Jesus taught many things. Lots of his teachings are recorded in the four gospel writings of the New Testament. The thing is… he wasn’t really interested in people just hearing his teaching so much as hearing and practicing his teaching. Jesus wanted people to take what he had to say to heart. He knew that if people followed him and practiced what he taught that their lives would be changed incredibly in this life.
Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Matthew 7:24-27
Notice that Jesus wants our lives to be built on a strong foundation so that we can weather the storms of life and come through confidently. He knows that every one of us faces various kinds of storms, trials, temptations, and evil in the world and that we will succumb to them if we don’t have a strong inner core. This inner core, this foundation is formed by following the way of Jesus. After all, Jesus is the source of life and the conqueror of death.
At Embrace, we are building a culture where we learn from God and we respond in practice. We open our ears and hearts to hear what God might be saying to us through scripture or prayer or people or circumstances or creation and we process that together without fear of judgment or condemnation. We do this in an inclusive community of faith because foundations aren’t built by individuals but by groups of people. We do this because we want to be changed at the heart level.
If you’re curious about the way of Jesus and want to be around other people who are growing in this, we welcome you to the journey. We’d love to meet you and journey alongside you. We certainly don’t have it all figured out but we are in the process of being changed.
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Pastor Chad
