Hope Misplaced: Herodians
Some people don’t like things to change. They are happy with the status quo and will do anything to keep it that way. Jesus encountered a group like this when he came to earth…
hope
Hope Misplaced: Zealots
In our world there is a growing distrust and dissatisfaction with the government. But this is nothing new in history. Throughout the centuries kingdoms have risen and fallen on the backs…
The Christmas Promise
Christ did not come merely to create warm Christmas nostalgia, but to anchor our hearts to the unbreakable guarantee of a perfect eternity with our forgiving Creator.
Hope Misplaced: Pharisees
We’ve all heard about the Pharisees. The religious leaders of Jesus’s day who clung to the letter of the Law and placed heavy, over-reaching rules on the people. What is interesting is that…
Hope Misplaced: Sadducees
When Jesus came to this earth, he faced a lot of opposition. Different groups were vying for power and one of those was a religious group called the Sadducees. We first hear…
Considering God’s Resurrection Plan
As Christians we shouldn’t be discouraged by failing bodies, but should always pin our hope on the eternal glorified bodies that God has graciously promised to us.
Clinging to God’s Faithful Promises
God’s promises to us must be believed with a tenacious, God-fueled confidence no matter what might tempt us to doubt them.
No Exemption from Trouble
The Christian life will be filled with various difficulties which can be endured with great courage as we cling to God with an accurate understanding of who he is.
The Hope of the Christian Life
The Christian hope is to be firmly fixed on our participation in Christ’s coming kingdom, which provides us the strength and courage to face all the current challenges in the here and now.
Funerals
It is remarkable that non-Christians, agnostics and staunch secularists turn into weeping and hope-filled theologians at their loved ones’ funerals. People that rarely give God a thought or ten minutes of contemplation take up the microphone and tearfully recite their poems about the fishing, feasting and frolicking in “heaven”. They speak confidently of
When Bad Things Happen
God has obviously not promised us an exemption from the bad things that happen to people in this world. As Christians we are saved from the coming wrath of God, but for now in God’s providence we are variously exposed to the painful and tragic events that plague mankind. This, of course, was God’s promise in…
Getting Serious about the Counterattack
As we work hard to fight the temptation to envy, God’s Spirit fights through us and motivates us by his faithful promise to bring us final and eternal victory over all sin.
Courage
It takes increasing amounts of courage these days to stand up for what is true and right. Mocking Christianity and God’s commands is mainstream in the media, modern art and popular literature. This should not come as a surprise. God’s word foretold the escalating darkness and mounting…
Saul: Fighting God
To fully appreciate the grace of Christian regeneration we need to recall the futility and plight of our pre-Christian rebellion against God.
Fresh Start
Embedded in the Jewish calendar of the Old Testament is the ultimate “reset button.” Every fiftieth year, after a perfect set of seven “seventh years,” the ram’s horn was to sound and everything was to start afresh. (See Leviticus 25.) In the “Year of Jubilee,” as it was called, all debts were cancelled…
Christ’s Triumphal Entry: The World’s Only Hope
God’s Spirit is drawing people to understand his answer to this rebellious world’s problems — the person and work of his Son, Jesus Christ.
Christmas Courage
Because our Leader – the incarnate Christ – is sovereign and omnipotent we can traverse any crisis with calm and courage no matter how difficult the circumstances may get.
Fruit of the Spirit: Kindness
We must learn the definition and application of kindness from an ongoing biblical study of God’s character, in prayerful hope of reflecting that same godly kindness in our relationships.
Fruit of the Spirit: Patience
Christians are promised to have the strength to power through all of the daily demands of life as we hope in the faithful promises and perfect timing of our Sovereign God.
Tree of Life
Proverbs 13:12 says that “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” While that principle holds true for all varieties of hopes and desires, the ultimate hope of the Christian life is bound up in the arrival of Christ and his kingdom (Titus 2:13). That is one reason the “tree of life” finds a prominent place in the descriptions of our eternal home in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 2:7; 22:2, 14, 19). So then, if our supreme hopes
Calling for Repentance
We, like Peter, must proclaim the offer of forgiveness in Christ by calling people to repentance and the hope of a promised future inheritance in God’s coming kingdom.
Unfazed by Sovereign Challenges
In the work of reaching people with the gospel we should expect painful betrayals and apostasies, but we should never lose heart, knowing God is working through us to advance his kingdom just as he planned.
The Lord is My Strength
We should always be characterized by strength and courage because Christ has secured our favored place with the Father and the Holy Spirit will see us through until the coming of the kingdom.
Love the Lord
Essential to developing, cultivating, and maintaining a vibrant love for God is the practice of continually recalling and affirming the profound expressions of love God has demonstrated toward us.
Patience and Peace
Because God often makes his children wait for relief, deliverance, and blessings, we must seek to cultivate a patient and trust-filled prayer life, knowing that God is faithful to lovingly do what’s best for his children.
Life In Perspective
In light of our utter dependence and inherent weakness as human beings we should enthusiastically and thoughtfully give credit to our gracious God for his kind and sovereign provision in our lives.
When In Doubt
Though painful circumstances and personal opposition may tempt us to doubt God’s care, we must recall his promises and his faithfulness and choose to live confidently as we rest in his good plan for his kids.
The Unprecedented Turmoil
Our lives will be motivated and calibrated as we remain mindful that this current age will culminate with an unprecedented display of God’s wrath on the earth and its wholesale transformation at Christ’s second coming.
Anticipating His Eternal Kingdom
We must think more often and more sensibly about our own mortality, preparing and shaping our expectation and hope by Scripture and not by the world, our feelings, or the culture.
Lamenting His Rebellious Subjects
We will undoubtedly experience genuine grief if we truly understand the problem of sin and the consequences of rejecting Christ, yet it should also motivate us to continue to urgently and regularly share the gospel.