Class Intro

I'd like to welcome you to our oasis. As you look around you will see palm trees swaying in the breeze, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, cool sand below your feet, and a warm sun above your head. See, these are the images we are “sold” when it comes to living our lives. But when you make it about halfway (we most of us are right now), you realize that it's not a tropical paradise. 

In fact, it's much more like Gilligan's Island or LOST. You may find yourselves shipped wrecked on a deserted island, struggling to survive, wondering how things got so bad and whether you should set up camp near the beach or the back in the jungle near the fresh water. Or worse, you may be living comfortably in cabins with the “others,” having slipped into a unintentional life, satisfying selfish desires and thinking the “stuff” we have is ours.

The world you find yourself in is a little more corrupt and hostile than you first thought and it seems the forces of darkness are gaining ground, closing in, even perhaps taking over. But here's the Good News, the Great News! Our God, our Lord, our Savior has overcome the world. The ending, the great reveal, the spoiler is this: we win!

It's time that we start living like winners in the Lord Jesus Christ not like the world from which we've been saved.