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Embarrassing
Exodus 33:18-23, Exodus 34:29–35, 1 Kings 19:3–18, John 1:10–18 Have you ever hidden your face? Embarrassment. Shame. Guilt. Avoidance. The Israelites hid their faces from God. Originally it was out of fear. They only understood fearing gods, as gods were capricious and unpredictable. Now they were in the presence of a god that they were
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Household of Promise
Psalm 127, Ruth 4:9–17, Hebrews 3:1–6 If we were to judge life by Psalm 127, it would seem that God does everything, yet we know that it isn’t the case. “Unless God builds the house” is more along the lines of God building up or establishing, sustaining and encouraging, not God literally building the house.
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Waiting to See
Daniel 7:13-14, Luke 24:44-53, Ephesians 4:1-16 The Book of Daniel contains many prophetic writings. Often the prophet themselves may not know what exactly the words mean. Christians, by-and-large, don’t disagree much on these verses in Daniel have to do with Jesus. It seems pretty obvious, but we can often deceive ourselves when it comes to
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Whose Plans to Follow
Jeremiah 29:4–19, Jeremiah 40:1–6, Jeremiah 45:1–5 Jeremiah 29:12 is an oft-quoted verse: “For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the LORD’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” That verse is very comforting, and it should be. However, surrounding that verse is a whole
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Onto Waiting
Psalm 25, Isaiah 26:1–21, Acts 16:16–34 Imagine being the only person at a 4-way traffic light with no one else on the road. The light for you is red. And it’s still red. Most of us will wait a little bit. Some might rev their engine a little. Others might back up and then go
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Ongoing Testing
Ephesians 5:6–14, 1 Thessalonians 5:12–22, 1 John 4:1–6 Testing is never easy and rarely is it fun. However, it is something that needs to be done. It is we who often need to test ourselves and be the testers of our friends and family. We never really want to test ourselves, and we usually want
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Journey and Direction
1 Kings 8:41–53, Ruth 1:7–17, Luke 9:57–10:16 Where are you going? It’s a pretty basic question until we apply it to our lives. It wasn’t long ago, the question was followed with, “…to Heaven or Hell.” However, where are you going isn’t just about the destination, it is also about the journey. In fact, who
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Ruling Tradition
Psalm 79, Romans 15:1–13, 1 Corinthians 8:1–13, Galatians 2:11–15 Yesterday we talked about rules. Today we’re going to talk about rules. One of the first rules of framily is to build up one another. We have all done this well. We have all done this horribly. Another rule is to live in harmony with each
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Frameworks and Consequences
Acts 10:9–35, Acts 15:5–34, Romans 14:13-23 Rules are everywhere, aren’t they? Rules are a good thing. Often rules give us the freedom to act for we have a pretty good idea what others will do (assuming they know the rules). This is true in examples such as driving. We know (we hope) what the other
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Lead In Love
Mark 9:33–37, Acts 15:36-41, 1 Timothy 6:3–11 It is an amazing fact that you might have learned yourself: people are different, and don’t always agree. There are various kinds of disagreements, and it is not necessarily bad to disagree. In fact, it is often through disagreements that better solutions, not just compromise, can be found.