RUF at SCAD

Let's get practical understanding how we change and how the gospel starts to shape our lives!

"Without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God."  - John Calvin How do we see ourselves within the greater story of God's divine plan to love His people?

If the Bible has such a high view of marriage, how can it also have a high view of singleness?  Because neither is meant to be the end goal, and both can be unique and beautiful ways to see the sufficiency of Jesus.

Relationships work best when we use them for the purpose with which they were intended.  Which means dating will always be the most helpful and enjoyable when it is the most free.

If we don't understand the divine beauty of marriage, we will never see the glorious vision the bible paints of sex and sexuality, as well as the redemptive plan that Jesus offers for our sexual shame.

The biblical picture of marriage as a divine drama gives us a lasting, fulfilling vision for marriage that supersedes anything else we could imagine.

The Bible shows why friendship is so important, what good friendship is rooted in, and the mystery of Jesus calling us friends.

If relationships, according to the Bible, are so good, why are they the cause of so much pain and hardship?

Relating to others can provide the highest highs and the lowest lows of our human experience.  How does the Bible give us the grid to make sense of relationships from a foundational level, and how does it ultimately point to God's love for us?

Romans 8 ends with the most comforting question that could be asked:  "If God is for us, who can be against us?"

The true hope of the gospel says that God chose us when we would have never chosen Him.  A claim that can often be tough to embrace is the real foundation of hope for Christians.

The incredible promise of God's comfort is that we can be honest about our sufferings and still have hope in Christ.

It isn't just us that God has in view in His grand plan of salvation.  He also promises that this fallen world will be renewed into something beautiful beyond comprehension.

Part of the amazing news of our true hope in Christ is that it is personal.  God gives us a Father, a family, and a future.

We all have a fear of going through life alone.  The true hope of the gospel says that in Christ, you will never have to.

In an age of authenticity, Christianity dares to suggest that change is actually good.  So how does it happen?

In order to have the true hope, we find we are unable to grasp it ourselves.  How does God provide the help we need in order to have hope?

All of us are looking for a true hope, but would we know it if we saw it?  Romans 8:1 tells us what this hope is, who it is for, and how we posses it.

What is a true encounter with Jesus really like?  Saul's radical change in Acts 9 shows us it is overwhelming, transformational, and loving.

The demon-possessed man in Mark 5 finds that the hope Jesus offers speaks directly into the places he feels unworthy to be loved.

In Luke 23, Jesus encounters Pilate and gets us to ask the hard question:  which voice are we listening to?

In his final moments of life, the thief in Luke 23 being put to death beside Jesus discovers that Jesus offers hope even to the biggest of failures.  

Jesus encounters the "sinful woman" in Luke 7:36-50 and shows us what it really means to be well.

What does Jesus say to Thomas in the midst of his doubt in John 20?  Perhaps doubt isn't the opposite of faith, and perhaps Jesus can use even our doubts to reveal His glory.

Jesus encounters the Rich Young Ruler in Matthew 19, and we see that busyness prevents us from seeing Jesus.  You might have a lot to do, but in Christ, you don't have to be busy.

We look at Jesus encounter with the man born blind in John 9, and Jesus shows us that suffering have something to say to one another.

We look at Jesus's encounter with Nathanael in John 1 to see that pride can exist in our belief or our unbelief.