It’s Christmas. It really is the most special time of year. The reason it’s so special is because God entered earth as a baby. And when that happened, it sent shock waves through history. Today, the birth of Jesus is still radically impacting our culture today. How? Think about most of the Christmas movies produced. The themes around Christmas are, ‘believe’, ‘hope’, and ‘love’. Even if you don’t believe in God, in general, people are impacted by some . . . Read More »
In The Opposite Direction
Today’s video with Dave Robbins hits home, doesn’t it? Maybe not to that extent, but we’ve all felt temptation before, and we’ve all given into it at some point too. It doesn’t matter if you’re here today and you don’t believe in Jesus yet, you know what temptation feels like. And you also know that you’ve had consequences for giving in. Right? Whatever you believe, temptation and its consequences is something we can all relate to. Several years . . . Read More »
Feeling Alone, Separated from God and Others, Defeated
Watch James Caldemeyer I am second Video. Did you hear him say, “How did I get here?” Have you ever asked yourself that? You feel like life has been so out of control, there is no coming back. It’s like you crossed a line that eliminates you from ever going back to a normal life. Maybe you didn’t cross that line, but maybe you have done something, and you think, ‘I blew it, God will never accept me.’ . . . Read More »
We All Have Something In Common
So last week, Ken opened up our big fall series, called I am Second, and I think just one week in you can probably see why this series has us so excited. It’s because it is all about life change, which when it comes to this whole “Christian-faith-thing,” this is really what it is all about. Now as you listen to these people tell their stories of life change you will recognize a lot of them. They are famous rock stars, . . . Read More »
Courage From Understanding
I have to tell you that coming in here last week was a little more challenging for me than normal. Late last week my Grandma Hepner had passed away. I have had a really close relationship with both my Pap and my Gram Hepner all of my life, and have found so much personal health and healing in their home. I was blessed with a lot of time with them, and while her death wasn’t unexpected, it was still sad, and . . . Read More »
Do You Remember?
So today we are going to jump ahead a little in our study of 1 Corinthians and at Chapter 9. It’s a Better Together Sunday which means the children stay in the service with us today. So here’s the deal, next week you will probably understand why we skipped ahead a bit as Ken drops back into Chapter 5, BUT there is a major benefit to this and it is absolutely intentional that Chapter 9 is placed on . . . Read More »
What If There Is More?
You know here at MRC we work really hard to introduce you to the magnitude of The Cross. We want to introduce you to the amazing gift that our Heavenly Father gave us through Jesus. This is our primary objective, to help people push through the complexities of religion, and the pain and hurts and confusion of mistakes and sin and to help people see just how simple, how loving, and how pure a relationship with Jesus can . . . Read More »
Working Hard For What You Already Have
I would like to start my time with you by sharing with you my definition of the Spirit of Religion. Religion will always try to minimize Jesus and everything He did for us on The Cross. This is what Ken was really showing us today, religion minimizes Jesus and all that He did for us on the Cross. Anytime you and I try to do what Jesus already did for us we will have a real mess on . . . Read More »
Yo-Yos, Brain Freeze and Contracts
Starting a new series today. We are talking about choices that forever define our story. I think back to one of the biggest choices that forever changed my life. I got married and had kids. Clearly one of the best decisions I ever made. I joke about it being one of the best decisions I ever made, most of the time. When I was single, I owned one pillow. Now, in my married life, I own several. I . . . Read More »
Three Games We Play and What It’s Really All About
So today we are coming to the end of our big prayer series called Risk. I think it has been a lot of fun. We have been really doing our best to place the tools in your hands to really grow closer and closer to God. We have spent a lot of time in this series trying to remove any and all barriers that keep that from happening. We have given you books to read, we have written . . . Read More »