8th Street Church of the Nazarene, Oklahoma City, OK

Tune in to hear about how God has faithfully been at work in the 8th Street Church and what lies ahead as we seek to be good & useful neighbors that live the way of Jesus.

Jesus is our Divine Healer who not only sets us free from the things that hold us but sets us free for a purpose. He is the source of ultimate healing by his resurrection of the dead, and he reminds us that we too will be raised up. And when we tire from being people who do the work of healing in a broken world, he is the one who replenishes us, the one who restores our soul. Take a deep breath, you are not alone; there is more healing to come.

When you attend church, do you expect to be amazed? Do you anticipate that you will have a healing encounter with the Holy One? Mark 1:21-28 reminds us that Jesus's healing power has final say of the forces that hold us.

Poems, Earthquakes, and Angels

The Two Sides

Life during a pandemic feels like one of limitation. And yet, Paul's words to the church in Philippi remind us that it is in our limitations that we may find possibilities of liberation. What might God be inviting us to say "yes" to in this season full of "no's"?

In the midst a global pandemic, we are reminded that we live in a world of fear, disease, hunger, and isolation. And yet we are reminded that it is Lent that proceeds Easter, and that chaos is the material out of which God brings new life.

Sometimes it is the things that we think are the most harmless that can be the most destructive to us. What happens when we let apathy set in and begin to feel like our efforts don't matter? How can God redeem and restore us to people of hope who bring meaningful change in accordance with the kingdom?

Anger often consumes us. When we hold onto anger and allow it to be misused, it causes hurt and destruction in us around us. But, the good news is that God is able to take our anger and redeem it for God's purposes.

Just as Peter and John were witnesses to an incredible mountain experience, we here at the 8th street church have had many mountain top experiences of our own. But, it is on this Sunday that we take time to remember the ordinary as well as the extraordinary ways that God has worked in and among this community.

When times get tough, where do we put our hope? At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus offers us two ways of orienting our lives: trusting in him or putting our hope in other things that will ultimately leave us defeated.

No one can pretend that Jesus' words about loving enemies are easy to do; nor can we pretend that he didn't really mean them. It requires great courage and imagination to live these words of Jesus, and he helps to supply us with both.

Short Description: What do we do when we offend someone? What do we do when someone offends us? When Jesus addresses these questions in the Sermon on the Mount, we learn not only about ourselves, but about a loving and relational God.

For people who live in light-saturated cities where there's actually too much salt in our food, it can be hard to fully comprehend what Jesus means about being light and salt in the world. Jesus' words offer good news of exciting possibility, without obligation or burden.

The Beatitudes are some of Jesus' most well-known words, but perhaps least understood. When we hear these words from Jesus the prophet from within the prophetic, we are given entrance into a new reality that confronts and overturns the ways of the empire.

We often come to God after we have diagnosed ourselves, requesting the cure we deem appropriate. But what if Jesus' invitation to us offers a healing we didn't even ask for, or even expect?

The Christmas story does not end with "silent night;" it continues into strange and even dark events. But as we listen to Joseph and Mary's experience, perhaps we understand even more what it means that God is with us, and how we are invited into God's work.

Even when Isaiah encouraged him to "ask big," King Ahaz could not see beyond his fears to trust God. Can we? What sign would be enough for us to trust?

When we forget to think theologically, we forget that we are deeply connected to the land and abuse it. Judgment, or exile, follows; but it is not the end. Isaiah heard God singing a song of new creation, and it's a song for us as well.

Against the backdrop of empire politics, Isaiah is given a dream that is both a judgment of empire and an invitation into healing from the ways of the empire. It is a startling vision that may seem too far-fetched to ever be a reality. But those gathered by Jesus are given a new world and a new way of being in that world together.