Flourishing. It’s a desire to grow, a desire to be healthy. It’s a yearning to prosper and to thrive. It’s a God-given human desire. And, it has captured our attention at Ingleside as the New Year has begun. This theme of flourishing, though sometimes forgotten or neglected, actually runs like a river through the Scripture. It is developed and reinforced in every major section of God’s Word. Beginnings. The source of this stream is found in the creation narratives...
There resides in the human heart a desire to flourish. It’s a desire to grow, a desire to be healthy. It’s a yearning to prosper and to thrive. It’s a God-given desire. In Psalm 1, we find both a powerful image of flourishing (the “tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season”) and the primary habit that leads to flourishing – delighting in and meditating on God’s Word daily. This past Sunday morning, in our study of Genesis 1 and 2, we...
The image of flourishing in Psalm 1 is powerful. It describes a life that “yields its fruit in its season.” It’s a life that “does not wither” when the heat comes. It’s a life about which you could say, he or she genuinely “prospers.” But how? The answer is compelling. Flourishing is a result of being “planted by streams of water.” It’s a result of “putting down roots” that bring nourishment and strength. In very practical terms, how do you do...
In a recent conversation with a colleague, she remembered that an instructor somewhere along her educational journey often penned a short tagline alongside his signature. It said simply, “Be the tree.” So what does this pithy statement mean? Where is rooted? To what does it allude? How should we understand this exhortation? It actually points to a passage of Scripture that we looked at this past Sunday in my message called, A First Step toward Flourishing. Here’s the...
