Saddleback Church

Every part of our faith is anchored to Jesus and what he did for us on the Cross. To what he does for us in this life through his love and grace. To all of his PROMISES that ring loudly throughout the Bible. And since we are drilling down into those PROMISES this month, I […]

Welcome to July and a new theme for the month: “KNOWING WHAT GOD PROMISES.” Studying this topic has made an incredibly strong impact on my faith and continues to animate my walk with Jesus. Like the previous themes we’ve covered so far this year—Release Control; Reject the World; Recognize our Inadequacy; Believe with a CAPITAL

Here we are at the final gate of our month-long trek toward understanding God’s IMPERATIVE for spiritual growth. We’ve noted the critical importance of God’s PRUNING in our level of spiritual maturity and how we can view it as a GIFT that draws us closer to Christ. An appropriate end to that start is considering

We know that God’s PRUNING is an imperative in our life-long, never-ending journey toward SPIRITUAL MATURITY. But considering it a GIFT is a bit much, don’t you think?    That’s exactly what I thought early in my faith walk when the goal was to avoid God’s pruning at any cost or, if that didn’t work,

This truth makes every believer cringe, at least a little: God’s PRUNING is an imperative in our life-long, never-ending journey toward SPIRITUAL MATURITY. Ouch.    “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be

Yesterday we addressed the importance of tending the GARDENS OF OUR LIFE with a focus on Christ and that got me thinking about one of the most powerful messages in God’s Word—”Vine & Branches” (John 15)—and its connection to our never-ending journey toward SPIRITUAL MATURITY.    It does not take much of the world’s allure

God started everything in a GARDEN by putting man in charge “to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). And he encourages his followers today to be gardeners. He EXPECTS us to tend to the gardens in our life.    Gardens are inextricably linked to our faith walk and spiritual growth.    The first step

We’ve been talking a lot about Spiritual Maturity this month by focusing LESS on what we do and MORE on our surrendered obedience to God. And we’ve accepted that our spiritual growth is not exclusively about accumulating knowledge of God’s Word.    With that foundation in place, we need to look at one of the

This just in from our global online tribe: I was taught growing up that God chooses good people and rejects bad people. Is spiritual maturity a form of that same accept/reject idea?    The best place to start answering this deep and extremely important question is to reject, in no uncertain terms, the notion that

This just in from our global online tribe:    “I love this series on Spiritual Maturity. Thank you. My question is how these words from Jesus in Matthew fit into the picture: I don’t know you.”    We cannot, ever, impress Jesus. No matter how we package and present our good works and great heart