Spiritual Vitality - I Thessalonians 1:1-3
Spiritual Vitality… what does the prayerful work of our faith look like? What does the labor of our love for one another look like and how steadfast is our confidence in Christ?
The Last Gospel - Revelation 22:12-17
I am coming and all will be perfectly rewarded by me, including you. Come to me and let me cleanse you. Listen to the Spirit telling you now “come”. Listen to the Church say “come”. Come and add your voice to tell others to come be with Christ and have your thirsty soul satisfied by Christ as a gift …without your merit.
The Power Of Gospel Servants - 1 Corinthians 9:15-23
Again and again we place ourselves at the feet of Jesus and welcome his commission to go out like Jesus and be a servant like he was. It’s our spiritual act of worship.
The Happiness of Obedience to Jesus - James 1:22-25
God is most glorified and we are most happy when the redeemed authentically understand and adopt the life-giving instruction and rule of Christ. How many of our life challenges can be traced back to bad listening habits on our part where we look diligently at God’s words to understand them but do not then work dillently to believe and obey them… forfeiting even our own happiness (“being blessed in the doing”).
Taste & See That The Lord Is Good - Psalm 34
David reminds us that it becomes easier to praise the Lord in every season when we “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Even in difficult times, when we are brokenhearted or hurting, we can trust that God is near.
A Song Worthy Savior - Psalm 98
Sing dear family of God. Sing Sing because our great Father is the righteous terminator of sin, in us through the forgiveness of our Savior Jesus and outside of us, in every ounce of existance the Judge Jesus. Because he loves it. Sing it loud, sing it new, sing it with music, sing it with joy and gladness…. For our God is a consuming fire.
The Delivered Deliverer Delivers - Psalm 40:6-17
Psalm 40 showed us how perfect Jesus would be and would rely upon the Father as he navigated the true valley of the shadow of death so that we wouldn’t. And because he did that, we now can cry out to the Father in our need and know he will truly deliver us into joy and gladness and so we can rest in him now before he has delivered us.
Waiting With God - Psalm 40:1-5
In the end, we are people who wait with God through prayer, watching for every part of his response, taking note of them and telling one another and the watching world of the accounts of Gods faithful and loving answers to our prayers for God’s praise and for the hope that they too will see and fear and trust the Lord.
Race Killing Lameness - Hebrews 12:1-14
In the Kingdom life-race that God has given each of us, weights of life and sin war against our minds and hearts to slow us down or stop us. God calls us to fight against these obstacles and sin and to embrace his refining help for each of us in this. The question for you is “ Will I embrace God’s refining training he says I need and will truly want”?
Practicing Godliness and Contentment - 1 Timothy 6:3-10
When we treasure Christ above the things of this world, we find contentment in God’s provision.
The Sign of Jonah and God's Open Arms - Matthew 16:1-4
The Sign of Jonah calls all of us to acknowledge God's great power, our own sin, and the incredible gift of mercy and redmeption offered to us through Jesus Christ.
The Grace Of The Victorious Christ - Mark 16:1-8
In the most dramatic fashion, Jesus completed the work of redemption by rising from the grave, pursuing his disciples and demonstrating that he is the Messiah who always keeps his promises.
The Crucifixion Of Jesus - Mark 15:1-47
Jesus the innocent, intentional sacrifice and Jesus the excellent, gracious King who laid his life down out of love for us.
Jesus Claims His Divine Office - Mark 14:61-72
Though Jesus did not find it good to defend himself, he did find it worthy to gout of his way to make it abundantly clear by a 5 way statement that He indeed was the divine messiah. You cant have Jesus without embracing this claim of his.
The Catastrophe of the Second Garden - Mark 14:43-60
The Spirit and the apostles want us to know how humanity utterly failed Jesus after everything, either in wicked hatred or wicked failure and how excellently and beautifully Jesus handled Himself as he willingly chose to be put to death despite being blameless.
A Window Into Perfect Prayer - Mark 14:32-42
In watching Christ in his great hour of need we learn that much of our preconceived notions of prayer are fictional and often foolishly religious. As we watch Him here, he is leaving us an example of what perfection in prayer really looks like. It is earnest, communal, non boxed or formulaic but resting on the foundation of covenanted love with his… and now our…Father, who is all powerful, all wise and all loving towards us.
Our Treasured Covenant -Mark 14:22-31
Jesus cherished the delivery and celebration of his New Covenant to us wherein we could finally fellowship deeply with Him through the indwelling Spirit and gave us Communion to remember this and how it took the willing death of Jesus to accomplish it. Let us Cherish our Savior and His amazing covenant!