Church In The Valley - Alhambra Campus

Whenever we face trouble or pressure that is beyond us—we have to choose where we place our trust and dependence. We can choose to depend on ourselves (in effort and/or understanding) or we can choose to remember that our hope and help comes from God.

Unity and Cohesion are key for any unit/team to get anything accomplished. Any high performance team must have cohesion to function effectively. Without unity, plans fail and relationships deteriorate.

We don’t get do-overs in life, but we can choose a key characteristic that allows us to learn from whatever we face: Teachability.

When we have experienced hurt and/or betrayal, our attitude and response can shape the future of our life, for better or worse. If we choose revenge, we go down a dangerous path where we distance ourselves from God and others. Bitterness causes real damage that can derail one’s life.

God doesn’t want his people to be isolated from the world or infiltrated by it – he wants us to be insulated from cultural ideas and values that will translate into harmful attitudes and actions.

Church in the Valley

Men don’t just appear in our society. There is a maturing process that develops a man and shapes his perspective and approach to life. Boys need heroes and models who will help guide them, coach them, provide experiences that will challenge them, and ultimately call them forward as men.

The first family was given a focus (aka: The Great Mandate) and within this came the opportunity to have a generational impact. The Great Mandate sets the agenda for family life and involves taking dominion and multiplying.

In a world where everyone is “entitled” to doing whatever makes them “happy,” the Scriptures presents a different role that people can have with one another as they decide to be God’s instrument for change to occur.

To truly change, we must choose faith and repentance to begin the new spiritual life God has for us. However, to continue to grow and overcome the challenges and obstacles of life, faith and repentance are still vital for our spiritual formation.

We all long for change because humanity is broken and our current situation is lacking the kind of life God intended for us (because of the Fall and sin is real). However, the gospel is truly good news because, through Jesus, we can experience redemption and the power to change.

He wants us to learn how to draw the truths and principles for living out of the Bible. One of God’s purposes for the Bible is that we learn how to hear what God is saying to us and draw His instruction for our lives out of it.

God made us to know, love and serve Him. He is our rightful ruler and He chooses to rule over our lives through the truth and wisdom of His Word, the Bible. God’s word is the “instrument of Christ’s Lordship over His followers” – so every idea about God, thought, action and word should be measured, tested and corrected by the Bible.

One of the major mental blocks to getting into the Bible is the myth that it is difficult to understand and must be interpreted by “experts”. It’s the privilege of Christ followers to get into the word of God and hear God speak directly to them.

Nobody would know the truth about God or be able to relate to Him in a personal way if He didn’t choose to make Himself known. The Bible is the record of God’s self-disclosure – through it we come to know God and can learn His ways. This means we should make it a priority to get into it and understand it.

In a culture, streams of thought develop and define what the people in that culture consider normal. People are pulled by this current of thought to adopt the perspectives and values of the society at large. We must learn to respond wisely to the "informal" settings in which the mainstream flows.

There is an ongoing conversation in our culture (and every culture – both formally and informally) about what lifestyles and practices are acceptable and normal. Defining normal is important because the collective understanding of right & wrong/good & bad has a powerful impact on the way the people in that culture live

Are you feeling alone? Are you frightened by what you see? Can’t see? Did you know that God is everywhere at once. His omnipresence doesn’t mean that He is spread so thin that He has lost His grip on being God, He’s not spread thin. In fact, all of Him is fully present in all the world, certainly in our lives.

Many times the future and the unknown are aspects of life which cause much concern and fear. However, if God knows everything and is never surprised by anything, how can this help us as we approach the unknown? We can face the future with confidence because God will guide us out of His unlimited knowledge.

Our loving God is one of unlimited and great power and we can see God’s power in creation but God also wants us to experience His power in a personal way