gives us the ultimate resource to face the future: hope.  Jesus’s death and resurrection guarantees that we can place our hope in him.

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The Heart of Faith: UnMercy (Randy)

We live in a world that shows little mercy for those in need or those who committed some minor infraction. We sit in self-righteous judgment of them, failing to realize we are guilty of some of the very same things we think they have done.  Jesus grants us mercy through the cross, and it is on us to respond by becoming merciful.

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The Heart of Faith:UnObedience (Chris)

Chris explores our relationship with God through one of his favorite stories, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.  Listen to how C.S. Lewis's beloved fantasy captures well our human reality.

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The Heart of Faith: UnEpic (Randy)

Epic stories stir our hearts and motivate us to do something worthy with our lives.  Yet our quest for an epic journey to be important or build something big can lead us astray and focus our heart on the wrong things.  Jesus lived and died an Un-Epic life so we can find peace in the only thing that matters: our relationship with God.

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The Heart of Faith: UnTrust (Chris)

Americans’ confidence in their leaders and institutions has declined to all-time lows.  With Un-Trust rampant on our society, how should Christians engage in politics?  How do our commitments to love God and love each other translate into areas of social division and discord?  A Biblical story from ancient Babylon and the attitude of Jesus himself towards power and authority provide guidance.

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The Heart of Faith: UnGrace (Randy)

We live in a state of “Ungrace” characterized by judgement, criticism, and charged emotions.  That should not be!  Only when we return to the cross and understand how Jesus bears the burdens of our Ungrace so that we can live in his grace do we begin to become gracious people toward others.

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The Heart of Faith: Inputs and Outputs (Chris)

Last week, we discussed developing the Habits of faith.  This week we examine how those Habits manifest themselves in our everyday lives.  Focusing in the "Inputs" of life (what surrounds us) rather than on the "Outputs" of life (what we experience) helps our Heads better connect with our Hearts in faith

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The Heart of Faith: Head, Heart, and Habit (Chris)

Habit comes from the Holy Spirit as we acknowledge God the Father with our heads and connect with God the Son in our hearts.  Three ways that we can develop active faith are "dwelling" with God, "pretending" to be more like Jesus, and seeking "Constant Communion" with God.

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The Heart of Faith:Introduction (Randy)

We worship God, yet we follow the idols of our heart.  We want to be better Christians, yet the distractions of the world make it difficult to live with perfect faith.  We believe, yet our “unbeliefs” get in our way.  Jesus’s work on the cross resolves this conflict for us, but we must internalize that good news to truly get to the heart of our faith.

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Praying the Psalms: Prayers to Live By (Chris)

Prayer is essential to a faithful life, and we are instructed by the Bible to pray constantly: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  Do not quench the Spirit.  Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.”  [1 Thessalonians 5:16-22] Our prayers should have at least six aspects over time: 

• Prayer of worship – “rejoice always, pray without ceasing”
• Prayer of thanksgiving – “give thanks in all circumstances”
• Prayer of confession – “abstain from every form of evil”
• Prayer of petition – “do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything”
• Prayer of connection – “hold fast to what is good”
• Prayer of acceptance – “do not quench the Spirit”

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Praying the Psalms: Summary (Chris and Randy)

At first blush, the Book of Psalms challenge and even offend us with their brutal honesty and calls for God’s justice.  As we dig deeper and read them through the lens of Christ, we see how they reflect the entire human experience – not just what we are feeling on a given day.  Over time, as we meditate and reflect on them, the psalms teach us the rich language of prayer, and deeper prayer brings us closer to God.  In this summary lesson, we reflect on the main lessons from our study of the psalms.

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Praying the Psalms: The Lord's Prayer (Chris)

The Lord’s Prayer appears in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4.  The Lord’s Prayer is Jesus’ instruction on how to interact directly with God.  It also is a model for all other forms of prayer.

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Praying the Psalms: Psalm 16 - Learning to Pray (Randy)

How do we pray?  Do we pray with the same reverence that the disciples would have brought to their prayers?  I don’t know about you, but I struggle with it at times.  I would argue that most of us focus our prayer energy on winning God’s favor and getting him to do things for us.  The psalms teach us that we have this backwards.  The purpose of prayer is not to question God, but to answer him. It is not to win his favor, but for him to win our hearts.  It is not to bend his will to ours, but to bend ours to his.  Prayer is about coming to know Jesus and learning to live like him.  Using Psalm 16 as our guide, this lesson explores how we might rethink our prayers as a way to know our Lord.

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Praying the Psalms: Psalm 22 (Randy)

Jesus cried on the cross, “My God, my God, way have you forsaken me!”  These words haunt us as we imagine him nailed to the cross, dying an excruciating death for crimes he didn’t commit.  But what did he really mean?  Did he really think God had forsaken him, or did he have something else in mind?  Psalm 22 helps us unpack the mystery of the cross, giving us a greater understanding of our faith and how God hears our prayers.

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Praying the Psalms: Emotions at Work #4 - Joy and Anger (Chris)

Joy and anger are the focus of this lesson on Psalms.  True joy reflects our connection with God.  Its absence may indicate that we are not as well aligned with God as we should be.  Anger can be a righteous reaction to injustice, but more often it is a prideful response to not getting our own way.  Connecting these emotions to Easter week, we see how Christ's disciples found true joy after the resurrection while those who despised Christ were consumed even more by their unrighteous anger. How do we find righteous joy?

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Praying the Psalms: Emotions at Work #3 - Trust and Fear (Chris)

This lesson continues the connection between prayer and emotion.  How do the Psalms provide guidance for us in addressing life's challenges and opportunities, specifically "Trust" and "Fear"?  We are taught to trust in God in order to overcome fear.  What does that really mean and how do we do it?  The answer comes back to the most basic teaching in all of the Bible: love God and love each other as ourselves.

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Praying the Psalms: Declaring the Glory of God, Psalm 19 (Randy)

C.S. Lewis said of Psalm 19, “I take this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.”  Indeed, its effusive praise for God’s general revelation through nature and special revelation through Scripture introduces us to an integrative understanding of God that moves us to a response.  Knowing that Jesus embodies the full law only heightens the response.

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Praying the Psalms: Emotions at Work #2 - Anticipation and Sadness (Chris)

The lesson is the second in a sub-series connecting the Psalms to our emotions and everyday lives.  This week, we examine "Anticipation" and "Sadness".  Anticipation has both a negative side (anxiety) and positive side (confidence).  How do we harness this emotion productively?  Likewise, sadness is a natural part of life.  How do the Psalms teach us to support others who are sad and to act when we are sad ourselves?  Most of all, how does Jesus model anticipation and sadness for us?

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Praying the Psalms: Emotions at Work #1 - Surprise and Disgust (Chris)

If the Psalms are "Jesus Own Prayers," how do we use them in everyday life?  Truthfully, the language can be old-fashioned and some of the references off-putting.  Yet, the the Psalms speak to universal human experience and are meant to support us and our faith as much today as they did hundreds or thousands of years ago. 

This lesson is the first in a sub-series exploring "8 Primary Emotions" and how the Psalms teach us how to harness them positively in our lives.  We also will connect the message of specific Psalms to Jesus and his teachings.  This week starts with "Surprise" and "Disgust".  We will explore the negative side (disappointment, betrayal) and positive side (excitement) of surprises.  We also look at how to react when we are disgusted or if we disgust someone else.

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Praying the Psalms: Praying Through Fear, Psalms 3 and 27 (Randy)

More than any other emotion, fear drives our behavior in ways that we don’t even recognize.  We try to manage our fears and the behaviors that manifest from them, but fall short every time. This hurts our relationships and costs us peace.  God wants us to fear him, however, and that begins by turning to him in prayer to work through our natural fears.  Only when we do that can God give us the peace that passes all understanding.

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Praying the Psalms: The Sovereignty of God, Part 2 (Chris)

The Psalms are a guide to prayer to and to effective Christian life.  This lesson continues the exploration of how the Psalms offer a unique perspective on God and human experience.  We also consider how Jesus is at the heart of each Psalm as he inspired them, prayed them himself while he was on earth, and walks beside us as we seek to harness their power.  Using Psalms 8, 13, 18, and 19, we then take an initial look at how God’s sovereignty as Creator and Giver of the Law is reflected in the Psalms.  The word for us in response is “confidence.”  The Psalms should make us confident in the ultimately positive outcome of whatever we face in life.

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Praying the Psalms: Getting Honest with God, Psalm 73 (Randy)

So often our prayers are either rote or laden with a self-serving wish list.  We treat prayer as a perfunctory exercise or a chance to ask a genie in the bottle to grant us our every wish.  At the same time, we are afraid to be really honest with God.  We bottle up our emotions or vent them on others, but we feel guilty taking them to God in prayer.  Yet that is exactly what he wants us to do: to pray honestly and work through our emotions with him.

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Praying the Psalms: The Sovereignty of God, Part 1 (Chris)

The Psalms are a guide to prayer to and to effective Christian life.  This lesson begins by exploring how the Psalms offer a unique perspective on God and human experience.  We also consider how Jesus is at the heart of each Psalm as he inspired them, prayed them himself while he was on earth, and walks beside us as we seek to harness their power.  Using Psalms 8, 13, 18, and 19, we then take an initial look at how God’s sovereignty as Creator and Giver of the Law is reflected in the Psalms.  The word for us in response is “confidence.”  The Psalms should make us confident in the ultimately positive outcome of whatever we face in life.

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Praying the Psalms: Psalm 2 (Randy)

While Psalm 1 warns us about the danger of being overly attracted to the world, Psalm 2 reminds us not to be intimidated by the world.  We all have authority figures in our lives who pressure us, from parents to government officials.  Yet we must recognize that Jesus is Lord of all, and by serving him we can both honor and respect authorities without being threatened by them.

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Praying the Psalms: Introduction to the Psalms with Psalm 1 (Randy)

The Psalms were Jesus’s prayer book.  He prayed constantly to the Father, and very often quoted the Psalms when doing so.  Today, we tend to be more perfunctory in our prayers, or focus on physical health and well being over spiritual health and well being.  With the Psalms as our guide, we can learn to pray more honestly and meaningfully to God.  In this introductory lesson, we examine Psalm 1 as the “main entrance to the mansion” of the Psalms.

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