I can already hear the collective head-scratching as you ask “We’re singing about…what???” And I can understand that question, however, much like a book and its cover, we shouldn’t judge a song by just its title. Honey in the Rock is a song written by Brooke Ligertwood, Brandon Lake, and Mitch Wong. It takes its name from scripture found in …
New K-5 Children’s Director • Jennifer Primm
The pastors at Venture have unanimously decided to hire Jennifer Primm as our new K-5 Children’s Director. She has already been serving in our kid’s ministry and we look forward to seeing her flourish in this new role. Join us in welcoming her onto the team and pray for her as she leads our team in this vital ministry. Read …
What Does It Mean to be Adopted?
In Galatians 4 Paul gives extended usage to a metaphor to describe our relationship to God as well as the former relationship that God’s people had to the law. That metaphor concerns how the relationship of an heir to his father changed over time under Roman law. An heir becomes such because he is the son of his father. Nothing …
The Purpose of the Mosaic Law
One of the great themes of Galatians about which we have discussed in many different ways over the last several weeks is the comparison between religious law and relationship with God by grace through faith. Grace is superior to religion in every way imaginable. A natural question for people reading Galatians might be “so if the law of Moses is …
The Story of Religion
The story of religion can be summed up as the story of making and trying to keep divine laws. Even Biblical religion can be described in this way. There is no doubt that God gives laws in the Scriptures and that the laws that he gives are good. But the greatest gift that God gives to humanity is his Son, …
Holy Thursday • Authentic Worship
“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worshipdoesn’t.” John Piper As individual Christians we should find our purpose in life by looking at God’s purpose for hisbody. We often refer to the purpose of the church as missions….doing the things that Godcommissioned the church to do (Matthew 28:18-20). The problem is that many …
Holy Wednesday • Distraction and Failure
“If the churches came to understand that the greatest threat to faith today is not hedonism but distraction, perhaps they might begin to appeal anew to a frazzled digital generation.” Andrew Sullivan Mark 14:26-52 is a painful testimony of the numerous and repeated failures of the disciples to serve Jesus when he was at the most important stage of his …
Holy Tuesday • Taking Up the Cross
Read Mark 8:27-9:1 The Gospel of Mark takes a very serious and somber turn beginning with these verses. Jesus begins to reveal what it truly means for him to be the Messiah. Even though Jesus has not himself preached that he is to be a popular political figure and miracle worker, many of the crowds as well as his followers …
Holy Monday •The Curse of Busyness
“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” – John 14:9 Many people today like to think about Jesus as a really nice, agreeable, weak sort of man. Some would characterize him as the “kind and gentle” face of God. While it is true that Jesus was often kind and gentle with the people he came into contact with, he …
Lent Devotional #25 • The Lamb Who Serves
Read Exodus 12:1-14 and John 13:1-17, 31-35 Think about the most humble person you know. Got that person in mind? Now, how much power, authority, or influence does that person have? Unfortunately, the person you have in mind probably isn’t the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or on trajectory to become our next President. In our world today, power, …