Trees by a river are always growing because they have a source of life next to them. Jesus is the life we all need to source, so we can grow personally, and so that our church can be a life giving shelter to our community. To be Christians who are authentic, inside and out, we need to be reading God’s Word daily - to be informed, inspired and most importantly, incarnated to become like Jesus. We must “look hard” into it, until we see God’s image reflected back to us.

The application Jesus is drawing from the Sermon on the Mount is “just do it”. There is danger in a verbal response, where there is outward conformity, but no inward submission to Christ’s lordship. There is also danger in an intellectual response which does not go beyond a superficial foundation and cannot weather storms. Salvation is not based on works, but those who are truly saved will obey Jesus. It is a sign we are saved.

There is a danger in resting in what we have done in the past. To see God make big changes involves laying everything down. The deeper need Paul writes about is to press into Jesus and be conformed to His image. We are to live powerfully, sacrificially and hopefully in the resurrection of Christ. Walk forward from what we are to what we will be. And pedal...

In our worldview everything is relative, but God is absolutely holy and can not tolerate sin. To believe in God means an act of doing, not just head knowledge. Good works can not save us, but because we are saved, a sign of our salvation will be justice, mercy and humility before God.

This message is an account of lives transformed when a church is born. Scripture is here to inspire us and to imagine what God might do through us. Like the church at Corinth, we matter to God and we are to work together to achieve our common purpose of reaching the lost with God-based courage.