Practical Grace: Advent Conclusion (Randy)

We conclude our series on Practical Grace with a lesson called “Preparing for Home.”  The Advent season calls us to prepare our hearts for Jesus to be born anew within them, and our homes for him to live with us. When we do, Jesus enters in and, as the 19^th Century preacher and author Phillips Brooks wrote in his carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem, “God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heav’n.”  Those blessings are a gift of grace from our savior.  A gift that transforms our hearts and enables us to live abundant lives. Join us as we reflect on this gift of grace this Advent season.

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Practical Grace: True Identity (Chris)

This series has explored a vital question: how do we supernaturally transform from being tossed and turned by the world to being anchored strongly in the security of faith in God through Jesus Christ?  This week's lesson returns to where we started: 1 Corinthians 13.  The Apostle Paul helps us to see that our central issue is IDENTITY.  Spiritual transformation in our hearts and our lives occurs when we see ourselves as God does and not through our own limited awareness.  This amazing gift -- won for us on the Cross and delivered through the Holy Spirit -- changes everything about us and how we live.  Please join us for a message of truly Good News. 

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Practical Grace: Living Grace - The Fruit of Love (Randy)

This week’s lesson is called “Living Grace” and focuses on Paul’s famous passage in Galatians 5 where he discusses the Fruit of the Spirit.  What is the nature of the Fruit of the Spirit, and how do we get it?  How does the fruit manifest itself in our lives?  How do we know we are growing in Christ?  Watch and find out!

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Practical Grace: Enduring Grace (Chris)

This week’s lesson is called “Enduring Grace,” and focuses on self-control – one of the greatest challenges in life.  We all wrestle with urges, impulses, desires, distractions, and weaknesses that cause us and those around us harm.  This week's lesson explores the Apostle Paul's teaching on how Spiritual Transformation changes the way we live, leading to Gospel power over ourselves that we never could achieve on our own.

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Practical Grace: Truthing in Love (Randy)

This week's lesson challenges us to think about what we truly believe – our truths – and how they manifest in our lives. Paul calls us to speak truth in love, but what is truth, and how do we “speak it in love,” exactly?  With so many competing truths circulating around in our society today, how do we really know what is real and what isn’t?  How do we avoid getting tossed here and there by all of these ideas, and instead anchor on what we know to be true?   Watch "Truthing in Love" to find out.

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Practical Grace: Blessed Self-Forgetfulness (Chris)

In every age and stage of life, our egos can be our worst enemies.  Each accomplishment can inflate our pride and each failure can make us deflated and depressed.  The human condition is a roller-coaster of concern about what others think of us and what we think about ourselves.

In 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul shows us another way.  How can we forget ourselves to the point where we not only cease caring what others think, but we even fail to care what we think of ourselves?  Instead, how do we rest and rejoice in what God thinks of us?  What the world calls "Humility" can be something dramatically better and more powerful for Disciples of Christ.

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Practical Grace: True Tolerance (Chris)

This week's lesson relates directly to the unease and upheaval we see all around us in our church, in our community, in our city, and in our country.  How are we called to live as Christians in a time of radical disagreement and discord?  The world teaches either obvious intolerance (reject those with whom you disagree) or a false tolerance (promote diversity and inclusion but only for those who share your views).  Neither of these approaches is consistent with a supernaturally changed heart according to the example of Jesus Christ.  True Tolerance comes through Receptive Grace: divinely-inspired consideration of others and self-sacrificial engagement with them.

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