Take those old records off the shelf

The brand new year is upon us. The turn of the calendar makes us excited and hopeful for what is in store. What amazing thing will God do in our lives? What will we be set free from? What obstacle or hardship will He graciously guide us through? What will be different? What will be better? What will be new?

Often the greatest thing that we can encounter of the freshness that comes from something being new is looking at something that is timeless. At Engaging Life we will start the New Year by rediscovering the essential elements of Christianity: “The Classics”.

During “The Classics,” every Sunday morning at 10:30am, we will focus on the following tenets of our faith:

• Week One: What We Believe: 13 Doctrines of Engaging Life
• Week Two: God’s Communication to Us: God’s Word and Our Obedience
• Week Three: Dialog with God: Prayer and Worship
• Week Four: An I Can in Christ Attitude: What It Means to Be in Christ
• Week Five: The Two Sacraments of the Church: Water Baptism and Communion
• Week Six: What Me Worry?: Giving and God’s Provision
• Week Seven: Fantastic News: Evangelism and Mission

According to Ecclesiastes 1:9, nothing is new under the sun. We can however have a new appreciation, deeper understanding and fresh impactful application to these classic essentials.

Starts Jan. 2!

The Kingdom is like seeds

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32 NIV)

So let’s see here, the kingdom has something to do with the act of planting, even planting something small—the smallest of all seeds perhaps. The kingdom has something to do with growth; even the smallest of seeds produce a new life form—from a seed to a tree. The kingdom has something to do with this new life form being used to hold-up, support, and provide rest and shelter—to have a purpose. All because a man took this seed and planted it. My guess is the man knew it was a seed, knew it had potential, and maybe even wanted a tree, though I doubt he had in mind the benefits that were far reaching even to the birds of the air. My guess is also that this was not the only seed that was planted by this man. He planted many. Perhaps there was more than this one tree that was produced, perhaps not. We know there was this tree though. And we know that the seed it came from and the diligence of the sower shows a picture of the kingdom.

Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both. (Ecclesiastes 11:6 NLT)

We don’t know which seed will grow into a tree. We do know that if we pursue his kingdom, there will be trees and we have seeds!