City Church Houston

Can you imagine sacrificial generosity in the midst of extreme suffering giving rise to overwhelming joy? While this may surprise us, it's exactly what we find in a moving story about an ancient community of faith. This beautiful example has the power to renew our modern sensibilities about the meaning of life.

Generosity is found less by facing greed than by facing fear, which is the root of greed. Sobering as it may sound, Jesus tells us that the path to overcoming our worldly worry is to accept that much of what we treasure will be lost. Only his Kingdom is eternal.

What biblical themes animate City Church's vision to renew Houston? How might this kind of church address cultural trends?

The New Testament author, Luke, was so taken with the story of Saul of Tarsus that he couldn't stop telling it. It's a curious case study of the power of Easter to change a person's life. 

When we're struggling, what do we really need? In these concluding words from Romans 8, a high-water mark in the entire Bible, Paul shares words that can lift us and lead through even the most challenging of circumstances.

Though far from comfortable, true spiritual growth leads us into the heart of suffering, so that we may taste more fully the goodness of the hope of Christ—who was himself no stranger to pain and loss.

Essential to spiritual growth is going out of our way to care for the practical needs people face. We can sacrificially enter in to other people's suffering because Jesus did so for us at great cost.

How do we change? What do we do with competing desires within us? Here we'll consider different paradigms for spiritual growth and what a healthy and hopeful way forward might be. 

Grace is a radical concept. If it grabs hold of us, it will absolutely change us--not making us different versions of ourselves, but new people altogether. This new identity means we're no longer struggling to be free, but free to struggle.

While suffering is often listed as the reason why people struggle to believe or disbelieve in God, it's curious that for the Apostle Paul it is central to spiritual growth and what it means to flourish in life.

Jesus came to serve not the religious, but the relegated, not those in possession of might, but those in want of mercy. The figure "Blind Bartimaeus" provides us a model for how realizing our need for Christ's mercy lies at the very root of our faith transformation.

How do we know if we can trust our desires and ambitions? How should we think about power? Here Jesus paints a counterintuitive and countercultural vision for dealing with these important dynamics.

Jesus' famous encounter with a rich young ruler teaches us important lessons about our relationship to money.

What makes us feel like we're somebody? Instead of tweaking our assumptions, Jesus turns things upside down and offers a radically different and refreshingly contrasting vision of life from what we're used to.

Faith cannot last without wonder. While our spiritual lives must be intellectually and emotionally satisfying, the Gospels remind us that Christ's love and glory are more than we can exhaustively describe or understand. Wonder leads to love, love leads to life.

Is it possible to be able to see but still be blind? Spiritually speaking it is. Jesus' healing of a blind man leads to an eye-opening moment with his disciples. Here we catch his vision for his mission and what it means to follow him. 

The persistent temptation of our spiritual lives is to choose momentary security over long-term flourishing. The story of exile and the people's return to the city of Jerusalem is a reminder—for any season of life—that true and lasting comfort is found in the presence of God alone.

Though one might not think of this as a Christmas passage, it captures the essence of Christmas, and Christianity for that matter. It's particularly suited to those who struggle with belief, loneliness, and happiness. 

Our lives are lived in between the two advents of Christ--his coming in humility in a manger and his future coming in great glory. What difference can this make in our lives? How might it help us face suffering, find purpose, and experience freedom regardless of our circumstances?

Advent cannot be understand; it can only be experienced. Like flipping on a light in a pitch-dark room, Christian hope is an awakening to the life that can be found only in Jesus Christ.