Strength is found in the grace of God. The things we learn from God are worth passing along to others—those who are showing themselves faithful already. Living for God and investing in others is always related to faithful endurance. Life is difficult and so is life...
As Paul writes his last words, he encourages Timothy to remember the gospel in kind of a strange way: he urges Timothy to join with him in suffering for the gospel. Is there a different way to see suffering? In this message, we’ll see how God empowers us to maintain...
When We're Chained to Our Circumstances Because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God's message without fear. Philippians 1:14 aul wrote his letter to the Philippian church while imprisoned in...
Life is full of extraordinary challenges: wars, injustice, and politics just to name a few. When faced with these extraordinary challenges, we can look for a miracle that is just as extraordinary. But life also has its ordinary challenges: stressful emails or losing...
Even in Betrayal Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Luke 22:31-32 esus spoke the...
If given the choice between good feelings or bad, we would usually choose good. Let’s face it, good feelings are pleasurable. But pleasure as a life-goal leads to bad things. All around us are false gods that scream for our attention and devotion. And pleasure can...
When we believe, Jesus invites us to follow Him and live with Him as apprentices of His way. This is an invitation to come and die to ourselves in order to follow Him into a new life with the Father. To die to our sin, our brokenness, our plans to save ourselves, and...
Seems like there’s plenty to be upset about in our world. We can even get personally offended by the actions and comments of others around us. Here’s a radical, relational idea: What if you can become unoffendable? That’s right—unoffendable. It’s rare but possible....
It’s possible to live with legitimate, godly desires that are never fulfilled in your lifetime. Pain, disappointment, heartache and disillusionment can expose these restless longings. Unmet desires remind us that we’re living in one world but longing for another. God...
It’s not unusual to have certain expectations about how life should work and what God is obligated to do for us. This formulaic view of life makes perfect sense until the formula no longer works in our favor. We instinctively work to avoid pain at any cost. But what...
The Road to Easter runs the entire length of the Bible. The whole of scripture is the unfolding story of the Father’s plan to redeem the world through the death and resurrection of His beloved Son. As with all roads, the destination is harder to see when the journey...
We often think we know where we are heading and even how we’re going to get there. God often has other ideas. Sometimes He allows us to go through storms that threaten to batter and break us. At such times surrender to a God who would allow such storms seems like the...
Giving generously means recognizing that God has given us gifts, talents, possessions, time, and influence to use for His purposes. We are merely stewards of what we have—it all belongs to God. Giving well means giving with open hands and hearts, trusting God to meet...
Week 5Paul in PrisonWeek 5As we continue our journey through the book of Acts, we find Paul and Silas, his partner in ministry, in prison. They were arrested after casting a demon out of a girl who was being exploited by evil men who had found a way to make money from...
At some point in our lives, we are all going to experience negative emotions. That’s right. Suffering will come. And the emotions associated with suffering…guilt, shame, sadness, despair, anger…they will follow. What we do with these emotions says a lot about our...
Our culture would rather avoid emotional pain and suffering than engage it. These experiences are treated as obstacles to living life to its fullest. Yet when we look back at our lives it’s usually the difficult events that have shaped us the most. Far from getting in...
Week 2: The Marginalized and Excluded This week, we learn that: Jesus overcame fear-based exclusion with love and compassion. What we assume about suffering determines our response to it. We have to see our prejudices and their consequences before we can overcome...
The cost of achieving great things usually requires sacrifice and focus. When the Jewish people were called upon to occupy Jerusalem, they found themselves at a crossroads. This next step of faith would require giving up their comfort. In fact, it would require they...
A Place of RefugeEven the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young-a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Psalm 84:3-4...
Some problems in life are so big they are overwhelming. At the beginning of the book of Nehemiah, the walls of Jerusalem lay in ruins. The people living there had grown accustomed and indifferent to the ruin around them, but Nehemiah’s heart was broken by it. He was...
The Sacrifice of BrokennessMy sacrifice [the sacrifice acceptable] to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart [broken down with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent] such, O God, you will not despise. Psalms 51:17 (AMP)Most of us are familiar...