Pursuing God with Gene Appel

Today, Gene reflects on the paralyzed man in Mark 2 who spent years confined to a mat until four friends carried him to Jesus. For him, that mat represented weakness and limitation — but it also became the place where he experienced healing and hope. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

This is our final episode in our week about dealing with gray areas in Christian living. We've established that love should guide our decisions when the Bible doesn't give clear direction, we've seen Paul's example of voluntary limitation, and we've talked about making introducing people in our lives to Jesus our ultimate priority.  Today, we’ll discuss how to make these decisions practically, without falling into legalism or insensitivity to others, with six practical guidelines for navigating the gray areas. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

Today we’ll focus on the ultimate goal that should drive all of our decision-making: We should be trying to get as close to Jesus as we can.  Paul said, "I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many, that they may be saved." This is the heart attitude that should characterize our approach to gray areas. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

Welcome back to a week where we’re dealing with gray areas that surface when we follow Jesus. We've established that love should be our guiding principle when the Bible doesn't give us clear direction, and we've seen how Paul applied this.  Today, we’ll look at how Paul lived out this principle in his own ministry in a very practical and powerful way.  Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

In 1 Corinthians, believers were struggling with whether they should eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols in pagan religious practices. Today we're going to dive into Paul's answer about how the principle of love plays out in making difficult decisions. His response is both practical and profound. In the gray areas of life, are you being driven by what you have the right to do or by what love would do? Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.