FCC Etown Podcast

The Father of lies wants you to believe you are what you've done. He wants to fill you with shame. But Shame has an enemy. And the enemy of shame is amazing grace. Amazing grace lifts our heads. Shame is the language of the father of lies. Amazing grace is the voice of Jesus in the dirt with you telling you you are worthy of love and deserving of forgiveness right now; not later, not after you fix something, not after you prove that you're worthy of love, but right now, in this moment, just as you are.

We have an unseen enemy who wants us to believe things that aren’t true so stay in the struggle. But, our Heavenly Father wants us to know and live in the truth. The truth is He is the wisdom of the wise, the power of the powerful, and he's the ancient of days, he's the ruler of rulers, he's the leader of leaders, he's the overseer of the overcomers, he's the sovereign Lord of all that was and is and is to come.

Easter is an incredible accomplishment by God. But Easter is a moment of Hope for you. He is offering you a gift—the gift of grace, the gift of hope, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift that washes away sin, regret, mistakes, and bad choices and gives you hope for life and death. This is a moment of hope.

Walking around this world can sometimes feel like we have stepped off on another planet or gotten out of a time machine somewhere in the future where nothing makes sense. And we get offended. And we can choose to get offended, draw the lines between us and them, decide that this place is just crazy, and hole up only with people who think like us. Or, we can seek to understand, share to be understood, and speak the truth in love.

The momentum of the church and the Holy Spirit is happening in significant ways and crazy ways and unexpected ways. And it is pretty clear that the Holy Spirit still works this way. But it’s not always according to our plan. It’s about flexibility. The longer we have followed Jesus, the longer we are a church in the community, the harder flexibility is, and the more we have to work at it. But the mission and the message never change. But there are still plenty of spaces and places to be flexible.

Conflict and debate can still lead us to good places. Let's not run from conflict. But if we can all seek to find the best way forward, then we are ready to let the Holy Spirit guide us to the best way forward. Even with the political season ahead and the continued pressure on social issues, I'm not interested in finding the most popular answer or the one that brings the loudest cheer. Stay tuned in to God's Word, Prayer, and the discernment of the Holy Spirit God to guide you forward in the best way.

Christians out-gave the U.S. Government in addressing global poverty in 2022. Built into the fabric of the church of Jesus' followers is a mission of others first and the message that Jesus came for everyone. Our nation will be poorer morally and ethically if that ever goes away. When the mission given to us by Jesus reached stage three and started to spread to the ends of the earth, the church became the hope of the world. And it still is. We have been called to step into the mission and share the message.