The Beautiful Badlands

Church, we find ourselves in an amazing time in the history of our body. Our families are building unity like never before, we are building up walls as we prepare for the great work our king is setting before us. We've never been more qualified, more prepared, and more capable as a body to shoulder the load. But just as in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, there is a deception that can attempt to muddy the water of our discernment as we are growing like never before. Namely, we could be tempted to look back at the past with rose-colored glasses and feel some sort of nostalgia of the "good old days" and count them as better than where we stand today. Our shepherds, Pastor Payton Parsons and Eric Stephens keenly elucidate for us that this couldn't be further from the truth. We learn from our King Yeshua and the prophets of old that we are to look forward with faith and gratitude at the new thing God is doing. In this way, even our badlands are becoming beautiful. For out of dead things, life springs forth. God is the one who causes life to burst forth out of everything that is dead when we look to him and look to him we shall.