Before the teaching and the miracles, before the crowds and the conflict, Jesus receives something from the Father. He receives a name.  He receives an identity. 

He receives a word of love spoken over him before he has done anything to earn it.

Today we are gifted that very same as we follow in Christ’s steps and as the Holy Spirit anoints in becoming the light of heaven to the world around us.

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The post Beloved appeared first on Emmaus Road Church.

We don’t know if the Magi who visited Christ debated for weeks before packing their treasures, or if they set out the very next morning after seeing the star, driven by a divine sense of urgency. What we do know is this: they saw a great light and they followed it. They left the comfort of familiar rooftops and the safety of predictable stars, and they journeyed a thousand miles toward a light they did not fully understand.

In this season we are invited to Become the Light of Christ, for the sake of a world so often pulled between the celebration of the light and the gravity of deep darkness.

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The post The Star We Follow appeared first on Emmaus Road Church.

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The post Repeat or Redo appeared first on Emmaus Road Church.

The truth that we celebrate in Christmas is that the light of the world has come. Jesus Christ, our messiah, our savior is born. This is why candle light is so important at Christmas. These lights proclaim the THE light has come.

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The post Christmas Eve, Candlelight Service appeared first on Emmaus Road Church.

For most of us, love has become whatever makes us happy in the moment, whatever we enjoy most, whatever we want more of in our lives. But, the love that entered the world in Bethlehem bears little resemblance to our casual affections or our Hallmark expectations. The love of God is a challenging thing to wrap our minds around and it becomes the spiritual work that we attempt to do throughout our lives.

This morning, as we light the candle of love on this fourth Sunday of Advent, we’re going to chase after what incarnational love actually looks like.

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The post Advent, We Wait in Love appeared first on Emmaus Road Church.

Join us for an experience of cheer and wonder as retell the story of Jesus, Immanuel’s birth.

This will be a crowdsourced, interactive experience for young and old alike. It is a highlight of our year as we remember the greatest story ever told.

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The post Christmas Pageant appeared first on Emmaus Road Church.

When we think of peace, or keeping the peace, we think of maintaining civility, not rocking the boat. But if we’re honest, this peace feels less like shalom and more like a ceasefire, a fragile truce held together by what we’re all agreeing not to say.

This week, as we light the candle of peace, we’re going to discover that God’s Peaceable Kingdom works differently. Waiting in peace means letting God disrupt our comfortable arrangements so his kingdom can reshape our hearts.

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The post Advent, We Wait in Peace appeared first on Emmaus Road Church.

When the early church began shaping how this season of Advent is observed, they weren’t preparing for opening presents in a few weeks, they were reorienting themselves to welcome the long anticipated kingdom the Messiah had demonstrated and promised was coming again soon!

We are people of memory and people of future hope, standing in the present moment with gratitude for what God has done and expectation for what God will do.

As we light the first candle of Advent, the candle of Hope we remember: Hope is the  deep conviction that God’s kingdom is breaking in and the bold choice to participate in its coming. Hope sees the world as it is and refuses to believe this is the end of the story. Hope lives fully in the present while investing in a future only God can bring.

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The post Advent, We Wait in Hope appeared first on Emmaus Road Church.

We all know the anxiety of a sleepless night that seems to have no end. We rehearse over and over the relief we will feel when the long dark finally comes to an end. Perhaps we will even lift our voices up in praise just as the prophet Zechariah did after nine months of silence.

Today, as we observe Christ our King Sunday and hang these greens, we declare that despite our darkness, we are people of hope anticipating the dawn breaking at the horizon.

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The post The Night May End (Christ the King Sunday) appeared first on Emmaus Road Church.

In 1956, C.S. Lewis wrote one of the most vivid, joyful, achingly beautiful descriptions of heaven ever put to paper. In post-war England it immediately resonated  with so many readers eager for a new prophetic imagination. 

We see similar visionary work throughout scripture, perhaps nowhere more clearly than in the book of Isaiah. In chapter 65 the prophet is articulating that hope isn’t about escaping our “shadowlands”, it’s about imagining and enacting their true potential.

This morning, we’re going to explore what it means that God’s glory doesn’t ignore an abused creation, but rather glorifies it, restoring glory to the shadows that too often rest heavily on us.

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The post Glorify, That Peace May Return appeared first on Emmaus Road Church.