Lent invites us to get honest. Honest about longing, grief, doubt, and the dead places in our lives. In Jesus’ encounter with Lazarus, He meets Martha, Mary, and Lazarus in deeply personalized ways revealing that the God we often wish to keep at a distance is the one who knows us completely and loves us fully. Journaling Prompts: God created us uniquely, knows us intimately, and relates to us accordingly. In this season of your life how has God encountered you? If you struggle to formulate a response take this prompt as invitation to get curious and honest.Historically have you found the idea of being known (especially being known by God) more comforting or scary? How might the story of Lazurus inform your feelings around being known going forward?Practice: Notice the flowers.Spend some time outside. Sit at a park or go on a walk. Try doing this without headphones in and be present with the world around you. In this season of Spring what might nature have to say to you about decay and rebirth? What conversation might you want to have with God?

In John 9 Jesus heals a man born blind, and suddenly everyone has to reckon with what they now see. Including themselves. The light of the world does not expose to condemn, but to love.Journaling Prompts:What parts of you and your life are you afraid of being fully seen by Jesus? What would it mean for you to accept that Jesus sees this and loves you in it?Where has grace changed something in you you didn’t necessarily ask to have changed?What or where has God’s grace cost you? What have you lost or what are you afraid of losing?Practice — Confession:Take some time this week to name before God the things done and the things left undone in your life. As you do, know that in this act God sees you, knows you, and loves you.After naming these, ask for God’s grace to transform and remake you. End in a moment of thanking God for his forgiveness and promises rooted in Christ’s faithfulness. Take a moment of silence in God’s presence knowing that you are carried by God.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

The God revealed in Jesus is scandalously present among those we’ve written off—and that love dismantles our assumptions about who God is and what God is doing in the world.Journaling Prompts:- Does the grace Jesus displays here — forgiving, gifting, transforming — feel refreshing to you or scandalous? Take a few moments to explore why that might be.- Who, in your mind, seems most on the fringes — most undeserving of Jesus’ gift? What does Jesus extending God’s generosity to someone like them stir in you?- In what ways are you on the fringes? What might you need to confess here? What might you need to trust that God is doing for you?Practice — Attentive Intercession:This week's practice is called "Attentive Intercession." The invitation is to pay closer attention to those you encounter this week. Notice who seems most on the fringes. What would being present with them look like?Commit to pray for them throughout the rest of Lent. Set a reminder in your phone, write their name on a sticky note, or place it somewhere you’ll see each day. Pray for them regularly, asking God to bless them, care for them, draw near to them, while also praying for your own heart towards them. Remain attentive to simple ways you might be present with them.And as Easter approaches, consider whether inviting them to join you for Easter Sunday might be a natural expression of that presence and care.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Beholding God will mean undergoing death—of ways of life, of ideas about God and ourselves, of things we think will save us. And for this God death ends in resurrection.Some call it conversion, others repentance.Jesus calls it “being born again.”And it is God’s work. Journaling PromptsWhat would a new way of being in the world mean for you? What would you lay aside, what would you take up?Consider your responses above. What frightens you about this? What feels like it could be liberating?How does the notion that the Good News is God’s work and is good news for the poor strike you? Where do you want to wrestle with this and why?Practice — PrayerThis week carry a simple prayer with you.“Lord, I am yours, may your will in me be done.”Set a reminder in your phone. Jot it on a card and carry it with you in your pocket. Set it to memory.Whatever method you decide works for you, pray this as an act of surrender and dependence on God’s work in you. Allow it to interrupt your day, or moments where you may feel the urge to operate in non-Jesus centered ways.Any thoughts, objections, or bursts of faith that arise while praying this, take to God in prayer.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

This sermon begins the season of Lent. It concentrates on one psalm, Psalm 32, traditionally labeled a "penitential psalm," and it holds out God's promise not only of forgiveness but also of instruction. Repentance involves release from the past as well as learning a fresh new way of life.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

In the body of Christ, heaven and earth meet, and the transfiguration invites us to witness that glory. Let us marvel in it. Let us be warmed by it. And let us listen to it.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus doesn’t hand us a list of rules. He names our identity. Salt. Light. A city on a hill. A people whose life together makes the invisible God visible right here in Houston. Journaling Prompts:Reflect on the notion that “y’all are salt, y’all are light.” How does this shape what a Jesus-centered life means to you?What might a Jesus-centered life mean for the people you encounter each day?What might a Jesus-centered life cost you? Not in theory. Keep this real.In Jesus, you already have everything you need. Sit with this for a moment. Where do you resist this? Where are you drawn to it?Practice — Attentive Reading:Spend the week with the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7). Read as an act of listening—not study. Consider reading it aloud with others.As you read, notice what stands out. After each reading, pray. Be honest with God about what you’ve just heard.If you miss a day, just return the next. Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Are we in the middle of a silent era from God? A look at world events and our personal lives makes a strong case for the affirmative, but the scriptures invite us to engage with a living God - especially in times when this God seems distant and removed.Journaling Prompts:Have you ever been surprised by a living God? What was that experience like?Where in life are you tempted to take on God’s work as your own?God loves us and shows us the way of love. How can you put this into practice this week?Practice - pray. The world is quite noisy at the moment. Make a plan to be still before God this week. Perhaps you have 5 minutes or maybe 35, but make a plan and set aside distractions for a specified amount of time. Spend some time in silence. There is no need to produce anything in these moments. Pray the serenity prayer: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can,And wisdom to know the difference." From there, just talk to God. Bring your burdens to God; God cares for you.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

Your search for God may have brought you here—but Jesus turns and asks: What are you seeking? In John 1, Jesus does not extend tidy conclusions, easy answers, or spiritual certainty, but an invitation: Come and see. A journey centered not on arrival or mastery, but on Jesus Himself.Journaling PromptsWhat are you seeking? Sit with Jesus’ question for a moment and answer honestly, without editing or spiritualizing your response.How might Jesus’ invitation to come and see reshape what you are seeking? How might it change what you believe Jesus is offering you?What would shift in your life if you moved toward “coming and seeing” Jesus? What obstacles—internal or external—stand in the way?Practice — PrayerBegin by returning to the first question above. Sit with it slowly. Notice what arises in you without judgment.Now hold Jesus’ invitation—come and see—alongside your answer. Sit for a few moments in silence and stillness, allowing both to remain present.Notice what images surface, the posture or disposition of Jesus, and any emotions that arise.Bring whatever you notice to God in prayer.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

What do you believe God is like—and where did that belief come from?In the baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3), God reveals something shocking about who God is. This sermon opens the Epiphany series Manifest by asking a simple but life-altering question: What does God really think about you?Journaling PromptsWhen you reflect on your baptism, how are you continuing to discover what God has done—and is still doing—in those waters?What does Christ’s solidarity with humanity in its lowest places stir up in you—gratitude, resistance, relief, discomfort? Where do you think that response comes from?What assumptions about God does the baptism of Jesus challenge or disrupt for you? Where do you think those assumptions came from?What does Jesus’ baptism reveal about the story God invites you into? How does this resonate—or clash—with the story you currently find yourself living in?Practice — Baptism.In baptism, we step into what God has already done in Christ. We are cleansed of sin, met by God’s Spirit, and named God’s beloved.Any Sunday is a good Sunday to be baptized. If you have not yet been baptized and feel drawn to Jesus’ invitation into the waters, take time this week to pray and consider that invitation. When you’re ready, we would love to [email protected] you have already been baptized, take time this week to remember what God has done—and is still doing—in your life. Consider how baptism continues to shape a life of dying, living, and loving in Christ.Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give