1. Creativity

We operate in three places. The first place is our home, and the second place is our work. Our third place is any relational space where we engage with others - and this could be anything from a neighborhood barbecue to a book club. Participation in our third place is critical to our well-being and harmony with the world around us.

God actually created a third place for us, called The Church. It is not only a relational place with other people but significantly with the Spirit of God. It is where we pursue God's vision for us to become like Christ. As we come into this third place with our anxieties, struggles, corrupt thinking, and dysfunction we will find that God does a wonderful thing ... God creates in us and renews us. This creative activity brings about peace, order, and joy.

This is not automatic or without our involvement. We must have a willing spirit that cooperates with God's plan. Specifically, our activity is the practice of disciplines.

 

 Doug Ellis    |   January 11, 2026   |   Psalms 51:10-12

2. Vision

The practice of all disciplines is joyfully done because a person is confident that it will produce the promised results we want. We dread disciplines that seem to have no point, and we barely engage in them.

So do you eagerly look forward to Christian disciplines like prayer, humbly serving, exploring Scripture with others, going out and ministering to people, simplifying your world, worship, solitude, fasting, etc? Do you get excited? Arrive early? Stay late?

If not, perhaps you don't know why you are doing them. Read how Paul says it concisely in Romans 8:29: we are to be changed to be like Jesus. So, we will love like Jesus, serve like Jesus, have hope like Jesus, know truth like Jesus, have power like Jesus, know the will of God like Jesus, have joy like Jesus, etc.

It is that simple. We roll up our sleeves and apply ourselves to discipline because we want to be like our role model Jesus ... and the more we are like Jesus, the more we help to demonstrate Jesus to the rest of this dark world.

 

 Doug Ellis    |   January 21, 2026   |   Romans 8:29

3. The Discipline of Serving

All disciplines create tension between where we are, and where we need to get to. They open us up to the power of God so that we may become reshaped, but most of us find our lives already so full of the world's routines, that we can hardly find a moment to read a morning devotion. Our worldly routine is the enemy of Christian adventure.

Where to begin? Of top priority is the movement from pride to humility, for pride is a fundamental block to God - as Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:5, "God opposes the proud." Most of us are infected with pride, preferring that others serve us and be beneath us. But, God has given us direction that we are to be servants rather than the bosses of others.

Today's message is on the discipline of serving. It is a discipline as important as prayer and the pursuit of the Word of God, and yet one that we too often neglect.

 

 Doug Ellis    |   February 1, 2026   |   Matthew 20:20-28

4. The Disciplines of Seeking Truth

We must realize that our souls are full of lies and half-truths that deceive us, hurt our joy, harm our relationships, and ultimately keep us from serving God more fully. We want truth. We need truth.

Many may say, "Just read the Bible, and you'll get truth" but that is a naive suggestion that doesn't appreciate spiritual realities. For all truth can be colored and distorted by pride, ignorance, bias, agendas, and even demons.

God knows that we need guidance, mentoring, and challenge in the pursuit of truth, and seeking truth together with the Holy Spirit is an essential discipline.

 

 Doug Ellis    |   February 8, 2026   |   2 Peter 3:15-18

5. The Disciplines of Absorbing Truth

After God had given Israel messages about His will, we notice in Deuteronomy 11 that the instructions were not just head knowledge, but to be rooted in their daily rhythms.

This is also true for us. It is not sufficient just to know God's will, for we are to become what God wills.

The disciplines of "absorbing truth" open us up to be saturated in the words of God so that our lives begin to align with God's will and do God's will.

 

 Doug Ellis    |   February 15, 2026   |   Deuteronomy 11:18-28

6. The Discipline of Simplicity

One thing is common for most American Christians: we are so absorbed in the busyness, cares and concerns of the world around us, that we have little margin to add anything into our agenda. We feel as if we can't squeeze in another thing, and so the disciplines of pursuing Jesus are shelved for sometime later.

If this describes you (and it probably does), then you need to deconstruct your menu of activity with the Discipline of Simplicity.

 

 Doug Ellis    |   February 22, 2026   |   Matthew 8:18-22

7. Strange Neighbors and Risky Care

To introduce the Disciplines of Loving Your Neighbor, let's begin with the Parable of the Good Samaritan. At the heart of this parable, is that people who are supposed to be representatives of God are not acting according to the nature of God. It was the Samaritan who acted according to the nature of God.

God's nature is love, which includes mercy and compassion. More than a feeling, it has actions of righteousness. And, as 1 John 3:7 states, whoever practices righteousness is righteous.

And this love and righteousness extends out to all: beyond our family and friends, beyond strangers and those who are different, and even out to those who annoy us and our enemies.

 

 Doug Ellis    |   March 1, 2026   |   Luke 10:25-37

8. Seven Ways Jesus Loved Neighbors

How does one love their neighbor, particularly because people have so many different ideas of what "love" might look like (and many of them are easy).

God didn't only give us commands and a dictionary, but more importantly He gave us the role-model of His Son. The best way to understand the kind of love that we are to exhibit is simply to look at the life of Jesus. Love like Jesus loved.

In this message, I note seven different characteristics of the love that Jesus showed to others: (1) He was proactive and went out to be present with people; (2) He was compassionate; (3) He was merciful and forgiving; (4) He knew truth, and he was truthful; (5) He was humble and served; (6) He was sacrificial; and, (7) He bore Godly power - beyond the power of human strength and ability.

 

 Doug Ellis    |   March 8, 2026   |   Matthew 22:39

9. The Test of Loving Our Neighbors

Why does God also command us to love our neighbors? Isn't loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength sufficient?

The Love that develops in the Fire of Faith is noticeably powerful, and not imagined. Which is easier: to say I'm a Christian and going to heaven, or to sacrificially and powerfully love my enemies?

Both loving God and loving our neighbors emerge from the same "love" and the same "faith" that comes from God. So, if one is not loving their neighbor whom they can see, are they really loving God whom they cannot see? Don't be deceived - loving your neighbor is not separate from loving God.

 

 Doug Ellis    |   March 15, 2026   |   Matthew 17:14-20

10. The Disciplines of Struggle

 Doug Ellis    |   March 22, 2026   |  

11. The Disciplines of Sabbath - Basics

 Doug Ellis    |   April 12, 2026   |  

12. The Disciplines of Sabbath - Sacred Space

 Doug Ellis    |   April 19, 2026   |  

13. The Discipline of Solitude

Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to commune with God and to be refreshed. No distractions. No people. No anxiety. No busyness. It is an encounter with God's truth, love, and power. Jesus lived in a divine rhythm where as grace was flowing out from him, he needed sacred space for grace to flow into him.

The discipline of solitude may seem like a practice of boredom - and we hate boredom because it feels painful. So anytime that we might face boredom, we too often choose to immerse ourselves in more busyness, more anxiety, or more distraction. Yet we need a sacred place of creativity with God, removed from the trauma and busyness that wound our souls. And when we do, we emerge refilled with power, hope and joy.

 

 Doug Ellis    |   April 26, 2026   |   Luke 5:16

14. The Discipline of Fasting

Why would anyone volunteer to go hungry? Why would any of us want the pain, discomfort, headaches, and weakness that comes about when a person fasts? Good questions. Donald Whitney, in Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, wrote that “fasting is the most feared and misunderstood of all the spiritual disciplines”.

Fasting is voluntarily going without food (and sometimes water) for a period of time - " it could be for just one meal, or for a day, or even several days. And when you look at all the examples in Scripture where people fasted, you will notice a pattern. In each case, they are desperate for God. They recognize their humble and helpless state and if God's power and presence doesn't come into their situation, then they will fail or be destroyed. Sometimes they need God to rescue them, sometimes to give them wisdom or direction, sometimes to show mercy to them, sometimes to resist or overcome the lies of Satan, or sometimes restoration, etc.

So what about us? Are we desperate for God or complacent?

 

 Doug Ellis    |   May 3, 2026   |   Leviticus 23:27

15. Coming to God with Praise and Thanksgiving

Admittedly, it can be intimidating to come before God to have Him change us. He might change our possessions, our relationships, our dreams in life, our reputation, our hobbies, our privilege, our generosity, our pleasures, etc. Most of us begin wanting to add Jesus to our existing lives, rather than have Jesus replace our lives, but that isn't how God is working. It isn't how Scripture describes the journey of a Christian.

How do we find the courage?

For us to genuinely and regularly kneel before God to ask Him to change us into the image of Jesus, as our Faith continuously urges us, we will need to trust that God loves us and has our best interests in mind. The disciplines of praise and thanksgiving prepare you for this change, as they recollect what God has done for you in the past and reflect on the very nature of God's goodness and love. Sure, we know the teaching that God loves us, but actually experiencing that love will give us the willingness to come before Him every day and eagerly desire for more and more change.

 

 Doug Ellis    |   May 10, 2026   |   Psalms 100:1-5

16. Interactive

 Doug Ellis    |   May 17, 2026   |