Our Christian hope is a firm and secure anchor for the soul, guaranteed not by our own strength or patience, but by two unchangeable realities: God’s unbreakable promise and His solemn, self-sworn oath to bless us through Jesus Christ, our eternal Forerunner and High Priest.
The writer of has now shown the heart and purpose of this book. They have a strong frustration due to he audiences failure to progress in the things of Jesus. May we learn from their mistakes and grow in faith daily.
The author of Hebrews is focusing on Jesus as our High Priest. This is important because Jesus as our High Priest gives us access to the throne of grace. As we look at what the role of a Priest is and why Jesus best fulfills this role, it will become apparent why we should approach the throne with boldness.
The Hebrew writer continues to show the shortcomings of the people in the wilderness who experienced God's goodness and chose to disobey him. His hope for the readers of this book is for them to actively, choose to trust God daily.
Our world is saturated with opportunities for us to get frustrated with each other and the Lord. It’s really no different than the times the writer of Hebrews was addressing. The answer is the same for us today, we should learn from the past and listen to the spirit.
The Preacher of Hebrews wants to assure this suffering church does not abandon the great salvation and hope they have in Jesus, because no one else brings us closer to God than Him.
The author of Hebrews is continuing his argument for the superiority of Jesus. Specifically, that He as God is superior to the angels. But He also as man was made lower than the angels. On the one hand, this may seem confusing. However, it is key to this simple point: Jesus is God, but He became like you to heal you.
The book of Hebrews is believed to be addressed to a group of Jewish Christians who were entertaining the idea of returning to Old Testament Judaism. While that may be unfamiliar to us, I believe we can all think of a time where we were not sure we wanted to press on. The good news is that If you could sum up the entire book of Hebrews in a simple phrase, it might be something along the lines of ,“Jesus is superior.” He is our superior prophet, priest, and king. Even if we don’t yet fully understand all the implications of that, it is worth clinging to as we study it further.
Our words are powerful and apart from a renewed heart in Christ, we are prone to do damage to others with our words. Thanks be God Jesus gives us better words and speaks a better word over us.
God desires for us to live in community, where every generation is connected and every person is valued. Intergenerational relationships, like a well-structured family, are essential for our growth and for the flourishing of the church
Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 2 remind us that the church is called to be more than a gathering place; we are God’s outpost for holistic restoration in our cities. Following the model of Christ’s ministry, we see that love for neighbor must involve the whole person, and true discipleship must engage the whole community.
God’s favor is not the absence of suffering, but the promise of His presence and purpose within it. This sermon uses the image of an immovable tree, and a patient gardener to show how trials build our faith and produce spiritual fruit.
Housed in the center of the 3rd chapter of the book of proverbs, is this interesting detail about how God used wisdom like a building material for the construction of our world. It is from this place where the reader is told you need it to be successful in a world founded by wisdom.
The book of Proverbs is more than a list of do’s and do not’s. Yet, it can be easy to look at it that way. Proverbs 3 lays a good ground work for making application of the entirety of the book. Applying the wisdom the book offers starts by first knowing God in all our ways. If we begin with that in mind, we may find walking in wisdom more freeing.
In Proverbs 9, we find two dinner invitations; one leads to wisdom and life and the other folly and death. The path we chose has little to do with what we know and everything to do with who we know.
In the final chapters of Acts, we find Paul being questioned for his faith and his ministry activity. Paul has learned to find the blessing in a situation he is confronted with.
As we near the end of the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul has found himself on trial for things that he did not do. Part of the Christian life is dealing with this persecution from the world, but how do we handle it well? Paul’s answer is that he has hope in Jesus, The world may bring false charges against us, but let us be found guilty of one thing: our hope in Jesus.
Paul is now sharing his faith on trial before the Sanhedrin. We too may find ourselves standing on trial one day under the microscope for the faith we hold. We should always remember that Jesus stands with us.
Paul demonstrates for us what it looks like to live a life fixed in on God's call for our lives. Today, many just simply drift from place to place, relationship to relationship and job to job. Let’s discover the power of a life hidden in Jesus.
In Acts 20, Paul is informing the church with insights the Holy Spirit has given him about challenges ahead. Paul teaches us to be rooted in the one that has redeemed our lives and given us new purpose.