Tapestry of Hope

Happy Easter 2011!

It's plausible, but is it right?

Casey Hobbs asks if love is an emotion, what emotions are good for, and how we can understand what the Bible means when it says that God is love.

Colossians 1:21-22.

Tonight we see Jesus take on The New Age Movement. Nothing really symbolizes this current stream of gnosticism - the same false teaching that Paul was taking on in his letter to the Colossians - like things like The Secret, Eckhart Tolle and Oprah. The problem is that you can not fix yourself. You can not meet your needs. You can not even surrender if he doesn’t allow you. This is all diametrically opposed to Scripture, the written word of God. So let’s take a look...

So what do you need besides Jesus? For peace, well being and happiness in this world, what do we need? What do YOU need? According to this gentleman, Abraham Maslow, you need many things to survive in this world. He ranked these needs in a chart - anyone who took a basic psych class knows this chart - it is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. But Paul counters all of this in Colossians 1. He used the gnostics' favorite word - fullness and modified it with the word all. It’s like “I’ll see your fullness and raise you ALL fullness.”

Colossians 1 prayer

Wouldn’t that be great? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if life as a Christian were that easy? Read it, do it. Good. But there’s a problem with all of this, right? It’s us. It doesn’t matter how much sense it makes. It doesn’t matter how right it is. If we think we know better, screw you.

That’s why this text exposes an important issue for Gospel community. I like to call it Less NOT Ish. It is really important and it is firmly ensconced within our passage tonight.

I’ve had a good bit of response from you since our look at Step 11 last week, and this has been the heart’s cry of that response - I don’t know how to pray. Many have admitted giving a fly-by to step 11, and not knowing how to really engage it.

In a letter (40 pages long!) Luther shares his own struggles with prayer being cold and recommends a structure he calls his four strand garland.

Who is baffled by prayer and meditation?

It is one of the more surprising and baffling things of the Christian walk to so many - especially people of recovery. Little else has created more cheesy Christian art, or pictures of hands than prayer. Prayer and meditation is elusive to many of us - why do you think that is?

We don't get the picture.

Ephesians 1 sermon. What does it mean to be adopted by our Father in heaven?

What happens when you get completely swept away by your own pride and completely ruin a dream for someone else and everyone is thrown into outrage? What is an amends? What is a proper form of apology? Are you a peacekeeper or a peacemaker?

Have you ever been harmed by another person? Do any of those harms still hurt? Why do those offenses remain? Why does the sting still remain?

We take a biblical look at step 7 of the twelve steps

Sermon on Philippians 3 from our Letters From Prison series.

Sermon on Philippians 2 from our Letters From Prison series.

The struggle - the dark places? Why are these here? What purpose does this serve? Check out what Paul says in the first chapter of this letter from prison - Philippians.

Are you entirely ready to allow God to take away all of those defects of character? Do you really believe he can or do you think you can do it on your own?

Have you ever heard a sermon on the ascension of Christ? Chances are that you haven't. That should make you really angry. Find out what you have been missing as we discuss the great importance of the fact that Christ ascended to sit at the right hand of God the Father and what it means for our recovery and lives today.

A biblical look at step 4 of the 12 steps on Easter Sunday.

How do addicts prepare for Easter during the Lent season? As an addiction recovery community we are going through the Lent readings each Sunday as we look forward to Resurrection Sunday. Join the discussion at www.tohcommunity.com

This year we are taking a biblical look at the twelve steps on the first Sunday of each month. Jacob is once again shows us what sex addiction looks like and God uses his story to lead us to the cross.

Step 2 of our 2010 study of the 12 steps.

Teresa, Tal's wife, tells her story to the community, giving us GOSPEL hope for those of us caught in a people pleasing cycle.

Continuing our series on Questions and Doubts, we finally get to the sex questions! This week's question: Is it a sin to masturbate? If is it, prove it. Well, surprisingly enough there is one way to masturbate and it not be a sin. Surprised? Listen to the sermon and find out how.

We invited the people in our faith community to share their questions and doubts with us. We didnt promise to answer them. We just promised to help them along as we try to keep up with Jesus. Someone asked what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is and if it is really unforgivealbe. Is it ok to blaspheme the Father and Son but not the Holy Sprit? And have you heard about this "Blasphemy Challenge"?

This sermon is in our series on Matthew 5-7 (The Sermon On The Mount). The subject is forgiveness, coming out of Matthew 6:12. This sermon (adapted from EK Bailey) is a first person narrative delivered from the perspective of Hosea on how he experienced God's forgiveness and was a picture of the forgiveness that Jesus offers on the cross.