Problems pile on until life feels more like a grave than renewed life, and we wonder where God is. The Book of Ruth opens with Naomi back from Moab empty and bitter, renaming herself Mara because the Almighty has dealt harshly with her—still certain God is King, yet unable to see whether that King still loves her. Is there hope when we find ourselves feeling the same way?
We often treat sin as a handful of inconsequential debts, so asking God for forgiveness—or forgiving someone else—can feel unnecessary. In Matthew 6:12, Jesus places both debts before us in a single petition: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Do we understand the balance we have run up?
Pastor Tim thinks about how the different aspects of the Fruit of the Spirit connect together as we arrive at the halfway point of our Twelve Days of Christmas journey to Epiphany.
Pastor Tim contemplates showing goodness on this Sixth Day of Christmas. How has God shown goodness to us and how can we show goodness to others?
You open what looks like a personal Christmas card and it’s just a pitch for insurance. There’s always the something being snuck by us, isn’t there? Jesus faced that same suspicion — how can we know He is really who He says He is?
Deep down, even people who come to God carry a fear that He will eventually give up on them — that sooner or later they’ll be shown the door. That fear is exactly what Jesus meets head-on in John 6.
As we look at the conclusion of Psalm 6 tonight, we explore how David emerges from deep despair even though things aren’t yet fully “right.”
What (or whom) do we trust in when everything seems uncertain? David takes us on a journey to the right place of trust as we continue in Psalm 6.
Sometimes the starting point in desperation is to realize just how desperate we really are.
When Jesus says that we should get the log out of our own eye before helping someone get a speck out, what does He have in mind? Is He calling us to stop making any moral judgments?