Element Christian Church

Learn to connect the gift—which you already love—with the Giver, whom you want to love more. You start with what you already like and work your way back to its source, to God. You taste and see that the Lord is good.

Most people already know more than they need to know...it is simply LIVING what we claim we know that needs to be done. We don’t become doers on our own, as we read the Scripture, we ask the Spirit to help us understand what to do in response. The intersection of what the Scriptures teach and how our lives unfold will give us a never-ceasing stream to actually do what Jesus says. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw

In one sense, you know yourself better than anyone in the world. You alone have access to your inner thoughts, feelings, and judgments. In another way, you know yourself worse than anyone else can know you. Because we hate being honest with ourselves about ourselves...we all rationalize, justify, minimize, forget, and embellish—and we do not even know when we are doing it.

We are so consumed with giving in this time of year, we forget to give God what we should be giving Him. Our love, our life, we are to live for Him in everything we do. We are great at quickly accepting the good things that He gives us, but we are slower to give back. We forget to give Him what He deserves: our love, for He first loved us.

One of the things the Holy Spirit does is encourage believers in their work. In reading the scriptures you realize God is still active, even today, and He is working. Work brings pleasure to the image of God in us.

People are hard to get along with because we are all evil. Sin is in us and comes out through our words and actions. Sin separated people from each other and God...sin leads to only death. The simple fact is that we all sin.

God is never anxious, worried or afraid. His presence in the midst of our lives should be a calming influence because He knows all that we will face. So today’s question section will be a little different.

This Halloween: Engage the culture you live in: 1. Don’t turn out the lights and ignore it. Halloween won’t go away. So if you don’t support this holiday, determine to turn a negative into a positive. 2. If you’re staying home: buy some candy, answer the door and when you put candy in the children’s bags be kind and say hi to their parents. 3. If you have children, don’t take fun away from them, go “Trick-or-Treating” with them. How often can you go door to door on a day when almost everyone will answer the door with a pleasant attitude? 4. PRAY! Pray for the safety of the children who will be out on that night, but more importantly pray that the Gospel will go out that night as well—and that through God’s word some lost soul might come to know Jesus.

People are okay telling a doctor that their bodies have a problem or telling a mechanic that their car has a problem. Why is it so difficult for people who sin to tell other people who commit sins that they have a sin problem?

Our greatest strength usually brings about our greatest weaknesses. Knowing both will help us better live on mission in the name of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Just like shoes, hats, pants and shorts, one size dies not fit all in terms of spiritual growth. God made us unique and wants to develop that uniqueness as children who bring Him glory and honor.

God created you to simply be you, not anyone else on the planet (or in all of creation). Unfortunately we all seem to think we need to be someone else in order to truly grow into who we think God wants us to be... but only GOD knows who he wants us to be.

Pride is the result of our fallen and deceitful hearts, whereby we look to ourselves and others instead of our God and creator, to find significance, approval and love. Pride puts us in competition with others as we seek our own glory above others and turns our focus onto ourselves. It is based on an unrealistic view of who we really are, and who God really is. Humility is the ability to see the truth about ourselves and about God, and to act accordingly.

God’s story for humanity will be a good one...but the question really is, “what type of story are you living?” We are all in a story but are our lives something that would inspire us?

Mordecai issued a decree to all Jews to defend themselves from those who would attack them. After the defending(or attacking) was done, by the Jews, Mordecai issued another decree to celebrate. By law, Jews were to take two days and celebrate what God had done: how He had saved them from destruction, how He has sent salvation, how He has provided for His people…again. Celebrating God was a large part of the Jewish culture, and Christianity being what Judaism was to turn into, a large part of Christianity should be celebration!

Watch and Discuss The Dark Knight

Forgiving is NOT forgetting, forgiving does not always mean reconciliation, forgiveness is a different issue than justice, forgiving is personal, and forgiveness is a process.

God has called and given us the strength to be a people about His mission. That mission loves what God loves, honors what God honors, and follows in the paths that God lays out for us. This is lived in very practical ways of husbands loving their wives, wives respecting husbands, parents raising kids, employees and employers treating each other with dignity and respect. But fighting against our true mission, is a side mission that is always calling us away from God and into complacency (a non-mission).

Watch and Discuss The Incredible Hulk

Sometimes we can miss the parallels that Esther truly holds as the comedy threatens to overwhelm the message of why it was placed within scripture. Esther 7 holds great semblance to Jesus taking on our sin by identifying us with Himself in His death and resurrection.