Christ is with us. The biggest fear of a Christian being separated from God. In the midst of my struggles I felt like I was separated from everyone and everything, but mainly God, and knowing God, but feeling like he isn’t with you is devastating, but we are not alone.
One of my biggest struggles is feeling like I needed to earn God’s love. My being depressed and anxious somehow meant that God was unhappy with me or that I wasn’t in his favor. But we are made new creations in Christ and accepted by God.
There is a misconception that Christians shouldn’t struggle with depression or anxiety. Yet, we see main characters all throughout the bible who felt such despair that they thirsted for death.
Reading our Bible on a regular basis isn't just something to check off our list. It helps us build a foundation in our lives built on purpose. We can be confident that Scripture is the very Word of God. And we won't become everything God wants us to be without listening to his Word - in fact, we need Scripture to become mature believers.
The Gospel isn’t just the Good news, it’s the best news. The Church should never be ashamed of what we have been gifted. Rather we should take every opportunity to share and celebrate the gift we have graciously been given.
This is a specific instruction to Timothy himself. But it applies to all of us, we all have a gift, we all experience the moving of the Spirit. It is sinful to sit and let Church pass you by. The abled bodied do the work that those who aren’t physically able can’t. We should all lead in the area we can.
A successful church prays. We must pray and do so purposely. Our success is determined by our connection to God. Prayer is that means of connection.
As Christians we have the power of the truth. As the old superhero adage goes, with great power comes great responsibility. How we yield the truth is of ultimate importance. Our actions, and discourse must always come from love.
Christ is coming back again, this time with a purpose. He will heal creation and claim his own - will we be ready?
Christ died for us so that we would not feel the sting of sin. He rose himself from the dead so we may experience life. We cannot underestimate the power of his rising.
The Old Testament told us that the Messiah’s side would be pierced, and that he would suffer for the sins of the world. Christ death encompassed those prophecies. He died a heinous death because he loved us greatly.
Expectations minus reality equals disappointment. We get frustrated when things don't go the way we planned them to. When Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, many people expected Jesus to be a very specific kind of Messiah - one that would free the Jews from their Roman oppressors. When he ended up being very different than their expectations, they were extremely disappointed, even to the point of crying out for his crucifixion. What do we do and how do we react when our false expectat...
When God makes promises, those promises are kept. One of the biggest promises made in the Old Testament is that when the Messiah would come, he would be born of a virgin. When Jesus came, he had to come in the promised way - and he did. But further than that, the promise of the virgin birth means that we can born again too. God's promises always come true!
Mary, Martha's sister had such devotion and desire to put Jesus first, she was willing to sacrifice a year's worth of wages to anoint Jesus' head and feet with an extremely expensive bottle of perfume. From this amazing story, Mary shows us that nothing should distract us from Jesus and that we can't let ourselves be discouraged by the negative attitude of others around us. Where does your relationship with Jesus fall in order of importance in your life?
Hannah in the Old Testament wasn't able to have children while Ephraim's other wife was able to. But when she was in her darkest hour, she leaned on God and refused to be discouraged. She proved that devoted prayer can be powerful. What's more, she was a woman of her word - when she finally did have a child, she gave him away because that was what she promised to God. Integrity isn't optional for those who follow Christ.
Ruth is a fantastic example of loyalty in the Bible; in several ways, she shows us what loyalty is. We are a people who leave. We have let loyalty in our lives slip and when things get tough, we separate from others. But in Ruth, we see an example of someone who stuck through circumstances no matter what. And she was rewarded for her loyalty! We can expect that the same may happen for us as well.
In this 5-week series, we're looking at the stories of 5 prominent women in the Bible to see what we all can learn from them and we're starting out looking at Esther! Esther did what is right at the risk of being wronged and shows us exactly what it looks like to make righteous and courageous decisions. God honors the actions of his chosen people (when they are following Him) but he can't honor actions you never had the courage to take!
God had a great plan for Abraham that involved having a son with his wife Sarah. But instead, Abraham took matters into his own hands and tried to execute it a different way. When we do evangelism our way instead of God's way, we cheapen God's value and may even be introducing people to a false god. We need to introduce them to a God who judges but who also extends grace. And it starts with being honest about sin (and God's saving grace) in our own lives.
There's an amazing story in Genesis where Abraham fights for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah and essentially negotiates with God to spare their lives. We need to likewise fight for the people in our lives who don't yet know God, whether they aware of it or not. Most of the time, this means foregoing the masses and focusing on the few, seeing them the way that God saw us. Lost, alone and in need of rescue.
Sometimes it's hard to talk to people about serious topics and we all have days where we'd rather just be left alone. But God never promised we'd always be comfortable and, indeed, calls us to leave our comfort zone from time to time. But God does promise to bless those who accept the call and speak to others about Him.
The ideas of Evangelism and Multiplication are closely linked. In the same way that God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply (physically), he wants us to multiply others by bringing them to Christ. But, in order to do that, we have to be connected to Christ ourselves - that is the only way we can fulfill this command from God. And we are expected to fulfill it - our life on the vine is determined by how much fruit we produce.
All human beings have intrinsic value - we know that because the Bible says that God created us in the likeness and image of God. This means that, in some ways, we can be like God. But what does that mean? What is God like? He wants to be in relationship with his creation and is willing to go to great lengths to see that accomplished. Therefore, we need to be doing the same thing - bringing people back to God.
At this time of year, many of us think about the promise of Christmas: hope, peace, joy and love. But where do these ideas come from in Scripture? We're looking at the first 2 chapters in Luke this week to see these themes in the Christmas story.
Christianity is for everyone. There is no division amongst believers whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. We all serve the same Lord and everyone is included in God's invitation. In the same way, ministry is for everyone. It isn't reserved for pastors and evangelists - everyone is included in the call to share the gospel message with those who have not yet heard.
Do you love unconditionally or are there certain conditions that must be present before you can love certain people. Genuine love shows itself in the way we treat others, not in the words that we say. If we want to truly love others - genuinely - we need to focus on what is good and let the future hope that we have dictate our present actions.
We have suffering in the present, but that doesn't mean that destruction awaits in the future. We can still praise God in the middle of suffering because we know it pales in comparison to the glory of heaven we'll receive later. God chose us for this purpose. And he will see us through the suffering by his love.
In Romans 8, we learn that the Spirit gives us life and sets us free. After becoming a Christian, a person has two choices - to be led by the Spirit or to be led by the flesh. If we live in the Spirit, we can enjoy life and please God, but if we live in the flesh, we cannot do those things. We must learn to choose the Spirit.
The Law was supposed to bring life but, because of our sin, instead brings condemnation. But the Law is ultimately good because it points out our need for grace. We know the good we want to do but we don't do it. Instead, we do the evil we don't want to do. But thank God for sending his son Jesus to rescue and deliver us! He is our only hope.
When we become a Christian, we don't become perfect overnight but we are still dead to sin in that moment. In Romans 6, Paul says that we don't intentionally sin to experience God's grace but rather we feel God's grace when we feel our previously sinful lives changing. When we died (to sin) with Christ, it means we also live with Christ, and He gives us the power to go and sin no more.
In order to be righteous, do we need to follow all the rules or live by faith? Today, we're looking to define what faith is, why faith is actually a gift to us from God and how to find a healthy balance between faith and the rules.
