What are we really, really wanting from our pursuit of faith? What are some ways we might get there? How do we find our way "home" and how do we stay there?

Tom Oord rejects the longhand assertion that God is omnipotent or almighty from a careful study of the Bible's original language. As an alternative, he proposes his belief in Amipotence - God's essential nature of love - which requires that God cannot be coercive yet is surely influential more than any other agent. This was the final presentation of CrossWalk's conference, Fresh Faith: The Problem of Pain.

Developing our spirituality is more about subtracting than adding...

Part of the deconstruction/reconstruction process is to clarify why we pursue faith in the first place. Without identifying the why behind our what, we run the risk of simply rebuilding on an already shaky foundation.

The first in the series The Quest for Thin Places, informed by Dana Hicks' book by the same name, this teaching introduces the listener to the critical step of thoughtful deconstruction, which should be a normal and natural ongoing part of faith. For more, see the blog: https://www.crosswalknapa.org/blog/deconstruction

Mary found the source of her faithful devotion to all that God invited her to embrace: the magnificence of what the God of Love was communicating to her about her ( and everyone else). Her should magnified that Love. When we build our lives from the Love up, we are able to say yes to the God's invitation to love the world into its wellbeing.

Enjoy this thought-provoking, permission-giving, freedom-yielding teaching from Matt Real!

The Wise Men weren't and aren't the only ones who follow stars. We all are looking to our own respective "stars" for guidance. How do you know if the star you're following is going to lead you where you want to go? What is your assessment criteria? It turns out that the Christmas Story offers some keys that might be helpful in sorting out what to follow and what to let go.