We know we're going to die—it's as inevitable as buttered toast landing face-down—but Romans 6:5 asks whether that death has to mean the same thing it did before Christ.
We've all known someone's birthday was coming, kept it in the back of our minds, and then realized two weeks too late that we never said a word—recognized it, but never responded. In Matthew 8, the demons who meet Jesus call him “Son of God” with more clarity than almost anyone else in the Gospel, yet that recognition leads somewhere unexpected and deeply unsettling.
O Christmas (Faith)Tree is something very special: a celebratory service at 7:00 p.m. on December 6 that interweaves favorite Christmas carols and songs — both old and new and in a range of styles — with the story of Christmas that runs from Genesis through Revelation.
O Christmas (Faith)Tree is something very special: a celebratory service at 7:00 p.m. on December 6 that interweaves favorite Christmas carols and songs — both old and new and in a range of styles — with the story of Christmas that runs from Genesis through Revelation.
We keep reaching for more—a better version of the Christian life, a deeper secret, some upgrade that will finally make everything click—when Ephesians 1 says God has already lavished wisdom and insight on us and made known the mystery of His will. What does it look like to actually live in that, rather than keep reaching past it?
Even after turning our lives over to Christ, we can still pray as though God were there to serve our wants and protect our plans. In Matthew 7, Jesus says, “Ask, seek, and knock,” raising a searching question for daily prayer: When we belong to Him, what should we be asking our Father to give?
We want God’s wisdom, yet often what we really want is an advantage—something that makes us look right, strong, and worthy of respect. In James 3:13–17, wisdom from above takes a startlingly different shape: meek conduct, mercy, gentleness, and a willingness to be taught. What does that wisdom ask of us as we wait for Jesus to return?
Selfishness is sneaky—it feels like commonsense in the moment. As the disciples sat right in front of Jesus, they struggled with the same self-centered question we all are challenged: “But what about me?”
We can be inclined to delay approaching God, too busy obsessing on our doubts to come, much like Thomas in John 20. But Thomas _did_ come and so should we.
O Christmas (Faith)Tree is something very special: a celebratory service at 7:00 p.m. on December 6 that interweaves favorite Christmas carols and songs — both old and new and in a range of styles — with the story of Christmas that runs from Genesis through Revelation.
