Jesus Tells us to be Kingdom Seekers
Upword. is our platform to share responses founded on scripture to challenge and equip us to be people who live upwards to the Kingdom of Christ. Our hope and prayer is to produce posts that point back to Jesus through a raw honesty that helps dissect the unique issues and challenges that Christians face. While reminding us to live towards the Urgent Multiplying Collegiate Church Planting Movement of which Resonate takes part.
Culture tells us the world revolves around us, and we need to spend every waking moment intricately carving our image as perfectly as possible. But this week, Jenny lifts our eyes towards heaven instead of the idols of our own image and reputation.
The pervasive passivity among Christian men leaves a huge gap in the church where men are absent and women are having to continually step up and lead out. Konnor shares how this gap leaves unhealthy churches, how men can step up and bring flourishing to the church when leaving out of biblical masculinity.
In this last installment, we look at what it means to practically rest. Do we work until our bones ache? No! We look at how our infinite God has displayed patterns for is finite people to be healthy and for flourishing.
In part two of this series, we explore how Jesus has come to be our complete and fulfilled rest. Rest is not doing x,y,z, but intimate communion with Jesus himself who tells us he is our rest.
Weariness feels normal in this day and age. Looking for what the true meaning of rest feels like your chasing the ends of rainbows, always running but never arriving. Preston in this three-part series lays down a biblical foundation on rest, sabbath, and what it means to find rest in Christ.
We have all tasted the bitterness left in our mouths from great disappointment. It’s easy to remember and stirs in us the impulse to avoid it at all cost. What do we do when the floods of disappointment are overwhelming and the muscle to rejoice is fatigued? Eric writes how the valley of disappointment can lead to worship when we are honest about the unmet expectations of life.
Jess shares a poem to highlight how often we let the world around us tell us who we are instead of clinging to who our Creator says we are.
The feeling of loneliness aches through every human heart. COVID multiplied those feelings as we all quarantined and isolated from one another. Jordan explores this feeling through the lens of the Gospel and how we can be people who pursue the One who satisfies the depths of our loneliness by drawing near through a relationship with him.
Tim helps explore God's presence through the depths of our sadness. Reminding us that the Christian life is not void of sadness, but in our grief, we are comforted by our Heavenly Father.
In our continuation of exploring "The Feels" this week, we walk through hurt through Lamentations and how hurt brings healing from a broken world and highlights God’s goodness despite the pain of our hurt.
In our sermon series "The Feels" we explore what God has to say about certain emotions. In this blog, we walk through goldy guilt versus worldly guilt by looking at the story of David and Bathsheba and how David handles both.
Scripture is clear that we obey God and bring glory to him when we honor our parents. How can we do this well, especially if our parents do not follow Jesus? Or maybe they do but can't understand God's call to be sent? This week we look at how we can do both.
At times it can be easy to let worldly fear stop us from loving strangers and sharing the gospel. Jordan provides helpful insight and reminds us that when we fear God and respond to His love in faith, it gives us the boldness and perspective to love strangers fearlessly. Give the blog a read to see how we can fearlessly love strangers and how we can fearlessly share the gospel.
Our world has been shaken. What we knew is gone and when grief, hardship, and isolation hit us in the face, it’s easy to lose sight of the call Jesus has placed on our life. This week, we are to look to Jesus, by remembering that we follow an unstoppable God. Let us look and step out in faith.
In this video, Ann teaches the metanarrative of the bible. She describes the bible as a puzzle without the picture on the box. This teaching helps paint a picture for us as we study and read to have clarity in how each book connects with one another and to us today.
Hard Questions Part 6: Developing biblical understanding and studying the word of God is crucial for our growth as Christians. This week, Bruce and Ann Scallorn give us helpful guidance for studying the word. Through these tools, we can develop confidence in our understanding and the joy of knowing God’s word more deeply.
Making decisions can be challenging. It is safe to say that after a year of upheaval and change that decision making has become even more difficult. Jess reminds us that if we are close to the Lord and aware of our convictions, community, and impact that we can re-center and make wise decisions no matter what is happening around us.
Kat Swick didn't know the details of God's plan for her life but walked obediently in the now. Looking back, she saw that God was already starting to equip her for life overseas, working through fashion to help women come out of a life of slavery. Read Kat's story and encouragement of being ready now for what God has in store later.
In our world, it is so easy to carry the weight of achievement and use all our energy to maintain a good image. When we come up short the weight can lead us to worry and discouragement. We do not have to live like this. Ben explains to us how when we walk in response to the gospel there is no need to achieve and freedom to fail. Jesus has achieved on our behalf and is glorified through our failure.
We serve a God who loves to remember. Remember who he is and what he has done. James Clark highlights a missionary named George Liele who gave his life to Christ as a slave. His heart was the Lord’s, and the Lord used it to bring glory to his name amongst the unreached in Jamaica. As we read this, let this stir hope in us that we serve the same God who is working all things for good and glory.
"I love Jesus, but hate the church" - a phrase that doesn't make sense to a God who designed the Church. What happens when we are hurt by the broken people who make up the Church? Eric helps us to see past hurt, grasp forgiveness, and points us to God's design for the Church.
As we walk through our sermon series Renewal Starts Here we are learning news ways to be renewed through different spiritual disciplines. We want to further equip you by sharing content on how to better live into those disciplines. Here it starts with fasting.
As we walk through our sermon series Renewal Starts Here we are learning news ways to be renewed through different spiritual disciplines. We want to further equip you by sharing teaching videos on how to better live into those disciplines. Here it starts with prayer.
Hard Questions Part 5: God created us to desire sex - but only in the safety of a marriage covenant. How do we honor God with physical boundaries in dating? Preston lays a clear biblical foundation and prinicples we should follow to honor God with physical boundaries in dating.
Dating is hard, messy and confusing. How are we suppose to do it well? Emmalee highlights the messiness and beauty of dating all the while helping us remember that Jesus is at the center of it all.
Chelsy interviews Brian about what he’s learned through spending his 20’s as a single person. Brian shares the three things he learned about who God is in the midst of that and what he wish he would have known when he was younger.
Hard Questions Series Part 4: Dating and romance are on everyone's mind all the time. Have you ever stopped to think: "What if God is calling me NOT to get married?" Chelsy responds through her own story and how God shows us that singleness is actually a gift and not a curse.
Hard Questions Series Part 3: Depression and anxiety; common words addressing the mental wars that many of us face. How do we have faith, let alone bring God glory when we barely get out of bed in the morning? Maria Royall addresses what it means to glorify God from the deepest pits of struggling mental health, our third part of the Hard Questions.
With the holidays ahead of us, our Site Pastor in Missoula shares ten books we should read over break. As believers and as a church we value being people who continually seek wisdom and knowledge in order to grow as disciples and those who make disciples.
Our value, our identity, and our worth come from Jesus and Jesus alone. Although, how come it’s so easy to live into what the world or the broken Christian culture tells us to live into? Chelsy shares with us how we can identify those bad habits and how we can cling to something so much better- Jesus Christ himself.