Family Fest Speaker Podcast: Recent Episodes
Family Fest Ministries
Jesus's first miracle was extravagant but only known to a few. His time to let other know of his Greatness was yet to come.
Whether comforting or unsettling, hometowns are significant to us. In Luke's Gospel, we hear the story of Jesus returning to his hometown of Nazareth and how he upsets the townspeople with his message. When we invite Jesus into our lives, his message can be both comforting or unsettling.
In the parable of the seed falling on different ground, we often try to define ourselves or others as one of the different types: the hard ground, the rocky ground, the thorny ground and the fertile ground. However, each of us has all the types within ourselves.
In Luke 10, we hear the story of Mary and Martha. Mary violates social norms and hosting duties by sitting at Jesus's feet while Martha serves the guests alone. When confronted by Martha, Jesus sides with Mary. He teaches us the importance of sitting quietly to receive God's peace. Jesus settles our souls.
John 21 tells the story of the disciples struggling to fish as Jesus shouts from shore to throw the net over the other side. When the disciples recognize that it's the resurrected Jesus, they rush to him. Jesus addresses Peter 3 times, "do you love me?" and Peter affirms him 3 times. In doing that, Peter understand that his pat denials are forgiven and his job going forward it to tend the Lord's people. Our pathway forward is unknown, but Jesus walks alongside us.
God in a trinitarian from can show up in a wide variety of ways. How do you see God-Jesus the Human, Holy Spirit the Breath, Abba the loving Father, God the Creator?
Remember who you are and that you belong to God.
How do you understand you?
Identity work is one of the most helpful tools to discover how you best connect with God. Are you The Speculative, The Heart, The Mystic or The Social Justice Seeker? When we live in a world that values independence, we think we don't need anything or we're not tied to anything. However, we have a great human need to be connected to God and each other.
Knowing who God is and knowing who you are, think about the people God has put in your life. What stones are you asked to move?
God calls us to love all people, including our enemies.
It is by love that you are here, by love that you live and by love that you serve.
We are called to express God's love into the world. Be radical in the way you love for perfect love casts out fear.
God has much to say but often we're to busy to hear his words. In the presence of Jesus, we have to opportunity to be completely surprised by the God's goodness.
Pray each day to hear God's word.
The Trinity is the most foundational dogma of Christianity: within God, there is three. God is community. God is Love. God's love is infinite and always raining down on us. He doesn't love us because we are worthy, we are worthy because he loves us. What umbrellas do you put up that stop God's love from raining on you?
Crucification is the worst way to die and yet it's the central moment of Christianity. We hold this painful story as the symbol of God's infinite love for us. The physical suffering that Jesus experienced was nothing compared to what he experienced spiritually. Salvation is a free gift but discipleship costs everything. Are you willing to take up the cross?
Evil is name we use to mean less goodness. There is no such thing as evil. Evil only exists as an absence of good. God is good and God created everything in goodness. He also gave us free will and as we make choices of less goodness, our world becomes "evil". Follow God's path for he always leads us in triumph.
Forgiveness is a decision of our will. We can choose to forgive or not. When we don't forgive someone, we are the ones that get hurt over and over. Unforgiveness is an open wound. When we choose to forgive other's failings, our Heavenly Father forgives us ours.
Forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation. Forgiveness is a one way street that is your will and reconciliation is a two-way street with another. Reconciliation requires the other person to come "eyelash to eyelash". You can forgive and not be reconciled. Often we need to suffer a little in order to be open to reconciliation.
Heaven awaits. This world is not our home for we are made for more. We don't know the how or the when so we need to prepare. We can use this life to practice for our life in heaven. We will improve on anything we practice. What are you practicing for in this life? Selfishness, forgiveness, centering Jesus?
God created us to be with us. After humanity messed up, God became human to be one of us. Never think you are invisible to Christ. When we create time and space and invite Jesus in, he will show up. God wants to be with us.
We have the ability to amaze Jesus with our faith. Jesus performs miracles in many different ways, through big asks, humbled asks and even when we don't ask. God wants more of us than we know how to ask for.
Jesus came from perfection into brokeness.
Miracles should make us nervous. Obedience should make us nervous. Forgiveness should make us nervous. Because we're stepping into something we don't do naturally. The miracles all around us aren't to make our lives better, they're to help us know how good God is.
If you love Jesus, go look for him. When you look for him, you will find him. He wants to be found by us.
We are all the beautiful creatures of a kind and loving God who wants us to live our life to the full. He invites us to remain curious. What do you want?
Jesus sees us for who we are created to be not the way we see ourselves or others see us. Jesus sees YOU.
"Let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone." None of us are exempt from sin and death. But what if sin is good news? Once something is named, we know that there is a solution to it.
Let's Go! can be a celebratory phrase or a command to move forward. As Jesus is dying on the cross he says "It is finished." "It is finished" is the ultimate Let's Go moment. Through His death on the cross, our sin is conquered. We have the opportunity to live a new life with Him.
God wants peace for all of us. He is reaching out and whispering to us "I love you, I love you." He sees artwork in his creation. Anything that feels broken or shattering, unredeemable to us, in Christ, can all be put back together. God can take anything and use it for good.
Be watchful when you're climbing the ladder of success, you might meet Jesus on his way down. Stop trying to understand the vastness of God and just receive him. To get further in faith, you sometimes have to rest and receive peace.
In the presence of God your life is changed. As we grow closer to God, we realize, with time, that all the things that don't make sense to us in the present, somehow make sense in His hands. Our lives are filled with the time God gives us to receive peace and clarity.
We don't have to have it all together because Jesus comes to us, in our brokenness and in our mess.
You can't trust a foundation that can't be tested. When we are faced with storm and our foundation in the Lord is tested think S.I.N.G. Sit wherever the storm takes you. Invite Jesus and others in. Name the pain. Go, keep moving forward.
When we have a foundation in the Lord, we can weather any storm. We live our lives differently, live with a purpose, use what we've been given to bring others closer to Christ. Home is beyond us but also within us. Home is through Him.
Who are we? There are three "I am" statements: I am who others see me to be, I am who I see me to be and I am who God sees me to be.
When we know who God sees us to be, when we understand that he chose us even before he created the world and that he delights in us, then those other two "I am" lies don't matter. God wants us to encounter him and live in the joy of his life.
What do we believe God to be?
God gave up heaven and humbled himself to walk among us as Jesus. What did we do to him? We betrayed him with a kiss, we denied him three times. What do we do to hurt God in our lives?
Jesus was proclaimed innocent yet he was killed on the cross. We are the guilty ones, yet he died for us. Even though we neglect him and mistreat him, God sacrificed his son, the innocent lamb, to set us free.
Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. He is slow to anger and abounding in love. As Jesus reveals himself to us, it will transform our lives. God wants to use us in other's lives and all we need to do is lean in.
Kristina Sakaria shares her beautiful testimony here from Family Fest's Winter Weekend family retreat.
In Christ we have been given every spiritual blessing - Ephesians 1.
God wants us to mold us and shape us to be more like him, In Christ.
We are his masterpiece, created In Christ - Ephesians 2.
Jesus has a purpose, he came so that we may live. We are saved by grace through faith In Christ.
God is One. We are called to keep the unity that Jesus died to establish. Who are we called to be in his church? What is the result of stepping in to unity with persistence.
We are called to get rid of bitterness, rage, anger and all forms of malice. We are called to be kind, compassionate, forgiving, to be imitators of God.
Spiritual conflict is everywhere. We are given spiritual tools to use to fight the battle against Satan. We are given the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes of peace to stand firm in the Lord.
We are given more tools in the battle for Christ, the Shield of Faith, the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit. We have everything we need and nothing to fear because God has already won.
God invites us to get to know him in an intimate way. One of the greatest ways we can honor him is to share a meal with others and be in communion with others. The table that Jesus sets is one of reconciliation and one of vindication. God want's us to love our enemies and forgive them just as David won over his enemies. He wants God to be vindicated.
What we believe about God doesn’t determine who he is, but what we believe about God determines who we are.
Insecurity is our desire/need for approval from others. Byron shows how Saul's insecurity shows up in three stages as told in 1st Samuel. Without Christ as our identity, we do whatever it takes to get others to approve of us which can lead us to believe in Satan's lies. By getting to know Jesus better every day we can overcome our insecurities and use our gifts to bring God glory.
We wonder what God wants us to do in service but it starts with the question – Who does God want us to be? God wants us to serve others as a way to show love for Jesus and to highlight Christ's love for us.
God wants us to have a great marriage. For a married couple to remain in love for a lifetime we must have a close relationship with Jesus, be selfless and be intentional.
Ephesians 5:21 – Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
If we choose to give God control, we must daily reaffirm our surrender to His Spirit filling us and guiding us. This is the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Commit to daily disciplines of letting Jesus be LORD of our lives.
L=Learn to know God and His Word, O=Obey God in every area, R=Rely on the Holy Spirit's power, D=Discover God's plan for your life every day.
Kyle takes a look at Jacob and Esau and their relationship with God as told in Genesis. God spoke to Jacob and in his dreams. God speaks to us in our dreams. In today's busy and chaotic world, It is sometimes the only time God is able to get our attention.
God will tell us in our dreams who needs to be cared for. Our responsibility for an abundant life is to take care of each other.
The Samaritan helps the man on the side of the road like Jesus serves all of us; with extravagant, outrageous, overflowing generosity. We all the ability to look outside of ourselves to be what someone else needs at that time. We are called to go out of our way to help others.
God is speaking to each of us in Psalm 139. The best relationships are ones of authenticity. Don't be afraid to be authentic with God. He knows everything about you, so give him your everything.
The Holy Spirit brings us together. During the crucifixion, the Holy Spirit is unleashed when Jesus gives us his humanity. The Holy Spirit is the voice you hear assuring you that everything will be okay. We are called to be the light of the world and to spread God's love to others.
How do you picture God? David pictured himself as a sheep and God as a Shepherd. Just as a shepherd watches over his flock, so God watches over us. We have no where to run where we can escape the presence of God.
"He makes me lie down in green pastures"
God wants us to rest, as he did, on the 7th day. We need to step back and note what we've created. Rest is important, especially when we don't want to. We can not receive what God's wants to give if we don't stop, relax and be open to His will.
"He leads me on Paths of Righteousness"
Why does God lead us? He leads us for his namesake. If the shepherd is not strong, the sheep are not safe. We all go through difficult times but we must trust that God is leading us in the right way.
"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil."
Evil is real and powerful but God promises he will walk with us. Shadows are simply representations or reflections of evil. God has hardwired us for a relationship with him and is beside us when we are in the darkness of the valley.
We're made in the image and likeness of God. God speaks to us through his creations, but if the knowledge in our head doesn't get to our hearts, then that knowledge is never going to make any difference in our life. Without good communication, this Holy, creative, miraculous, mysterious collaboration that we have, falls apart. And when it falls apart, we never realize who we are made to be.
Scripture: Psalm 19
How do we become emotionally aware? How do we wake up? God invites us to collaborate with him through our creative spirit. It's there that he speaks to our heart saying, “I have something for you. Listen to me. I'm speaking to your mind. I'm putting a thought in your mind.” God speaks to whomever he wishes whenever he wishes.
Scripture: Luke 12
Spiritual death is not knowing Jesus as your Lord and Savior. God wants us to take him to spiritually dead people. He wants us to roll away the stones so that he can speak the words to their heart and give them spiritual life.
Scripture: John 11
Have you ever observed geese flying in a V formation? The head goose shields the wind and all the rest are carried by him with very little effort on the part of any one bird. Often we strive for self-sufficiency, like an eagle or hawk, but God made us more like the goose. He wants us to follow behind him and share in communion with each other.
The process of finding yourself in the Bible has several steps. First we must enter the story, then we must make the story our own. Next we need to reflect on the good news of the story and, finally, we must give the story a meaningful name to us.
Scripture: Mark 2: 1-12
What if all the events in our life that we thought were meaningless and insignificant and didn't have purpose, God had been a part of it the whole time? God invites us to see the divine in every moment, big or small. God's timeline isn't about changing the trajectory of your life as much as it's changing the condition of your soul.
Scripture: Esther 4: 14
God works to give us wake up calls, to not just change the trajectory of our lives, but to change the condition of our souls. He is working in our life; intersecting in our life. God wants to work through us, he wants to work in us, and he wants to work with us.
Scripture: Esther 14
Looking at the last supper, we see ordinary people experiencing extraordinary things. We are reminded that through Christ all things are reconciled. We trust that God is going to do what only God can do and that through Christ, all will be set right.
Sometimes in life we're supposed to hit the brakes, but often we end up hitting the gas. It's hard to slow down. We know we're supposed to let go, but somehow we're clinging tighter. We're so desperate to run after what God wants us to do, that we miss how God wants us to be. God wants us to be in his proximity, he wants us with him.
Michael Frost says we're not called to take a leap of faith; we are called to a faith of leap, a boldness that stirs our faith. It stirs us to boldness and that boldness builds up our faith. The three types of boldness are courage, clarity and confidence. We step into this faith of leap, trusting that God will do what he says and we will be bold in what he has set out for us.
Better Parents, Stronger Kids
Helping parents and kids lean into the love of God as they grow. Building a strong foundation to raise faith-filled, joyful, and self-reliant kids.
Laying a Solid Foundation:
- Focus on your marriage
- Love unconditionally
- Identify your core values
- Use effective discipline
- Give your kids Time
- Surround your kids with other adults
We are amazing, wonderfully, incredibly created. God didn't make any junk. He didn't mess up. We are not a mistake. If we listen, God’s voice rings true as we search to discover the unifying force that brings us together.
Often, the voices in our world can be overwhelming. Fear is an extremely loud voice in our world today. We often ask, “God, don't you care? Don't you care about what's going on? Don't you care about people that are suffering?” Jesus reminds us not to be afraid. God has the power to calm storms. He is all divine and all human and He has the power to calm our storms.
In our culture today, we drink from many different wells; success, achievement, appearance, but they are not enough to satisfy us. Our hearts get thirsty, our lives get busy when we try to satisfy so many things. The water of our culture tells us to do more, need more. Jesus came to give you abundant life. If you drink the water that he provides, you will never be thirsty again.
Scripture: John 4
Who can be saved? How is it even possible? Jesus says "what's impossible for people to get themselves to God, is possible for believers." As we ponder this condition of impossibility of the perfect law, let us consider what is going on below the surface. We have to look at the condition of ourselves. If we believe we’re good enough or that we've done enough good deeds, we miss the solution God puts forth. Only God is good but through the process of death, hope, and life everlasting, is possible.
Jesus died on the cross so that he might take all of our impossibilities upon himself. In the context of our impossible situation, the brokenness of our sin, Jesus’s mission was to come and pull us through. This is how we experience grace; Christ died for us so that he could forgive us and that we might have life and live eternally with him.
Scripture John 18
Life is tough. Life is challenging, but Jesus walks alongside each of us. He calls us to get out of our boats and to find our true voice, our vocation, the reason we were put on this earth. He picks us up out of the storm and whispers to us, I Love You. You are beloved. You are an image-bearer of God.
The spirit of God is in you and that changes everything. We are the food that Jesus can take and turn into a miracle to feed the many. We don't have to stay on the bench for lack of credentials.
Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 3:16, John 8, Matthew 8, Mark 6, Colossians 1: 9-14
Jesus is the door to eternal life. He is the only one that can take us from darkness to light, from death into life. Jesus fixes his eyes on us, calls us by name and into a life of faith. If you want to have life, you need to go through him. Jesus changes everything.
Scriptures:
1 Corinthians 3:16, Colossians 1: 15, John 1:1, John 10:9, Matthew 14, Hebrews 12
We were created to live, but a sin ruined everything. God could have saved the world any way he wanted and he chose pain and suffering. To really understand the cross, we have to understand sin. Jesus Christ is the mediator that allows us to come together with God.When God looks down at us, he chooses not to see the sin. He chooses to see the blood of Jesus on doorpost of your heart.
Scriptures: John 3:16, Proverbs 3, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Romans 5, Exodus 12, John 1:29, 1 Timothy 2:5
Jesus will take you just the way you are. He will take the most grotesque, terrible, ugly, ridiculous things and he will turn them into something beautiful and sweet and useful and eternal. What was it that made you realize, Jesus is God and I'm going to believe in him and I'm going to follow him all the days of my life. If you feel the love of God in your heart, then let it show on your face.
Scripture: Colossians 1: 15-20, John 2
Every day you have the opportunity to humble yourself before the Lord or distinguish yourself among men. Too often we spend more energy trying to distinguish ourselves before men instead of humbling ourselves before Jesus. If you want to be mature in Christ, then become and stay childlike, with unabashed love for Christ.
Scriptures: 2 Samuel 6, Luke 7, 1 John 5:12
We can find God when we seek and search for him with our whole heart. God is reflected in all of us. Due to technical difficulties, the first half of Kent's talk was not recorded properly.
Jesus' first message was so radical that the people in power wanted to throw him off a cliff. In spite of this, Jesus took his message to the street. He didn't just give speeches, he lived out what he preached. We as followers are often hiding from God when we pretend that we've got it all figured and, yet, we're seeking, wondering if there's something more.
With the rise of digital products in our lives and especially the lives of our children, how can we help each other to overcome the negative effects of social media? Physical space matters-God gave us bodies for a reason. We must strive to prioritize physical community built on God's love for us.
Scripture: John 1: 14
The Bible is not just a book about how God rules. It is also a book about how people lived. Jesus broke the racial traditions of the Old Testament. He brought the Good News to those that were considered unworthy.
Scriptures:
Deuteronomy 7 Matthew 15: 21-28 Matthew 16: 20 Exodus 21
The Christian life is not meant to be lived in a comfortable way. We are meant to be uncomfortable, to step into the lives of the messy and broken. When God wraps his arms around us, we can change the world.
Scripture: Mark 6: 45
We understand that God desires for goodness in the world. We want to relate both to ourselves and to God so that the good things that God desires become more manifest in the world. We can do this with two basic activities that form the foundation of a spiritual life and community: silence and listening. Prayer is the act of listening and paying attention to God.
Scripture: Matthew 5:43-47
As humans, we sort information into three categories, information we like, information we don’t like and information we ignore. We create bubbles that form our reality and we hold on to our bubbles at all costs. The basic goal of a spiritual life is to get out of the bubble. God has designed us in such a way that if we engage in spiritual practices, the bubble begins to break down. We can have an experience of God, when existential fear begins to go away and we open ourselves to take a stance in the real world. We become more human; this image of the divine that God has placed in us starts to come out.
We're a prisoner of what our tribal bubble world tells us to do and when we attempt to step out of that, we feel dissonance and fear. As we connect more deeply with God, we have a greater sense of confidence to do the things that are life-giving, even if it runs counter to what most of the rest of the world is doing. That presence of God in our lives, that life-giving spirit, is always there supporting us.
We all experience basic alienation; separation from ourselves, separation from each other and, ultimately, separation from the divine. God has this incredible compassion and love for us that God is trying to fix that alienation. The essence of spiritual community is to engage in practices that allow our bubbles to disappear. Entering deeply into a life of prayer is entering into a darkness where we experience nothing and we know nothing so that we may find love and knowledge that is beyond all of what we know and what we experience.
Ignatius of Loyola gives us the Examination of Spirits, a reflection of our day using two very simple questions: “Where did I notice Fruits of God's Spirit” and “Where did I notice Fruits of spirits that were not of God?” Each one of us experiences life-givingness and death-dealingness in our own unique way by how God has formed us. By looking backwards, we can begin to understand how God is working in our life and that will help us make decisions going forwards.
When we allow ourselves to let go of our sense of outcomes and expectations, we are able to engage deeply in a life of faith. This allows us to venture out into the world, away from our bubbles, in a courageous way. As we engage others in a loving way we begin to take the words of Jesus seriously: to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us so that we may become children of God.
Family Fest Winter Weekend - February 2018. Saturday Morning presentation - Allen Arnold- Invitation to the Journey. Passing out of Adventure Journals. Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." Allen Arnold invites you to discover what is makes your life mythic and epic. He delves into what's missing from your lives, why it matters and how to learn who you truly are.
Family Fest Winter Weekend - February 2018. Saturday Evening presentation - Allen Arnold-Orphan Realm, Freedom Realm. Allen Arnold introduces two realms of where we exsist and how we view our lives, the Orphan Realm and the Freedom Realm. In the Orphan Realm you feel overwhelmed, isolated, weary, always striving for validation. In the Freedom Realm, you let go of the illusion of control, you walk through life with God and without guarantees.
Family Fest Winter Weekend - February 2018. Sunday Morning presentation - Allen Arnold-Desires of our Heart. God is inviting us into more, into an adventure with him. What does it look like to step activiely and intimately into each day with God? When you discover your truest identity, people and projects lose thier power to limit and define you.
Family Fest Winter Weekend - February 2018. Sunday Evening presentation - Allen Arnold-Journey of Life with God. God invites us into a wildly unbalanced life. Live for what matters most-what are your two or three things? He will break through into your world in countless and creative ways. When you live a life with God, you don't have to worry about if you're doing the will of God. There's no mystery, no formula, knowing God always trumps knowing about God.
Family Fest Winter Weekend - February 2018. Monday Morning presentation - Allen Arnold-Living with God and With Others. Allen's final talk of the weekend suggests ways to shift your life to be with God and with others. What's it like to live a life of sonship and daughtherhood intimately, actively with God? When you do so, you will experience the most amazomg season of your life.
Family Fest Winter Weekend - January 2018. Saturday Morning presentation. Opening talk for the weekend. Summary: God is coming to do a new thing in our lives. He desires to restore us and to bring us to his full glory. We need to let go of the old things and embrace the new. What might be God attempting to show you in this season of life? What part of your life could use examination and renovation? What bold, audacious, dream, vision, passion, or holy desire is in your heart.
Scripture: Isaiah 43, Jeremiah 13:8-11, 3 John 2,
Winter Weekend Talk #2. God's "I Am" is greater than my "What If's". God calls us to rest. We often feel that rest is self-indulgent. God is calling us to lay down our objections, our worries. He is calling us to a place of rest for our souls, our minds, our wills, and our emotions. What are the sources of your unrest? What does life look like when you are rested?
Scripture: Psalm 23 - The Lord is my Shepherd, John 10:11-15, Galatians 5:22,
Talk following Marc Seymour's testimony on Sunday morning worship. The Lord is My Light and My Salvation. If you ever have asked God why it doesn't make you a bad Christian, if you've ever struggled and asked God, "What's the point of my suffering?" It doesn't make you a bad Christian. God is big enough to deal with our grief. He's big enough to deal with the uncertain questions. He's big enough to deal with our sin.
Scripture: Psalm 27
Laurel Bunker Talk #4 at the Night at the Ball Dinner. Sunday Evening.
Do you remember your great turning day? Do you remember the day when you recognized the blessing of freedom for which Christ died, the sweetness of relief that was yours for the asking? Rejoice as you ponder the reality that if anyone be in Christ, they are a new creation. This new life in Christ comes with a desire to explore a life away from past regrets and to be completely immersed in a life where the eyes of Jesus are constantly on us and our eyes are constantly on him.
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5: 14-17
Laurel Bunker Talk #5 on Martin Luther King Day. Monday Morning.
How do we continue to gain momentum against the forces of darkness? Satan is invading our intimate spaces and the promises of God. The power of the Holy Spirit declares us to stand up and suit up with the full armor of God. You only get the Holy Spirit if you first grab Jesus, but when you grab Jesus, you get the Holy Spirit. You get Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. You are not alone. Together, we stand. We pray. We bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We remember the cloud of witnesses who stand as a great gallery of believers, those who have gone before us, who are cheering us on to the very end. This is a war that despite casualties, we are destined to win.
Scripture - John 14
Marc Seymour's testimony at Family Fest Winter Weekend - January 2018 at Grand View Lodge
We are here because people in our lives sowed the seeds of faith, hope and love into us. They nurtured, supported and tended us so that we can become the people that we are today. Reflect on three questions: Who is somebody that you want to honor, What does solitude look like for you and How does your soul need to be refreshed?
To be open to the Word, is to have our lives transformed. The Word demands discipline, obedience, and contemplation of us. Jesus is the most powerful Word that God ever spoke. Obedience is much more difficult than sacrifice. It's hard to learn, to listen, to be silent, to acquiesce in terms of our own will so that we can listen to God’s.
Samuel 3:1-9
When we feel embedded in a community, we feel protected, respected, and connected which in turn generates enormous trust. Healthy communities create the context for us to relax our hearts and minds and we are open to hear and engage with each other.
The way we talked to and with each other shapes our lives, our families, our school, our church, and our nation. Those who want to live meaningfully must enrich the lives of others, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. The quality of our response to joy depends on the quality of our thoughts and love that we share and spread. The welfare of each of us is bound up in the welfare of all of us.
We have been called into partnership with God to bring joy and love, peace and goodness into God's world. God speaks in the midst of the storms; at unexpected times when we're not prepared. After Jesus was transfigured, the disciples could not stay in the upper room. We too must go back onto the streets and bring the power of the love of Jesus Christ to others.
Community takes a long time to form, for barriers to drop and for mutual confidence to grow. Community forms when we conscientiously seek the fulfillment and the happiness of every other member. Small acts of sharing life, small acts of nurturing joy, are small acts of meeting Jesus.
Pete Larson - Family Fest Ministries. Laugh Often, Love More Keynote is an approximately one-hour presentation geared for MOPS groups, Church marriage enrichment, Cana Dinners, or other groups looking for a fun and informative presentation on Christian marriage.
God invites us into something that's greater than all of us. He wants us to receive him and he helps us sense his presence in one another. However, without a reliable navigation system we might wander into harm's way.
Scripture: John 4
There are times that we need to be carried and there are times that we're supposed to carry others and both of them require trust in God. To truly trust, we need to believe that the people closest to us will jump in the deep end for us. That they are willing to find us even though we're lost in the bottom.
Scripture: Mark 2
When you hide hurt, you become full of hurts and hurtful. When you hide fear, you fill up on fear and become fearful. And when you hide shame, you become full of shame and shameful. Be careful what you hide. The Lord tells us the denying, the ignoring, the fixing, the hiding will never serve us well. The repentance and confession is the way.
In confession, darkness gets released and no longer has power over us. We're safe when we're in the Lord’s light, not in the darkness. The Lord draws us in with a voice of love and compels us to be with him.
We're trained to be hunters and hold on to our resource and gifts. Yet as we hold tight, we become a black hole that collapses. God intended for us to receive his gifts and then give them away. When we're given the cup that we've thirsted for, we must share it with each other.
This podcast is Mandy Peterson's faith testimony from Family Fest Winter Weekend Family retreat at Grand View Lodge in February, 2017
God wants us to have life, not an ordinary life, but an abundant life. God has privileged us to know that truth, the abundance of his love, the abundance of his life, the abundance of his mercy, the abundance of his joy. To believe that God loves you abundantly is an act of faith.
Scriptures: Romans 8 and John 10:10
Prayer is essential. Prayer is the desire to learn the language of God and heaven. It is communication between God and us as friends. The language in heaven is the love and mercy of God. We need to preserve with prayer in order to reach a deep intimacy with God.
Scriptures: John 15, 1 Kings 19
In our humility we seek God. God always sees us, for He sees everything. To be looked at by God is a beautiful thing. When God looks at you, when He delights in you, He smiles and He forgives.
Without gratitude we will not grow in our faith, we will not grow in our spiritual life, and we can’t grow closer to God. Gratitude is the pathway that allows us to have humility and a pathway that allows us to acknowledge God and in turn trust Him.
It costs so much to be a full person in Christ that very few will have the enlightenment or the courage to pay the price. We must abandon the search for security and reach out to embrace the world like a lover, yet demand no easy return of love. When a person is centered on himself, the smallest risk is too great because both success and failure can destroy. When a person is centered upon God, then no risk is too great because success is already guaranteed.
This podcast is Hilary Lunke's faith testimony from Family Fest Winter Weekend Family retreat at Grand View Lodge in January, 2017
Patrick Dominquez - SS 16 Talk #1 - Our Goal is Love, The Problem is Life
God intends us to be wholeheartedly connected to our spouses but relationships often follow a pattern of Wow, Oh, and Here We Go. The book of Genesis starts off with God's Wows, all creation, but moves into the Oh when Adam and Eve disobey God's command. Our journey is filled with Wows, Ohs and Here We Go's but faith is our salvation.
Patrick Dominquez-SS16 Talk #2- When our goal is love, it's not okay to stop trying when faced with pain.
The story of Cain and Abel illustrates the pain that can be present in relationships. Cain kills Abel out of jealousy and is driven away from his family and cursed by God. Sin is always crouching at our door, but we have a choice. When we do what is right, we will be accepted.
The Bible heroes are incredibly flawed yet the Bible has something to say to us in an attempt to understand our purpose. Despite all our flaws, we can have hope that God draws straight lines with crooked sticks and will break through to lead us to be the kind of people we yearn to be.
Jesus Christ stared death in the face. He died for you and for me. He conquered death. Everyone who has hope in Jesus purifies himself just as Jesus is pure. Life is challenging and can make you retreat and fearful. But love is the goal.
The Lord leads us into our purpose and he knows that when we step fully into our purpose as sons and daughters of God, we will face the adversary. The devil wants to tempt us to turn God's promises into proofs and to impose our finite interpretations on his infinite ways. He wants to split us from God and from others and from our conscience. We can ask Jesus to show us how to take up the armor of God, how to sing the praises of God, and never be derailed.
The moment we believe we are beloved children of God our paths shine brighter. He has claimed you and his intent is for your light to continue to shine brighter, if you do not shrink back. When you turned your life over to the Lord, he said, “I've got this. I will carry it on to completion in you until the day of Christ Jesus.”
The invitation that Jesus gives throughout the gospels is both a spoken invitation and an unspoken invitation. Many who listened to the invitation experienced its power and saw he truly was who he said he was. If we haven't said yes to His invitation, there's something missing in our lives. We’re all invited into this loving relationship, but we need to say Yes.
Scriptures: Matthew 4: 18-28, John 11
Our fears become obstacles and barriers to trusting God. Essentially we're saying to God “My fears are greater than your abilities.” God says “fear not” because fear can sink us faster than anything. Fear can keep us away from trusting Him. Once you're empowered to trust God, you begin to do things that are beyond your fears.
Scriptures: Matthew 14: 22-23, Isaiah 43
Jesus came to give up his godliness and to serve. Being a servant is a difficult call on anyone's life, but we know it's a call to lower ourselves to see the needs of others. It is in serving others that we see the grace of God and that we receive the grace of God.
Encouragement is powerful and has amazing impacts on people. It’s a tangible way to love others and change lives. It's looking at others in our connected world and telling them we appreciate them. But it's not just about what others do for us, it’s the tool that battles the shame and untrue messages about ourselves.
The family is a privileged place where God designed himself to be revealed to our children and to us. In the midst of the tension families create; God is fully present. Gratitude is the first step from going where you are to wherever it is to being fully alive.
Our lives and the world that we live in are broken. Experiencing brokenness is part of being human. The story of the Prodigal Son unveils this sin that's at the heart of the story for both of the brothers. Does our own brokenness relate to the younger son, the older son or by some strange confluence of the two? In what ways do we try to deal with our brokenness and make sense out of all of it?
Jesus says, I see you and I choose you. I know you. I know the depth of your heart. I know your failures. I know your shortcomings. I know it, I see through it and I see so much more in it. I choose you.
Jesus is calling us out but often we are too afraid to fully follow Him. We are comfortable in our little world. We are called and sent out by Jesus to be his ambassadors, to be a part of the body of Christ. He wants us to go out in the world and the world desperately needs us.
We see things with extraordinary clarity when we're in a high place. We feel extraordinarily alive when we're in that high place and life feels abundant. As disciples of Jesus Christ we head his call and listen to his voice.
When we listen to the Holy Spirit, great things happen. The Holy Spirit is the part of God that we feel. The Holy Spirit is accessible to all of us, at all times. We have to be careful not to put up roadblocks but to make way for the voice to lead us.
Scripture: Genesis 1:1-2
The Holy Spirit isn’t always a silent, gentle whisper; sometimes God uses the Holy Spirit to shout loudly. God works in mysterious ways. He sometimes wants us to be quiet and other times to tell everyone. He puts us in positions where we need to be. Listen to what the Holy Spirit is teaching us as a community.
Scripture: Acts 2
God cares deeply about us and he will be present when we make decisions. God uses our every decision to reach us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. We all have suffering but that doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit is silent. When we are weak or suffering, God uses the Holy Spirit to bring us peace.
Scripture: Romans 8: 18, 26, 38-39
We are stronger when we are many. It’s easy to feel Jesus when surrounded by others that love and worship God. Doubt means we are having trouble hearing the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit does not cause you doubt. Doubt has the power to bring us closer to God. When we are honest with God and talk to him about our questions, we’re actually engaging and drawing closer to God.
The Spirit has always been with us. Jesus knew how to spread God’s message. Jesus knew who to use so that Christianity could grow. God guides our hearts so that we can find others and create fellowship. As faithful followers we support each other and create God’s community.
Scripture: Acts 2
At times in our lives, we take on the role of the older brother and at other times, the younger brother in the Prodigal Son parable. When someone is lost we must run to find them and bring them back. We need to invite others in to God’s love. Who in your life does the Holy Spirit whisper to you that needs to know more about God?
Our busy lifestyle is causing us stress yet our culture refuses to slow down. God doesn’t want us to live our lives this way. One of his commandments is to rest one day each week. He wants to dedicate that day to him so that he can refuel us. When we consciously and deliberately disengage from other responsibilities, we function better spiritually.
Scripture: Psalm 46: 10
Our desert experiences look different for each of us. It could a person, a difficult situation, a challenging time of life. The desert is the place where God gets our attention. It is in the desert where we are willing to listen. When we’re stuck in the desert and have no options, we call out to God. It is in the crying out that we learn to trust him.
Scripture: Psalm 13
God calls us to do great and small things but, often, we are reluctant. We don't believe we are the right person or capable of doing what he asks of us. Even Moses argued that he couldn't do what God asked of him. As with Moses, God will work through us and send us helpers along the way but we have to take the first step. We have to say yes.
We have one grand divine purpose in life and that is to reflect the glory of God upon the world. We're stronger together than we can ever be on our own as a member of the church. Prayer is opening an avenue so God has a possibility of reaching us.
Scripture: Psalm 139
In our lives, God provides messengers and God provides us as messengers to others. As servants of Jesus Christ, we are meant to provide powerful assistance to those who come to us, who fall down beside us.
Scripture: Hebrews 13: 1, Genesis 2
The goal of parenting is for your children to grow larger than you. Parenting is a willingness to have your heart torn apart so that God might plant his love. When God opens doorways for you, you must walk through, regardless of your fear. Your growth and your strength are gifts that God needs of you.
God loves you as you are. Nothing you do could cause God to love you anymore. We have to proclaim this over and over because we only hear it when we are ready to hear it. We don't have to get it all right. We don't have to be perfect. God loves us anyway.
We’ve been entrusted with the gospel and our job, as adults, is to pass that on to the next generation. We need to love our children, to value our children and to help them know that they are not alone. God wants us to do this together as parents, as grandparents, as friends, and as members of the church.
Scriptures: 1 Thessalonians 2:6-8, 1 John 4:9,19
When we are done with the child that God has given you, what are you hoping is built into their life? Tiger gives us 7 factors to use as parents to raise our children in the church and to turn hope into strategy.
Scripture: Deuteronomy 11, John 10: 10
God created two institutions, one is the church and the other is the family. They're designed to work together to build the faith. God desires families to have five functions: to shelter, to love, to teach, to develop and to send out.
Our society tells us the path to happiness lies in the 4 Ps: personal looks, performance, popularity, and possessions. We need to know we are loved, valuable and not alone and the 4 Ps get us close to that yet because they are external, do not lead to happiness. Instead, we should base our value on what God tells us, that we've been fearfully and wonderfully made from the beginning. When we connect to the one who created us, then we have a possibility true happiness.
Scriptures: John 10: 10, Psalm 139
We all face storms, especially as parents. It’s okay to be perplexed and confused. God give us “Garden Friends” to let us know that we are not alone. We are being challenged not to waiver from the hope that is in us. Don't be dismayed for the Lord your God goes with you wherever you go.
Scripture: Matthew 7:24-27, John 16:33, Acts 2:12