Day 31: Authentic Community Wednesday As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ~1 Peter 2:4-5 As every brick or stone contributes to the integrity of a home, so every living stone serves to support the sacred structure of the church. Pride will cause a stone to stand alone as a monument unto itself. But God’s...
Text: Job 1:8-22 | Listen to Message When we undergo trials, hardships, or painful periods of waiting, we instinctively ask God “why?” “Why did this happen? Why is this taking so long? Why me?” Why, why, WHY?! It’s a question, but it’s also a demand for information. For an explanation. We want to know the reason for our suffering – something, anything, that’ll convince us our suffering isn’t pointless. Some of the most famous suffering in human history happened to a man named Job. The Bible takes 42 excruciating chapters to tell his story. It all begins when he loses his...
Day 30: Rule of Scripture Tuesday And Jesus said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!” ~Mark 7:9 Every generation faces the danger of supplementing Scripture with religious traditions and personal opinions that contradict God’s Word. We may even give more weight to our ideas than to God’s. And in doing so, we claim greater wisdom and authority than God Himself. The simple (but very challenging) solution is to examine our traditions and opinions regularly and to submit our lives to the rule of Scripture over...
After more than a decade of dreaming, praying, and planning, and after millions of dollars have been invested in breathing new life into an iconic 100-year-old building, yesterday – April 19th, 2020 – was the big day: Grace City Church’s Grand Opening in the heart of downtown Denver! We’ve actually been meeting in our new location at Asterisk since late January, holding what church planters these days call “preview services” (which, I think, are just like regular services except that you readily acknowledge you’re still learning and working stuff out). It’s been a dream come true to faithfully proclaim the...
Day 29: Gospel-centeredness Monday For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. ~Romans 8:3 Your salvation through faith in the Gospel is an overwhelming display of God’s power. Through the Gospel, Jesus acquits you of sin’s condemnation. Through the Gospel, Jesus liberates you from sin’s control. Through the Gospel, Jesus secures for you a future in God’s...
Day 28: Worship Sunday Theme of Praise: God has accepted us by free grace; therefore, we reject legalistic performance and condemnation in favor of a culture of repentance, faith, and grateful submission. God saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ~Titus 3:5; Ephesians 2:8-9 Read over these verses a few times....
Go after Who, not Why – Worship + Formation Resources
Day 27: Love for the City Saturday The Samaritan woman said to Jesus, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ~John 4:9-10 Jesus was a master at turning ordinary conversations into spiritual conversations and pointing people to their deepest need of salvation in...
Day 26: Engagement Friday Jesus found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” ~John 1:43, 45-46 When Philip encountered the life-changing person of Jesus, he instinctively ran off to invite others to come and meet Him. Even though his brother scoffed at him and brushed him off, he persisted:...
Day 25: Continuing Transformation Thursday Not that I have already obtained this [resurrection] or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ~Philippians 3:12-14 If you really understood the treasure that you have in Jesus Christ, you would gladly give up everything in order to follow him. Every other prize, every other...
