A message from Pastor Stephanie

We are now in the season of Lent, when we examine ourselves and ask the Holy Spirit to help us remove the barriers to a deeper relationship with God.

This week we are looking at prayer in our Purple Theory series. How is your prayer life? Are you at a space to help others in their prayer walk? Do you need to try out a new way to pray to build up different prayer muscles? The church is a wonderful space to be authentic, to share what’s really going on in your life. Community is a key part of our growth as we ask for help and find comfort in knowing we are praying together. Our breakthrough prayer is a great example, every day at 4:09pm I know others in our church are praying with me!

Please continue to pray our breakthrough prayer daily at 4:09pm.

Blessings,
Pastor Stephanie

A message from Pastor Stephanie

We are continuing to look at the Lord’s prayer. This week as we conclude this series we look at the last phrase “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”

This is one of the most confusing phrases and has been the discussion of debate for centuries. Because the original Greek did not have punctuation, many believe there should be a comma after lead us, making the phrase “lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” We know God does not lead us into temptation, we do that just fine on our own. Instead in the prayer we are asking God to lead us, to take over and be in control. 

The Greek word for ‘deliver’ actually means to snatch up. We are asking God to snatch us up when we give into our temptations, when we get closer to evil. The prodigal son story is a beautiful illustration of how God runs towards us when we turn back to God and embraces us in a hug. God, continue to snatch us up and bring us back into your arms!

Please continue to pray our breakthrough prayer daily at 4:09pm.

Blessings,
Pastor Stephanie

A message from Pastor Stephanie

We are continuing to look at the Lord’s prayer. What does it mean to be forgiven our trespasses as we forgive others?

Forgiveness is the heart of our faith. All of sin against God, one another and ourselves. We know what it’s like when someone hurts us, it’s hard to forgive that person. Forgiveness does not mean the harm is ok, it’s releasing the weight the sin against you had upon you. 

When we don’t forgive, it can become like handcuffs and we find ourselves dragged down by the weight of the wrong against us. Maybe you’re like me, and discover in order to forgive others, you must first learn to forgive yourself. We are not perfect, we make mistakes. How do we offer ourselves grace when we mess up and try to better next time? When we break down those walls and experience God’s grace, a huge weight is lifted off our shoulders, the handcuffs have come off and we feel much lighter. 

Jesus tells us that God forgives to the amount we forgive others. Who do you need to forgive today?

Please continue to pray our breakthrough prayer daily at 4:09pm.

Blessings,
Pastor Stephanie

A message from Pastor Stephanie

We are continuing to look at the Lord’s prayer. What does it mean when we pray “give us this day our daily bread?” 

We are praying for God to give not only us bread, but the whole world their daily bread. To those who first heard this prayer, they would have immediately thought of the Exodus story and the manna God provided each day. God set rules with this manna, collect enough for this day only, if you took too much it would rot and get worms.

Every week we feed over 1000 people as we take donated food and distribute it to our neighbors who need food. It breaks my heart when I throw away food at my house that has gone bad. No one wants my rotting food, but here I thought I could eat this and bought it, and now it’s going bad because I took more than I and my family, could eat. How are we living into helping to ensure our neighbors have daily bread? What is God asking us to do, to help feed other, to think about what we buy and ensure we can use it, or something else? This prayer is a prayer of action for God and us!

Please continue to pray our breakthrough prayer daily at 4:09pm.

Blessings,
Pastor Stephanie