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God Said Turn Right

Rob Hoskins
2 Feb 2021
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right

I always drive the same route to work. One day while sitting at a red light a few blocks away from the office on a double-booked kind of day, I distinctly heard the Holy Spirit tell me to, “Take a right.” Not one to argue with the Lord, I clicked on my blinker and made the right turn. My curious eyes drank in the new sights on a road I’ve never driven before. My unexpected right turn landed me in an urban community, called Avondale, made up of nine hundred residences that house over 3,000 people – mostly Hispanic and African […]

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Great Ways To Teach Civility and Kindness in 2021

Dr. Bob Barnes and Torrey Roberts
12 Jan 2021
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Well parents, we officially made it to the end of 2020! It was quite the journey for us all. There were definitely ups and downs, but if we choose to see the positives, we all probably learned many things. Even better, we had the chance to instill in our kids some very powerful life lessons. Our kids learned how to cope with major change. They learned how to manage disappointment. They hopefully learned how to process through emotions like fear and anxiety. This time period forced many of us to streamline our schedules and get a lot more organized as […]

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kindness

Time To Dance In The Garden

Stephan Tchividjian
6 Jan 2021
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Dance in the Garden

2020 started with a worship service in downtown Miami led by Kanye West and the Sunday Service Choir and ended with me listening to the same choir singing “Emmanuel,” God with us and “That’s How the Good Lord Works.” A nice bookend to a very strange year. I know that many of us will look at 2020 and simply say, “Good riddance,” a nice way of saying goodbye and I hope we never meet again. However, I believe, though painful, many will look back and see God’s presence and handiwork. I am not sure what we all learned (or are […]

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The Glorious Serendipity of the Gospel’s Comic Turn

Dr. Warren Gage
4 Jan 2021
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Read the Passage: Genesis 3:20 Serendipity is a splendid word that captures the essence of the gospel’s movement from suffering to glory (Luke 24:26). Its formal definition is “an unexpected yet pleasant outcome.” It is the familiar “blessing in disguise.” The effect of this unexpected redemption upon our guilty souls is one of deep and profound irony. It astounds us. It amazes us with wonder. When we expect “poetic justice” to be charged against us, we are shocked instead to discover God’s plan for us is “poetic mercy.” The mercy of grace is serendipitous! In the biblical world, where resurrection […]

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Serendipity

Reading Versus Engaging

Rob Hoskins
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reading versus engaging

You are reading this. But are you engaging with it? What’s the difference, and why does it matter? In the context of spiritual formation, the question takes more significant shape: “Is it enough to simply read God’s Word, or must one actually engage with it to grow in their faith or be transformed by it? Now you start to see where this becomes important! This seemingly minor distinction has tremendous repercussions in the life of any believer, as well as in the areas of evangelism and discipleship.   The Science Neuroscience tells us that the more ways something is learned, […]

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Church United Launches Historic New Evangelistic Effort in 2021

Edwin Copeland
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2020 sent our friends, neighbors and co-workers searching Google and YouTube looking for answers to some of life’s biggest questions. Alongside hundreds of other local churches from across Palm Beach, Broward and Dade Counties, we believe that now is the time to collaborate together and unify around one of the greatest evangelistic moments of our time. It’s been said that great movements of God are fueled when gospel patrons and gospel proclaimers collaboratively work together to further the Kingdom of God in a region. South Florida has a long history of catalytic movements in the life of the Church – […]

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Churches Care

Jesus, the Light of the World

Dr. Warren Gage
17 Dec 2020
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light of the world

(Scroll down to leave a comment on how Jesus is the Light of the World to you) A charming technique of master portrait artists is chiaroscuro, the practice of contrasting light and darkness. Gerard van Horthurst’s The Adoration of the Shepherds (1622) offers a beautiful example of this technique. In the painting, the Christ child in the manger is the sole source of light. His little body, like a frail candle in the darkness, scatters the shadows from all who adore him. Like master portrait artists, the Gospel writers frequently appeal to the idea that Christ is the light in […]

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What Does the Bible Say About Santa Claus?

Jim Denison
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Christmas Is a Holiday . . . and a Holy Day   With the Christmas season upon us, Jim Denison, co-founder of Denison Forum, pastor, author and digital-ministry leader, offers surprising insight on Christmas traditions and Santa Claus. “What does the Bible say about the jolly old man we see every Christmas in malls and advertisements? The short answer, of course, is nothing,” Denison said. “But there’s more to the story about Santa, just as there is more to the many other traditions associated with Christmas.” “There is also a contentious debate over the secularization of Christmas, and as a […]

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Santa Claus

Back to the Present

Lisa May
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back

Back in Time Family, the stuff we’re made of. Where do we come from? Where do you feel most at home? “The Hillbilly Elegy” is the top 10 movie on Netflix.  It’s a story of a Yale law student that receives an urgent phone call that pulls him back to his Ohio hometown, where he reflects on three generations of family history and his future. The movie opens with a cast of characters such as Glenn Close, Amy McAdams, and the first words are “it’s the year of our Lord.” We all have a story.   The family system Dr. […]

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Fire and Fur Coats

Stephan Tchividjian
8 Dec 2020
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There is an old Jewish term, tzaddik im peltz, meaning, “a righteous man in a fur coat.” There are two ways of keeping warm on a cold night. You can wear a fur coat or light a fire. Wear a fur coat and you warm only yourself. Light a fire and you warm others. The year 2020 has been one of the most unusual years of my life (and I could be so bold and suggest the same is true of you). The year has been polarizing. We have all experienced loss and gain, peace and fear, loneliness and community […]

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