Hebrews reminds us that as Christians, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Though some of their names are known to us, what matters most is that their names are known and celebrated by God. The more we set our hearts on receiving God’s approval, the less we worry about what people think about us, or getting credit for the good things we do.

It’s hard to think of something more difficult than learning to control what you say. If we’re going to speak at all, then what we say should be of greater value than keeping silent. It should build up, rather than tear down. And we should never apply criteria to other people we aren’t willing to apply to ourselves. With this lesson, Mark continues his series about the path to humility.

On the path to humility, contentment is key. All of us have moments of weakness where we search for what can make us feel whole. God is the only one who can make up for us in the places where we are lacking while simultaneously setting us free to find joy that is not merely dependent on what life gives to us.

In this fourth part of God is Greater, a study of humility, Mark challenges us to think about the value of confession. We sometimes hang on to dark parts of our lives for fear that we couldn’t take the weight of exposing them. Ironically, it is actually in owning our shortcomings and experiencing God’s grace in response that we can finally set them down and break the power they have over us. Great freedom comes with honesty.

The Path to humility requires us to acknowledge that God is God. It requires us to trust God’s will for us even more than we trust our own desires. But to do both of these requires us to develop patience. Patience is difficult in the easy times, and even more so when it’s hard to see how God could possibly be working through our circumstances when we feel looked over and mistreated In this lesson, Mark invites us to step back and take a look at the bigger picture of what God is doing and to see our own circumstances in that light.

The road to humility begins with allowing God to be God. In this second part in the God is Greater series, Mark reminds us that when we make God be our highest priority, it requires a response from us. Our desires and cravings which would divert us from the path don’t give up easily. We need not only to believe that God is God, but to learn to love God’s will more than we love our own.

In this first part of a new series, Mark reminds us that if we desire to experience personal freedom and wholeness, it begins by letting God be God. Drawing from the first three of the 10 Commandments, we see that a life lived well is one that pursues the will of God for the world, more than any other agenda.

Even the mightiest servant of God must one day pass the baton of leadership to the next generation. Our goal is to be a church who does all we can to prepare the next generation to be faithful disciples of Christ. Are you doing your part to make it happen?

As Christians, we are all ministers of reconciliation. Though we had been sinners, God chooses to credit Jesus with our sin, and to credit us with Jesus’ righteousness. He empowers us to be his ambassadors and appeals to the world through us: “Come back to God!”

When Christ envisioned the church, he wasn’t imagining a body of people who were color-blind, but colorful. Our various personalities and backgrounds, when brought together by the love of Jesus, shine the light of God’s love more powerfully because we are together. As a church, we value the diversity of households who are part of us and want to see each person using their gifts in the unique ways God has blessed them.