John The Baptist saw something with discerning eyes which allowed him to believe and passionately preach that Jesus was the Messiah. What he saw was a heavenly reality of relationship between Spirit and Son. This relational reality was what empowered Jesus in His earthly ministry, and it is what he invites us into as we walk with God in our own daily lives. To be immersed in the fullness of the Triune God is Christ’s example and gift to us.
Why is solitary confinement torturous? Why is loneliness so severe? After walking with Jesus, the Apostle John observed that the Father and Son’s relationship is one of with-ness. This message heralds this union, hints at how this union answers the questions above and points to how it models an intimacy with God similar to what we can also have.
It’s hard to watch a runner drop out of the race, and it’s difficult to see those we love step away from God when life gets tough. Just like an endurance coach helping a runner make it through the finish line, this message equips us to remain with God in a way described in Hebrews as “running with endurance.”
How and why you walk with God matters to the world around you in a big way! When you, as a follower of Christ, obey God and do what he says in faith (no matter the weirdness of what he asks) others will come to follow God in the same way. This is the story of the Israelites, The walls of Jericho and the Prostitute named Rahab.
When the ancient people of God were in crisis, surrounded by their enemy that could kill and capture them and the sea that could crush and drown them, God saved them by creating a path and spurring them to walk in faith through it. When we, the people of God, are in crisis today, we can trust that the one who spurred the world into motion can spur us to act justly, mercifully, and humbly as we walk with him.
Most of us struggle with a secret hope to be recognized and the reality that much of what we do goes unnoticed. This tension can frustrate us when others are praised and attempts to point out our own achievements are seen as arrogant. In this message we discover how walking with God in three specific ways caused Moses to be described as the most humble person on earth (Numbers 12:3) and how this type of life with God is the divine resolution to our human struggle.
It keeps us awake, diminishes our creativity and reduces our ability to love others. What is the antidote to fear? In this message we will discover God’s strategy to empower us to live in freedom rather than fear.
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We’ve come through a rough stretch. How are you doing? Having seen one thing after another not right in the world, how have you responded? Did you hide and deny, fight to fix and/or experience despair? What did you dwell on in the most difficult times? Years ago, on the first day of the week, at early dawn, God gave us something new to consider. For though the wrong seems oft so strong, there is a Ruler yet.
How would we cause Jesus to begin to weep (Luke 19:41)? On a very important day in the life of Jesus, He announces to the world that He is the King and Messiah that they are all waiting for. However, Jesus realizes that not everyone wants Him to be the King He came to be, rather they were looking for another type of King who would do what they wanted and make the world into the place they wanted it to be. Just as the crowd that day had a choice to make, we have a choice to make as well…what type of King do we want Jesus to be?