Blog
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Advent is a season of preparation for Christmas. We “prepare” for Christmas in many ways: throwing parties, reliving nostalgic family memories, remembering lost loved ones, the joy of giving, the anxiety of pleasing others, and the flurry of Christmas shopping. But what would it look like to prepare your heart and mind for the greatest wonder of all,…
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A Baby It was the Fall of 2013. I was visiting a local park with my 4-year-old and 2-year-old in tow, when I saw a woman with a baby and felt sudden and overwhelming relief that it wasn’t me. To be honest, I felt disgust for the whole baby phase. Earlier that summer, I had…
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Our world can often feel askew, upside-down. How can things be righted? How do we get in touch with what God is doing? The Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit? What is he doing in this world? And where is he going with it? We explore all of these questions in our recent message, The Doctrine…
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26 Dead. 14 were children. A pregnant mother. All worshippers of our Lord, gunned down. Sin is senseless. Evil is sin in overdrive. A parasite that feeds on the good, evil should be despised. This is part of lament: “Let all their evildoing come before you, and deal with them as you have dealt with…
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Division is in the air. Differences over gender, race, and religion, to name a few, make the internet boil and people snap. But division is not something that should mark the Church. Of all people in the world, the Church should be the most unified. We possess both the responsibility and resources to display compelling…
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Recently the topic of mercy was floated to me for a short sermon I was to give at our neighborhood church gathering. As I was prayerfully considering an appropriate scripture passage that addressed mercy I came upon Matthew 9:9-13 and it kind of took me aback when I read it. It wasn’t so much the…
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At City Life Church, a City Group is a missional community, where we can be the church to one another and to the city. It’s not just a “community group”, focused on ourselves. It’s not just a mission-focused group, focused on the city. In a sense, it’s both, a city – group. So let’s talk…
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With controversy raging in our society, it’s easy to be caught and blown about by a cultural gust. Emotions can quickly soar high and plummet low. When we react to controversy, we may say something we shouldn’t, resort to social media instead of loving interpersonal action, silently steam, despair, or experience paralyzing inaction. St. Paul’s…
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This is a guest post from one of our church planting partners, Mark Smith from Dublin, Ireland. Sitting on the western edge of Europe you’d be forgiven for overlooking Ireland as a mission field. It’s the land of St. Patrick after all! And yet, with an evangelical Christian population of less than 1%, Ireland is…
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With controversy raging in our society, it’s easy to be caught by a cultural gust and be blown about. Storm-tossed by every wind of doctrine, our emotions can soar high and plummet low. Regrettable actions can follow or stunned, inaction may set in. How do we find stability in turbulent times? We need something deep,…
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As the Weinstein scandal began to break, my heart broke with it. Woman after woman stepped forward to testify of sexual assault. A flashpoint case, stories began to crawl out of the dark corners of high towers of power. Then I heard about the federal case against a predatory Austin man who flew to Florida…
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At first glance, Jonah seems like a silly tale of fish-swallows-man-overboard-and-survives. But a closer examination of the story reveals deep insight into the character of God and the predicaments we all find ourselves in. Jonah avoids the presence of God, struggles with compassion for his pagan neighbors, endures great adversity, struggles with heartfelt obedience, and…
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