Church, it is only fair that I come clean.  There is someone that is snuggled by my wife more closely than myself. His name is Beartini, and he looks like this:

It’s interesting to me that a creature that would be absolutely terrifying in the real world has been plushified to the point that it’s entirely normal to see a child (or my wife) clutching it tightly. I bet you are on the edge of your seat waiting to see how I manage to shoehorn Jesus into this one...

Last Sunday we looed at the gospel reversal going from poor to rich. In the Gospel, Christ has given up his riches to embrace poverty, and we received his riches in exchange for our poverty. Similarly to last week, once we receive from Christ, we can then give to others what we have first received.

What would it look like to become a community who not just teaches death to life, but thrives in the death to life paradigm in all we do? Last Sunday we dove deeper into this great theological truth...
 

Have you ever thought about the logo of Redemption?  I was sitting with Andrew Furr a few weeks ago, and asked that same question to him.  We came up with our own guesses, but wanted to hear it from the man himself. Pastor Shawn, who planted Redemption Church over seven years ago in Charlotte, had to have a reason for making it, right?  

Sunday we continued our series on Gospel reversals, on how Christ transforms our primary action from receiving to giving. Much of our culture is built on the idea of consumption, but the Gospel transforms how we view life, not merely receiving and consuming, but giving our life, energy, and resources for the good of the kingdom.
 

If you’ve ever asked me for book recommendations, you’ve probably heard me mention my love for Bob Goff. I love him because he follows Jesus in a way that I’ve never seen in anybody else - he doesn’t over complicate it and tries to focus on becoming love in every situation. Recently, I was reading his newest book which describes a time he was asked the following: If he could essentially pick 6 words describing his life when he died, what would they be? His words were, “What if we weren’t afraid anymore?”

Last Sunday we started a short series on Gospel reversals: How the Gospel transforms the most critical parts of how we live. Work and rest. Death and life. Poor and rich. Sin and perfection. In the hardest and most challenging parts of our life, God is not absent. In fact the Gospel speaks into these exact places with hope and challenge.
 

This year was my first attempt at a garden. I had a tumultuous beginning. My plants were dying, and I was trying to figure out if they had enough sun and water - or too much. I had to learn how to prune my plants - but not too much.  The height of my learning curve was evidenced when my friend kindly pointed out that my plants were not planted deep enough, which was the root of most of my problems.

The goal of week 4 is to convey the centrality of God’s heart for the people who live in our city. The Church must be For Charlotte, because God is making His appeal to The City through The Church.

Step out. That was my New Year’s Resolution this past January. They’re just two words, but they hold a two-fold meaning for me.