Pastor Tim shares a brief devotional from Scripture for Memorial Day weekend, turning to 1Thessalonians for hope even in the midst of mourning those who have given their lives to protect us.
Grace saves us—we donR17;t deserve it, canR17;t earn it, and have no grounds to boast about it, as Paul makes plain in Ephesians 2:8–9—so what does it look like when a community of undeserving people actually lives that out together as the church God is building?
This week, weR17;re turning to PaulR17;s second letter to the Thessalonians as we continue our journey through 52 books of the Bible over the course of 2021!
We've all prayed about something so long that we start to wonder if God has put us on hold—and whether anyone is ever going to pick up. In Luke 18, Jesus tells a parable about a powerless widow who keeps pleading before a judge who neither fears God nor respects people, and asks whether his people will keep crying out to him day and night or simply lose heart.
What is required to be a Christian? We believe that trusting in Jesus for salvation, confessing him to be your Lord and Savior, is the necessary step for being a Christian. At the same time, there is much more the Bible has to say that it is important for Christians to know and to grow in the truth of and what follows gives you an understanding of how we understand different key Biblical teachings at Little Hills.
We keep reaching for more—a better version of the Christian life, a deeper secret, some upgrade that will finally make everything click—when Ephesians 1 says God has already lavished wisdom and insight on us and made known the mystery of His will. What does it look like to actually live in that, rather than keep reaching past it?
You can confess Jesus as Lord, cast out demons, do mighty works—and still hear him say, “I never knew you.̶1; Matthew 7:21–23 cuts past everything we think proves weR17;re his followers, asking instead the question that actually matters: Does he know you?
