We revisit the woman with the issue of blood and push past the miracle to the moment Jesus stops, turns around, and restores a person who has been hiding for years. We explore how a “finished work” lens changes faith, prayer, and identity so we stop living as our condition and start living as sons and daughters.
• why Jesus stops after the healing is complete
• how long-term pain turns into identity and self-labeling
• reading Mark 5 slowly to notice what we usually skip
• faith as receiving what Jesus already carries
• finished work language that reshapes how we pray
• Jesus calling her out to move her from hidden to seen
• “the whole truth” told after healing, not before
• “Daughter” as restoration beyond the body
• leaving with peace rather than performance
• why the Bible never tells us her name and why that matters
We pray that you draw the prodigal sons and daughters back home to this place.

We revisit David and Goliath with a fresh lens and realize the headline moment is not the deepest part of the story. We walk away with a new way to think about identity in Christ, perspective, and the finished work of Jesus so we stop fighting for victory and start living from it.
• the danger of becoming so familiar with Scripture that we stop discovering
• David anointed before the crown and chosen before recognition
• God looking at the heart rather than outward appearance
• the difference between fighting for identity and fighting from identity
• perspective determining the size of the problem
• remembering the lion and the bear as fuel for present confidence
• the stone as evidence of revelation rather than the source of victory
• preparation in hidden places before public moments
• the promise coming before manifestation across Scripture
• David pointing forward to Jesus and the finished work of Christ
• shifting from a victim mindset to rest and assurance
Let’s continue to just lift them up in prayer and pray that any of those obstacles will be removed, anything that keeps them from coming will be removed

We look at Esther through the finished work lens and face the hard question many of us pray in quiet seasons: God, where are you? We find hope in a surprising detail, God’s name is never mentioned in Esther, yet His unseen work shapes every turn of the story and our own.

• reading familiar Scripture from a new perspective and noticing what finally “pops”
• naming the frustration of waiting, declining attendance, and delayed answers without guilt
• seeing Esther as proof that God works behind the scenes when He feels silent
• remembering the wound before the crown, and how purpose can grow inside pain
• understanding favor as given, not earned, and rejecting performance-based belonging
• confronting an orphan mindset, and choosing identity over fear and self-protection
• holding to inclusion before assignment, and love before obedience
• applying the message to church growth, giving, and stepping into the next season together

There’s your challenge for the next seven weeks. If you invite them one time a week, that’s seven weeks to get them here.

We talk about how distortions don’t just affect how we see ourselves, they reshape how we see God, and that changes everything about relationship. We challenge familiar assumptions with the life of Jesus, because He is the clearest revelation of the Father’s heart.
• the lens metaphor and how pain and fear scratch the way we see
• why small words in worship reveal big posture shifts
• how desperation language can contradict the finished work of Christ
• asking where our image of God came from and who shaped it
• bringing every tradition and belief back to Jesus for clarity
• Jesus revealing the Father’s love through John 3:16 and John 14
• why religious leaders missed Jesus while defending their picture of God
• “you have heard that it was said, but I say to you” as an invitation to relearn
• making it personal, letting God search our own distortions
• praying for God to remove distortion and open our eyes
So go back and listen to them, read them, print them out, whatever.

We dig into how distortion twists a good and true view of God, then trace how that warped lens fuels fear, guilt, and constant striving. We land on a simple path to transformation: renew our minds, look into the right mirror, and let Jesus reveal who we really are.
• defining distortion as losing a true reflection of what was created good
• separating God’s union with us from our changing feelings and perception
• asking why loved people feel unloved and forgiven people feel condemned
• showing how Jesus changes vision by shaping what we hear and perceive
• unpacking the prodigal story as two sons and one distorted identity
• naming common lenses like shame, rejection, religion, and other opinions
• connecting addiction and mental patterns to renewing the mind
• using Scripture as a mirror that reveals identity and restores clear sight
Go back and read this when Ronnie posted or listen to it or whatever. Read it. Play it in your car while you're driving. Play it to your friends. Post it on your Facebook page.

Distortion is what happens when something no longer reflects what it was created to be, and we can spend years adapting to that warped reflection if we never learn the original. We go back to Genesis, look at Jesus as the perfect image of God, and name how anxiety, addiction, shame, and fear try to become identities we were never meant to carry.
• distortion explained through the carnival mirror image and the danger of never seeing the original
• Genesis 1:26–27 as the starting point for identity before rules or performance
• sin reframed as the twisting of something originally good rather than a new identity
• pride as distorted confidence and lust as distorted love and greed as distorted stewardship
• the enemy as a distorter of truth rather than a creator of anything new
• “If I don’t know the original, I’ll spend my whole life adapting to the distortion” applied to addiction and anxiety and depression
• religion as a warped mirror that teaches unworthiness instead of restored sonship
• Jesus as the blueprint for fully alive humanity and the image of the invisible God
• transformation as waking up from glory to glory into the same image
• speaking to identity and starving the lie so distorted patterns lose power
Get out of your feelings and get back to church.

We challenge the habit of racing to the end of the gospel story and missing what Jesus reveals along the way. We explore how reading Scripture through the finished work of Christ reshapes judgment, identity, and the way we see God right now.
• why destination-first faith misses the gospel’s weight
• starting with Jesus as the lens for reading Scripture
• the cross as restoration and reconciliation now
• judgment as correction that brings things into light
• darkness defined as ignorance and light as knowledge
• distortion as a warped view of God and self
• identity in Christ as the reference point for change
• deconstruction as releasing old patterns that keep us bound

We talk about the moment our faith shifts from simply reading Scripture to interpreting it, and how that shift reveals the lens and posture we bring to the Bible. We challenge the habit of using verses to defend what we already believe and push toward a Jesus-centered, context-driven way of reading that leads to real transformation and identity in Christ.
• the difference between Scripture transforming our lens and protecting our lens
• posture in Bible reading as the driver of humility, openness, and growth
• selective reading, proof-texting, and “editing” Scripture to stay comfortable
• why context matters more than our opinion
• Scripture as a window that reveals God versus a shield that blocks challenge
• measuring beliefs by whether they look like Jesus
• John 5:39 and the danger of missing who Scripture points to
• the finished work of Christ as the filter for reading all of Scripture
• identity in Christ and helping people see the treasure past the dirt
• confronting fear-based religion and condemnation that keeps people bound

I want you to question something.