Understand the journey inward, the wall, and the isolation we sometimes feel in our faith is not only ok, but is many times the needed next step in our faith to help us draw closer to Jesus and to help us love and live out the call Jesus puts on our life.  We worry we are losing our faith, but God is strengthening us on the inside.

Our next step in our journey comes when we see ourselves as part of God's work on this earth. We have to take a risk and step into places of influence. We must acknowledge that we have gifts and they are worthwhile. What do we step into: What are you enthusiastic about? The meaning of enthusiasm is "God within." Start there. 

Community is the environment in which faith grows. We need each other - teachers, mentors, and a people to belong to. A healthy community should always be drawing us deeper into God, not just deeper into the group. The goal of community is not conformity, it's formation, becoming a disciple of Jesus

Sometimes we think of faith as a noun, but the faith of the bible is a verb.  Its the journey.  A journey involves process, action, movement, change, experiences, starts and stops, blah times and surprising times.  I want to talk about the dynamic journey of faith, and the discovery of His love  throughout the journey.

This is Jesus' first appearance to gathered disciples post crucifixion and his words to them are, "Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, so I send you." That's a tough thing to hear from a person who has just been executed. Our path will be one of service and sacrifice. It is a downward arc.

Knowing about the resurrection is one thing, living to that truth is another.  Each of the disciples watched all that happened on that Friday and celebrated together Sunday.  But the reality of grace had to then sink in.  It had to be experienced.  Peter was one of the first to come face to face with forgiveness and grace. 

When Jesus stretched his arms out on the cross, how symbolic was it that his death on the cross was for everyone, all people.  And then when they stretched his arms even further, it was the pain of death for that love.   In fact, every step he made to the cross was for each of us.  I want to do a gospel message that embraces the bredth of his love and how nobody is expempt from the work of the cross.  And his pain tells us how encompassing his sacrifice was for us.  

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, so many people thought: This is it! Finally things are going to change. However, it was not about to shake out how they thought. So often we can say, if I turn to Jesus, my life will go the way I want it to. That is not what Jesus offers. He offers us to surrender and to change.

Stepping into the shoes of the followers and experiencing what they felt in those waiting moments - Waiting and Expectations after the moment Jesus breathes his last and then we have to wait - why would they have to wait? Why do we have to wait? What does our Saturday look/feel like? When we find ourselves in the season of waiting, how do we do that well? Gets to Jesus and His promise to those waiting

Its so easy for us to embrace half of the gospel story.  I'm a sinner - I hear that. I'm saved by grace?  I dont hear that part.  Before Judas went out to the field of blood, would he have heard Jesus say, stick around, the best part of the sermon is still coming.  I want to take a closer look at one of the most complicated characters in the Gospel story.  What can we learn from Judas?

There is room throughout the Easter story for questions, doubts and disbelief. Each of the disciples went through it. Jesus knew it. God gives room for us to go through the bumpy, courageous journey of faith. And with each one, there was a moment of clarity that helped them conclude, this is real. It was in the Garden that I experienced my own moment of clarity that grounded my faith like no other experinence. I want to look at a few of the experiences they had, and paint the picture of the Garden, this story is real, lets ground it as we head to Easter.

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