This is a special follow up episode on "belonging" where I interview Brooke Palmer. Brooke is the Leader Pastor of Belonging Community Church - a church-plant launching in Urbana, MD in the Fall of 2024. Check out the Church and it's happenings here: https://www.belongingcc.com!

My favorite quote from the episode: "I think when you have a place where you belong, it looks more like Jesus. It can open your eyes to what God really thinks and feels about you." - Brooke Palmer

When you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior, God adopts you into His holy family and you become His son or daughter. When you are adopted by God, you belong to Him. And all the legal rights, privileges, power, authority and inheritances that Jesus receives as His firstborn, we receive as His adopted sons and daughters. He doesn’t hold anything back from us. He becomes our Heavenly Father and we belong to His family. We belong to Him. And belonging is one of the best feelings you can experience. Ephesians 1:5 states that "God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure."

It is obvious that we live in a dark world. God is the one who created both physical and spiritual light so that we may have life. When we believe in His Son, Jesus, we become people of the light and our purpose is to shine. We shine so that we reflect God's glory and so that others may see the light and are drawn to it. The more we are refined by God, the more our light shines and we brighten up this dark world.