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Jesus [God-With-Us], Hope Of The World

Jesus was both the son of a human mother and the son of a divine Father; the human and the divine embodied within the one individual. He was born specifically and uniquely, after centuries of human failure, that, in him, the Creator might redeem His creation.
He was God-With-Us – the ‘one and only of his kind’; a man, but not merely a man and in him, ‘the entire fullness (completeness) of God’s nature dwells bodily’ (Colossians 2:9).
To know God is to know Jesus, whom He sent (John 17:3) and, therefore, the true starting point of our theology as Christians is looking to Jesus and, fundamentally, to God, in Jesus, crucified.
It is in this that we see the extent to which God was prepared to go in order to rescue and redeem us and why Jesus, and Jesus alone, truly human and truly divine, was the hope of the world.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/jesus-the-hope-of-the-world/

The Kingdom - Now, But Not Yet

When Jesus arrived on the scene, he began preaching, saying “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Jesus demonstrated the power and reality of the kingdom of heaven, through the miraculous – evidence that he was Lord of all. He qualified what the kingdom of heaven looked like; a kingdom defined by mercy and love, failure and forgiveness, exile and homecoming. He stated plainly the way to this kingdom; by believing in him and being born again of water and of spirit.
And he taught that the kingdom was not in some far-off place, out of sight, but here, right now, in their midst. Now, but not yet... 
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/the-kingdom-now-but-not-yet/

Fidelity In Friendship

Centered and rooted in the goodness of God, fidelity is a crucial element to friendships built in a culture of goodness.
Friendships built on either utility or pleasure aren’t innately wrong in and of themselves. But they are both transient and short-lived, simply because one’s needs and pleasures are apt to change over time.
Yet, as humans, and particularly as Christians, we’re encouraged to go deeper in our friendships. Our relationships are intended to be built on something far more permanent and meaningful than simply passing transactions of utility or pleasure.
The Bible offers life-changing wisdom on how we’re to approach friendships and what a friendship of fidelity, built in a culture of goodness, looks like.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/fidelity-friendship/

Walking With God

Walking with God is sometimes equated to simply ‘living a moral life’, but I believe this misses the point. Walking with God is about a life spent alongside God and, as a result of that choice, producing the kind of faith that is real and pleasing to God.
It isn’t an intellectual exercise – knowing things about God – but a choice of the heart, intimately knowing God. It’s about relationship.
“He has told you, O human, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” | Micah 6:8 NAS 1977
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/walking-with-god/

[The Church Series] Church Burnout

The last few years have been an unsettling and disruptive time for millions of people around the globe. The impact of COVID-19 on our ordinary routines and daily habits has been, in many cases, bewildering.
It has also brought to light just how busy and frantic normal actually was and, for many Christians, the welcome relief at the inability to ‘go to church’ has uncovered a hidden reality; one we perhaps don't talk enough about: the reality of church burnout.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/avoiding-church-burnout/
 

[The Church Series] The Church | A Woman Of Valour

The New Testament writers, particularly the Apostle Paul, encouraged believers to think of the church as a woman, a mighty woman of valour, whose very life and existence were framed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Echoing the story of creation, it is through this man’s death and sacrifice, she is created and at his resurrection, she becomes a living creature.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/the-church-a-woman-of-valour/

Toxic Faith

Paul the Apostle takes the issue the church at Galatia is dealing with very seriously. When a life of grace and rest is replaced with a life of imposed works, spirituality has morphed into a faith that's become toxic.
Toxic faith is a destructive and dangerous relationship with a religious system, not with God, that allows this system to control a person’s life in the name of God. It is a system where another gospel is preached – not one of freedom and liberty and acceptance through grace, but one, in reality, of enslavement to rituals and rules.
https://www.carrielloydshaw.com/toxic-faith/