ELECTIVES

When you have been wronged, it is easy to think that the only way to make it right depends on the other person. They must apologize or be punished, then I will be okay. But, that is a lie, and the Bible teaches us a different idea: Forgiveness. Forgiveness is not about forgetting, but to not forgive has consequences. In this time together, we will look at the Biblical idea of forgiveness, discuss how we practically forgive, and see the freedom forgiveness gives us.

The Bible calls us to live out the love of God to others.  This does not come naturally to us, but it doesn't have to be a daunting thing.  In this elective, we will briefly look at the book of Ruth.  The story of Ruth is a beautiful picture of the hospitality to God towards someone that was a complete outsider. Throughout the course of the week, we will look at how we can apply principles of biblical hospitality to others through simple, meaningful ways.

Many of us love going to the theater and sitting down with a bucket of popcorn to watch the newest blockbuster movie. There is something amazing about seeing a good story play out on the silver screen. For some stories like The Lord of the Rings or Dune, we can see how they are influenced by the story of the Bible. For others like Inside Out or Wicked, we may have to do a bit more work to learn what they are teaching us. In this class, we will learn how to discern the messages of popular movies in order to compare or contrast them with what Scripture teaches us.

We can all take a look around and instantly see that something is wrong with the world. We see people doing terrible things, and if we are honest, we have seen ourselves do terrible things. We spend so much of our lives trying to make up for our failures. We are constantly trying to right our mistakes. We try to make things right with our friends. We try to make things right with our parents. We try to make things right with God. When we work so hard to make things right, we are really asking, “Am I okay?” The answer to the question, “Am I Okay?” is that sin has broken our relationship with God. The Bible tells us that, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This means that we are not okay. This means that because of sin we are not right with our fellow man and we are not right with God. So, how do we get right with God? Join me as we explore together the doctrine of Justification and the impact it has on the life of a Christian.

Suffering and sadness aren’t exactly what we signed up for. But these hard moments are part of our story. As messy and painful as they feel, we have a God who hears, sees, and cares about our hurt. Join us as we explore how God meets us in our struggles, why our tears aren’t wasted, and how the hardest chapters of our lives can lead to something beautiful.

Where our faith leads us is ultimately to a new beginning. If you have put your faith in Jesus, there is hope of a new beginning where we will all be the people we were meant to be, where the world will be as it was meant to be, and where evil no longer persists. When Christ returns to gather up his people, there will be a new beginning where we will be before God's face and he will be with us and we will be with him. Come learn about this new beginning for those who have put their faith and trust in Christ.