Celebration Center

God, because He decided to use us to accomplish His mission in this world, calls us His “ambassadors.” We are called to be God’s voice to reconcile people to Himself. This includes the willingness to speak up and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

As followers of Christ, we have been chosen by the God of the universe as His prized possession. We are chosen and set apart through Christ our Savior. This has all happened for a specific purpose which is to allow us to proclaim the goodness of God to those who still find themselves in the darkness.

The world has certain patterns to it that do not lead to a full life. Greed, anger, jealousy, materialism, and dishonesty are just a few of them. Paul instructs us in the book of Romans to no longer conform or blend in with the ways of the world, but instead we are to live as transformed people. Transformation doesn’t happen by accident; it is an intentional way of daily living.

Jesus was busy. But he was never in a hurry. He had counted the cost of his time, and knew exactly what he should do in order to fulfill his mission on earth. We can do the same by budgeting our time, and protecting it based on our priorities. However, we should always remember that our verdict is sealed regardless of our productivity. God doesn’t need us to finish our to-do lists. This freedom should allow us to work hard because we want to be a part of redeeming God’s creation.

If you’ve ever felt unequipped or unsure of yourself or your call from God, you’re certainly not alone. All throughout scripture God calls people who make excuses, feel insecure, don’t like themselves, ore don’t believe they’re the right person for the job. And guess what, he proved time and time again that His call on their lives and ours is ON purpose, FOR a purpose.

We live in a celebrity culture and often that affects the church as well and keeps God’s people from experiencing the powerful life He intended for us, because all through Scripture and down through history we see that God takes ordinary people, in ordinary places and empowers them to do extraordinary things!

We live in a “hustle” culture. If you want to get more done, the world will often tell you to “work harder,” “burn the midnight oil,” or “sleep when you’re dead.” But the biblically-based, scientifically-verified truth is that rest is a counterintuitive key to being wildly productive. In order to do more, most of us need to do less and rest more.

When Jesus came to earth, he temporarily traded in his Godly omnipresence and accepted the unipresence of being a human being. He could only be in one place at a time. He had to prioritize the many good things pulling at his attention because he was laser-focused on “finishing the work the Father gave him.” We can apply these principles of prioritizing our yeses and accepting our unipresence to our work and lives today.

As we look to the life of Christ for principles of time management, we notice that Jesus always ensured his “yes” was “yes,” from the smallest to the biggest commitments. He also fought to block out noise and create room for silence, stillness, and reflection, which we see all throughout the Gospels as he retreated to “lonely places.”

Time is something that if not managed well can easily feel like gets away from us very quickly. Have you even tried to manage your time, but feel like you just don’t have enough of it? How do we make sure that we are accomplishing our every day life tasks, as well as preparing ourselves for the work God has for us when there just doesn’t seem to be enough time? Today we will look at 5 biblical truths about our time, and how we can better manage the precious time God has given us.

At just the right time, Jesus came into the world. He came to free us from the crushing weight of the law. We could never be good enough to earn salvation, so Jesus lived a perfect life on our behalf. Why? Because of love. God wanted us to be a part of his family. Out of love, he adopted us through the work of Christ. We are now the sons and daughters of God. Jesus is our savior and we can rest in the love of the Father.

The circumstances of life have a way of robbing us of joy. Disappointment, frustration, and loss can suck the very life from us; however, Jesus’s birth reminds us that, no matter how hard life is, we don’t have to go through it alone. God has come to us full of grace and truth, and that should bring us joy. We can trust that Jesus’s presence with us will reveal the truth about our lives and at the same time offer us the grace to see things change.

The announcement of Jesus’s birth was delivered to shepherds who lived on the fringe of society, in the fields, watching their sheep by night. If a king were born to the world, you would expect these shepherds to be the last ones to know about it. Yet, the heavenly angels told them that peace was coming to the earth for those on whom God’s favor rested. What a shocking message! God’s favor was even on the shepherds. They were being offered peace; and if it could be given to them, we can rest assured it is offered to us as well. Now that is good news for a world in turmoil!

The prophet Isaiah writes one of the most classic of all Old Testament prophecies about the coming birth of Christ. The passage he writes is born of gloom and darkness. The world had felt the full weight of sin, and it had wreaked havoc on all of creation. What Isaiah offered in chapter nine was something the Jewish people needed more than anything—hope. Hope that one day someone would come to make all things right and restore what had been broken. The birth of Jesus was the fulfillment of that hope and this fact offers us hope in our lives today.

Celebration Center

Mission accomplished; we have done the task God called us to do…now what? What if God does something that we weren’t expecting? Or worse…what if He does something that we absolutely disagree with? When God acts and we aren’t happy with Him, that actually speaks a lot to our heart and how we may be off from aligning ourselves with God’s will and God’s heart. Do our hearts break for what breaks his? Do we ultimately want what He wants…for ALL to know Him? Jonah struggled with this…

Every one of us matter to God. Even when we run from or resist Him, His pursuing love keeps coming to win us back to Him. For people of the 2nd chance, the focus is not on what it IS, but what it CAN be…God’s grace changes everything, and in Jonah 3 we see Jonah’s 2nd chance, Nineveh’s 2nd chance, and ultimately OUR 2nd chance!

Sometimes in life we find ourselves in some REALLY hot water from a decision we have made. All our choices have a consequence, and we have a good loving father who lovingly disciplines us to bring us back to Him. How we react when disciplined is key! Do we receive it, grow from it, and let it shape and mold us? Or do we reject it and keep running? When we are confronted by God, do we get BETTER or BITTER?

Our actions have a lot to do with not just what happens to us, but also with what happens to others around us. Storms in life can hit us from all angles, and our minds and attitudes play out in our actions, which lead in either running to Jesus, or away from Him. If Jesus commanded you to go love someone that you despised, what would you think? How would you respond? How would you act? Would you run TO Jesus, or AWAY from Him?

What if you mess up, and feel like you are unable to do what God has asked? You need another chance, but you feel like you lost your opportunity to do it because you ran from His call? The good news is that we serve a God who not only cares about the work He asks you do you, but He cares about you! So much so, that He always gives another chance.