December 21, 2015

Love - The Taylor's Story

December 21, 2015/ Church at the Cross

The process of adopting our daughter went very smoothly and every step of the way the Lord continued to reveal His heart to us. Adoption is the perfect example of how God's Love works. When our daughter came to us she was so frail. At 1 year old she weighed just 14 pounds. She was dirty, undernourished, and terrified. She did not understand who we were or that we already Loved her deeply. As she grew she became stronger. Her fears gave way to joy and seeing her begin to smile at us as we talked to her filled our family with some much elation that we could not imagine how we had ever lived without her...

December 13, 2015

Joy - The Annis's Story

December 13, 2015/ Church at the Cross

Finding this diagnosis was not a pleasant experience. During a particularly painful exam where I had to hold my arms above my head for over a half hour, I began to feel despair creep in as I struggled to keep my arms up and hang on to my Joy. In that moment, the Holy Spirit gently reminded me of Christ hanging on the cross. It was not a detached challenge to "be stronger"; it was a gentle reminder that He has also suffered...and that I was not alone. In that moment my heart and body were strengthened, and my Joy was restored...

December 06, 2015

Peace - The Reynold's Story

December 06, 2015/ Church at the Cross

My daughter completed her treatment and returned home to begin rebuilding our family's relationship, but the road to restoration was a complicated one and shortly after she returned home, we found ourselves at odds again. I was determined to make our relationship work but all my best efforts continued to fail. Months later, sitting in a church service, I found myself once again unable to communicate what was happening in my heart. But this time it was not because of my battered relationship with my daughter; it was because I was suffering a stroke...

November 29, 2015

Hope - The Robinson's Story

November 29, 2015/ Church at the Cross

After mourning this loss for a short time, we mustered all the resolve we could find and began our fertility treatments again. But this time our hearts were simply too broken to endure the rollercoaster process any longer. We discontinued the treatments and tried to come to terms with the idea that we would never have a child of our own. During this extended season a number of friends had suggested the idea of adopting a child. This was something that we believed in but the Hope of having our own biological child had always been our focus...

October 06, 2015

Theology of Interruption

October 06, 2015/ Joseph Tenney

Interruption is God’s invitation. God is inviting us to see him all around us, in the lives of others, in our conversations, in our serving those in need. Interruption is not simply a matter of our hearts developing patience, it’s about experiencing life! It is one of God’s ways of waking us up to what’s around us to see there’s perhaps more to be done than our task for the day, as important as it may be. Interruption is God’s enhancement of our art and his tender way of encouraging his creatures to be a part of the kingdom come...

September 28, 2015

Great Intercessors

September 28, 2015/ JR Vassar

This is the power of our Pray 30/20/10 initiative. We are becoming a praying people through the act of praying. We are learning to cultivate a praying habit so that we might have a praying heart. By taking 30 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes during the day, and 10 minutes at night to seek God in his Word and in prayer, we are learning to look away from ourselves and to look to God. This season of prayer can be a turning point in our lives. We might very well be on the verge of some new works of God as he responds to our persistent prayers. If you have not taken the Pray 30/20/10 challenge, I encourage you to take it up today. Make it a part of the regular rhythm of your life. Join us as we strive with God’s help to become a church serious in its intention to be a praying people.

August 31, 2015

Resources on Abortion

August 31, 2015/ JR Vassar

Sunday, August 30 was the most emotionally taxing sermon I have ever prepared for and preached. I dealt with the issue of abortion, delivering a polemical and pastoral message on the moral wrong of abortion. I looked at the question, “what is the unborn?” and answered that question from Scripture, Science, and Common Sense...

July 22, 2015

Idol Series Resources

July 22, 2015/ Church at the Cross

Here are a list of resources for this series. Some are free online resources that are helpful for us getting our heads around the idols of our own hearts and how to find freedom from them. Others are books that can be purchased on Amazon...

June 29, 2015

Staying the Course in a Shifting Culture

June 29, 2015/ JR Vassar

On June 26, 2015, The Supreme Court of the United States handed down a ruling that made Same-Sex Marriage a constitutional right for all Americans. Those who hold to an historical view of marriage and a biblical view of human sexuality are faced with a great challenge as to how to respond to our culture in a way that holds fast to the Words of Jesus while also modeling the Way of Jesus. Below you will find several resources that we believe will help you as you develop biblical convictions over this issue and will empower you to faithfully respond in grace and truth...

March 01, 2015

Preaching Jesus with Our Songs

March 01, 2015/ Joseph Tenney

Music is an ongoing exercise that, at its best, creates channels for the gospel to illuminate our lives in light of who God is. God gave Moses a song in Deuteronomy 31 so that when the children of Israel went through various trials and troubles, the song would confront them as a testimony to whom their God was. This is true of all great music; it speaks with clarity of the God of beauty behind the music...

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