Dear Family at Christ Community, On Sunday we will hear the Gatherer teach us that "it is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting" (Ecclesiastes 7:2). Although shocking, this proverb does not contradict his repeated invitation to enjoy God's gifts. Instead, it warns us about the danger of using God's good gifts to avoid the hard realit...

Gracious and Merciful Father, We come before you to confess our sin as Your redeemed and beloved children. May Your Spirit alone convict us of our sin and remind us of our pardon in Christ through repentance. We confess that we often use distractions to avoid facing the realities of our sin and death (Ecclesiastes 7:1-6). We confess these things before You because You are...

Gracious and Merciful Father, We come before you to confess our sin as Your redeemed and beloved children. May Your Spirit alone convict us of our sin and remind us of our pardon in Christ through repentance. We confess that we don't really trust in the timing of Your judgment and try to ignore the limits of our mortality (Ecclesiastes 3:16-22). We confess these things be...

Dear Family at Christ Community, On Sunday we will conclude our Advent series with Isaiah 66:1-2. In this text, the Lord declares His transcendent power and while also assuring us that He sets His gaze upon the humble and contrite who tremble at His Word. Our call to worship reiterates these themes: For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, ...

Dear Family at Christ Community, On Sunday we will hear Mark's account of Jesus's resurrection. One of the unique things about the ending of Mark's Gospel is the emphasis he puts on Jesus's promise to meet the disciples again in Galilee (14:28; 16:7). David Garland highlights the significance of this promise: Symbolically, Galilee is the place where it all began It i...

Gracious and Merciful Father, We come before you to confess our sin as Your redeemed and beloved children. May Your Spirit alone convict us of our sin and remind us of our pardon in Christ through repentance. We confess that we often dwell in our fears and failures rather than walk in the power and promise of the resurrection as we follow You on the way of the cross.(Mark...

Gracious and Merciful Father,We come before you to confess our sin as Your redeemed and beloved children. May Your Spirit alone convict us of our sin and remind us of our pardon in Christ through repentance.We confess that we often live in fear because we forget that You were condemnedin our place and now sit at the Father's right hand as our Prophet, Priest, and King(Mar...

Gracious and Merciful Father, We come before you to confess our sin as Your redeemed and beloved children. May Your Spirit alone convict us of our sin and remind us of our pardon in Christ through repentance. We confess that we are often unprepared to endure suffering on the way of the cross because we fail to guard our hearts by Your Word and Spirit. (Mark 13:1-13) We co...

Dear Family at Christ Community, On Sunday we will hear Jesus respond to the Sanhedrin's false humility with the Parable of the Tenants in Mark 12:1-12. His parable summarizes Israel's rejection of the prophets over the years and culminates with a warning about the Sanhedrin's opposition to Him as the Beloved Son of God. The Sanhedrin's opposition to Jesus will set the...

Dear Family at Christ Community, This Sunday we will listen to a conversation Jesus had with John and the other Apostles on the way to Jerusalem and the Cross. The Apostles' failure to cast out the demon from the young boy was still fresh in their minds (Mark 9:14-29). They then found themselves further decentered by the stunning success of an unnamed exorcist casting out...