All tagged Scripture
When I felt the nudge to check in earlier, all I wanted to do was see how they were doing. I didn’t have a list of action items or suggestions for the girls. I just wanted this mom to know that I cared, but my silence communicated just the opposite. The silent treatment is always the worst communication plan.
We live in a time and a culture that seems especially tempted to see the unfairness and brutality of human existence as good reason to let go of God. And if we are honest, there are probably times when it feels like holding on is pointless, when we wonder if our struggle to keep our faith is even worth it. And to that experience, this story offers us a gift: May we be as stubborn as Jacob: refusing to let go, until we get a blessing.
Jesus’ teaching here is that the children of the kingdom will have to wait until harvest time to see evil completely destroyed. This waiting, however, does not imply conforming to the world or indifference to its injustices.
If you want to get serious about studying Scripture, you have to become serious about poetry. God chose to allow his interactions with humanity to be written in both prose and poetry. There are both histories and hymns, statements and also songs.
How great and enduring should our gratitude be? It should be immeasurable and eternal. And how can we show it? By remaining at His feet, serving His cause, confessing before the world that He was “wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, and by his stripes we are healed.”
The “burning bush” moment is that they have learned the good news of Jesus—that he died for their sins and was raised from the dead. Their call is to be born again into the Kingdom of God.
“Who am I?” I am God’s! Because I am God’s, I have nothing to fear. So, when He calls, and He will call, we can approach Him in humility and gratitude and say, “Here am I, send me! Do with me what you will.”
God adopted the unadoptable—you and me. He did not care for our defects and disabilities. He just wanted to make us members of His family, to be our Father again, to make us His beloved children again.
Fear threatens to undermine the mission of God. How are Christians to handle this in practical ways? The Psalmist David, the Avett Brothers, and preacher Phoebe Palmer offer some advice.
Wright and Bird ground their response in Jesus’ primary message about the kingdom of God. They argue that in a time of fear and fragmentation, amid carnage and crises of various kinds, Jesus is King and Jesus’ kingdom remains the central object of the Church’s witness and work.
When churches preach Jesus Christ, call people to discipleship, welcome all to community and shared life, practice hospitality and care for others, then churches continually find opportunities to live into a simple Christian witness.
It is the task of the preacher is to ensure that the Bible exercises the right kind of authority in the lives of those gathered within the hearing of the Word.
Story after story unfolds and it becomes so abundantly clear that what makes for health and vitality is that in every new moment there is the space to look for God’s arrival and to name it!
Perhaps God’s miraculous rescues, when and if they happen, aren’t easily verifiable. Maybe they depend on faith to see these divine interventions.
God is with you, God knows you, and God loves you. Don’t ever forget it. Because we are often hardest on ourselves. And if you are running from God, God isn’t far from you.
How do I explain these seemingly unconnected events? Was I lucky? Was it a coincidence of various events? No. I believe it was God’s providence in action.
It became clear our theme needed to embody the different ways that Jesus would challenge people through his use of parables — Woven Together: The Power of Biblical Narratives.
The prophetic imagination reminds that hope is a gift when we decenter our own perspective, trust God, and take our place within the Christian community that stands before God and waits.
I believe depression is real. And it happens to Christians. It happened to a great prophet, Elijah. Read I Kings 19. He was so depressed he wanted to die.
Two women. One day. Changing the course of history. One woman with a fierce faith, called by God to lead, and the other woman fulfilled the prophecy that the Lord would use the hand of a woman to change history.
