Make space in your schedule and your life for an Advent guide like this one or another one you choose and invite a few friends, your family, your Life Group, or coworkers to join you. May God remind you of his love and bring you fresh ways to experience him.

I always wanted to be a good Christian, a good parent, and a good wife. Those three things were very important to me. I truly did desire to walk with him, but I thought that you had to do everything by yourself. So my walk was like a yo-yo, constantly up and down. Be strong, put on a happy face, act like everything is fine and mask anything that isn’t; living a life of religion has all these rules of do’s and don’ts.

There is a psalm that begins, “I waited patiently for the Lord, he inclined to me and heard my cry” (Psalm 40:1). What follows is a celebration of God’s goodness after a season in a “desolate pit” and “muddy clay.” It’s a psalm that David Sheets has come to understand deeply.

For “The Paradigm Shift” sermon in the Life of Moses series, Rachel talked about how the life she thought she was going to have was turned upside down and she was emptied out. Then God came and filled up the empty places.

As part of our In His Image series this fall, we sat down with Mike and Victoria, who shared their story of discovering gender roles in their home and work. God has changed their views over the years leading them to a place of flourishing and serving.

At 24, Amy was trying to be invisible. There were deep wounds from a recent divorce to heal, two children to feed, and rent to pay. She sat in the back during worship service, slipped out during the last song to teach in Calvary Kids, and escaped to the parking lot when everyone else was gone. She held on and held it together. Until she couldn’t anymore.

“There is a verse in 1 Timothy that says, ‘But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that,’ (6:8)” Raychaelle Horner says. “The experience of getting out of debt has helped us to be content with what God has given us.”

Six years ago Devin and Raychaelle Horner were typical American newlyweds – young, still in school, and already deeply in debt – when they decided living with debt long-term was not okay with them.

Isaac and Rahab Macharia, church planting pastors, talked with some of our church staff via Zoom from Kampala, Uganda, about the challenges and joys of planting a church and the unique ways they’re ministering during COVID-19 lockdown.

“In our heads, we’re still a young married couple,” Ryan Silver says. “But when someone in our Life Group asks for advice or perspective, we wonder, ‘How did we get to be the seasoned mentor couple?’”

Ryan and Sheila are Life Group leaders at Calvary, where they have combined their passion to give newly married couples the kind of solid relational start they had with Calvary’s commitment to teach people how to do life together in community.

“C’mon, let me show you my favorite room,” Audrey Krooswyk says stepping into a small rectangular room where boxed and canned goods line the wire shelves. A smile lights her face. This pantry, just off the spartan, industrial kitchen in the barn at First Fruits Farm, is the heart of Audrey and Mike’s First Fruits ministry.

“I came home from a medical mission trip in October 2018 and told Mike I felt like God wanted me to feed people. He held my hand and said, ‘Okay, we’ll pray about that.’

God’s grace is astounding to me. I thought because I had turned my back on him so many times and for so long, that he was done with me. Nothing could be further from the truth. He was there all along.

“Faith is not just coming to church on Sunday morning,” Derek Gora says. “It started that way for us, but when you surrender yourself – your body, your mind, your soul – to what God might have in store for you, you’re going to hear from him. You’re going to see him work.”

When you get in front of people, they’re just people. Their basic needs and their need for Christ is the same as ours. As different as our cultures are, we can look in the eyes of an Indian Christian and see a brother or sister. It’s like we’re tethered.

“When I tuck L* in at night, every time I pray that regardless of where she ends up, she would grow up to know and love Jesus,” Jon Moneta says about his foster daughter. “Whether that’s in our home, her mom’s, or in someone else’s, I pray that God will protect and bless her.”

“And I pray that if it’s his will, that we would be able to keep her. And if it’s not, then help us to grow in that too.”

As part of the sermon series "That's Not Me," Wade shares what it's like to stop driving hard after achievement and success. From the sermon "I Am Not What I Do."

As part of our "That's Not Me" series, Kevin recalls the way his faith in Jesus and his sense of himself changed when his business folded. From the sermon "I Am Not What I Have."

For most of my adult life, all I had known was being married. When I was first separated, I would go to the doctor’s office and I didn’t even want to check the ‘divorced’ box. Just having to check that box made me anxious. I didn’t want my life to be this way. This is not how I would have written my story, let me tell you. But my prayer almost from day one has been that I would see beauty from these ashes. And I’ve seen a lot of beauty.