“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Whether you like Christmas music or not, once Thanksgiving has come and gone, it is inescapable. Stores, restaurants, anywhere you go. You know the songs and you can sing along. They are filled with popular ideas about Christmas, from holiday romance, to passionate desire, to how the dark nights and cold weather brings us together with friends and loved ones. But while these songs help some feel the Christmas spirit, they can also feel a little trite or a little hollow, like they’re missing something.
Join Damascus Road for Christmas Karaoke to enjoy some Christmas music and reflect on the real spirit of the season. Let’s go beyond the songs we sing to get to the meaning of Christmas.
It seems like everyone has beef with someone. Dis tracks proliferate, friendships dissipate, and families disintegrate. There’s bad blood poisoning our lives and our relationships, and we need a miracle. Hurting is natural. Forgiveness is supernatural. Forgiveness is a gift from God and we can become people who give this supernatural gift with Jesus’ help. But where do we start? Bad Blood will explore the problem, clarify the solution, and point the way to a life of forgiveness.
Babylon was the great empire of the Ancient Near East. It was a center of cultural, military, and political power, and conquered numerous nations, assimilating them into the empire. This included the Judeans who were taken into exile and struggled to maintain their distinct identity as the people of God amidst the captivity. Today we face a similar struggle. The United States is a center of military and political power and has assimilated people around the world by exporting our culture and values. But all is not well in the empire of America and political division is just the tip of the iceberg. How can we live well in this new empire? How can we be faithful to Jesus amidst rising anxiety and fear? What does faithful political engagement look like? Join us for Redeeming Babylon, as we explore a better way forward together.
In a hot dry climate, like ours, we endure months on end without rain. As temperatures rise we wait for the relief of rainfall and we long to see the city turn green once more. We live in a hostile spiritual climate as well, longing to see the holy spirit dwell in our city. We long to see hearts changed and lives transformed by the living water. But we know that rain is coming, and we know what to do when the lightning strikes. Join Damascus Road for this series that invites us to participate in the movement of the spirit and become a witnessing community.
We all struggle with lies like this, lies of identity, lies about what makes us worth something. We are under attack from lies that erode our sense of identity, that make us question if we are worthy of love or acceptance, of opportunity, of belief. They tell us what we are what others think of us. That we are what we have, or that we are what we do. We hear lies that we are just what we feel and if we feel not good enough, then that is what we are.
These lies and illusions are the focus of Worth It. Together we are going to look at these illusions and invite God to come in and dismantle these four lies of identity: “I Am What Others Think,” I Am What I Feel,” “I Am What I Do,” and “I Am What I Own.”
Interested in finding more of our past teachings? Check out a selection of our teachings form before 2021 that have been uploaded to the Damascus Road Podcast.
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