Money can activate either greed or generosity within us. When God urges us to share our financial resources for the good of others, He doesn’t do so by appealing to guilt or obligation. God tells us that we can invest in things that really matter by sharing the money...
Everywhere we look, we are confronted with messages telling us about the things we need to be happy and whole. If only we can get, the better phone, go on the better vacation, drive the better car, get into the better college, then we will be content. We will be...
It seems clear that Jesus wants to shape culture. To ultimately transform the conscience and morality of a people. His disciples anticipated that Jesus was about to establish a political machine capable of toppling the Roman Empire. But that’s not what Jesus did. The...
Becoming a Christian and living as one are two different things. God refers to one as justification and the other as sanctification. We might also understand these two distinctions as finding Jesus and following Jesus. Blur this distinction between salvation and...
You’re born into God’s family the moment you place your faith in Jesus for eternal life. You start as a spiritual baby. But it’s never God’s intention for you to remain a baby. You are to grow and thrive as a maturing believer in Jesus. But you never grow passively....
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your should and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:30-31 OBSERVATION God instructs his people...
Have you ever felt unprepared? You’ve probably had a time in your life when you were not prepared at all for what was about to happen. As our flesh constantly fights to lead us further away from God, it’s easy for us to feel unprepared for life. But God prepares us by...
In the Bible, we read Jesus promising to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples after He is gone. As believers in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is also with us, living inside of us, just as Jesus promised. The question is, why did Jesus send the Holy Spirit to be with us?...
Is it possible to know you have a new life through Christ and are headed for heaven? If so, how? God never intends for the assurance of your salvation to be a perpetual guessing game. You can know you’re saved. Unfortunately, you can lose your grip on the assurance of...
Nothing challenges our view of God like challenges. Maybe, lately, you feel like you’ve had your share of obstacles and hardships. When we’re pressured with difficulties, our idea of a good God can end up on the chopping block. How can God be good when evil exists and...
God reminds us in the Bible that He gave an Old Covenant and a New Covenant. Confuse the two and you’re in for a confusing and inconsistent attempt at living for Jesus. It’s not an exaggeration to suggest that the church across the world is mired in legalistic...
We can have FAITH.Heaven was revealed to John, but John didn’t know exactly when the things God showed him would happen. And neither do we. The truth is, there’s a lot we DON’T know. We can read John’s words, and we can do our best to imagine what heaven will be like...
“The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.” Exodus 20:21OBSERVATION When I think of darkness, I think of quiet, stillness, and a heightened awareness to everything around me. But I’m not always comfortable being still or...
Have faith and trust in God.In Rome, Paul was allowed to live in a home while watched by guards. For two years, he welcomed anyone who came to see him. He shared the good news of Jesus with Jewish and non-Jewish people—just like God had promised he would. Paul...
Living By Faith AND Living With Anxiety hen I was a child, I was terrified of thunder and lightning. During a thunderstorm, you could count on finding me hiding behind the couch or under the dining room table. My parents would attempt to...
"Then Jesus told him, Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed." John 20:29 OBSERVE In this verse we see the essence of Faith explained by Jesus himself to Thomas. If we look at the definition of faith it is a...
Whenever we head into a new normal, there is usually an old normal we have to contend with first. We transition into a new normal when an old normal no longer works or the new normal is significantly better. This week, we'll discuss a new command Jesus gives his...
We have helpfrom the Holy Spirit.All the way through God’s Story, we can find believers who had great faith just like Saul, Ananias, and Barnabas did. These people chose to believe in what they couldn’t see because of what they could see. When we look at people in...
There is a powerful connection between how we think and how we live. We’re not always aware of those connections, but what we think about and how we think about it directs our actions and responses. The Bible draws a direct connection between spiritual transformation...
We all had a beginning. You entered the world in a moment of time. And just like a physical birth, so too, you need a spiritual birth. You may be a child who is only a few years old or an adult well into your later years. But you need to experience new life through a...
They had faith!When we read the Bible today, we can look back and see how God’s Big Story took shape. But none of the people at the time could see with their eyes how God was going to save His people. Instead, they had to have faith that God had a bigger plan. They...