We keep wanting peace now—the right circumstances, the right outcome, the right person in charge—and that hunger is not wrong, just misdirected. In Luke 19:41–44, Jesus weeps over a city shouting for peace while blind to the only kind that lasts, and his tears raise an uncomfortable question about what we’re actually seeking when we seek it.
Pastor Tim helps us think about the next question in the New City Catechism (“Is baptism with water the washing away of sin itself?”) as we continue to explore what exactly it is that Baptism does.
We can say all the right things about Jesus and still expect the wrong things from him. In Luke 19, the crowd welcomes its King with praise, peace, and glory—but what happens when the Savior we celebrate does not pursue the earthly victory, security, or power we wanted?
Pastor Tim helps us think about the next question in the New City Catechism (“What is Baptism?”) as begin our examination of what baptism is and what it means to be baptized.
Pastor Tim cools off in the pool as we think about cooling off our uncontrolled wills and being more focused on the things God values.
We’ve all got a part of ourselves we refuse to hand over—the place that says, You don’t get this, Lord. Heading toward Jerusalem, Jesus told a parable about a nobleman whose citizens hated him and sent word: We do not want this man to reign over us. The question is whether that refusal still has the last word.
Pastor Tim helps us think about the next question in the New City Catechism (“What are the sacraments or ordinances?”) as we start a section of the catechism considering Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
We want our way to be heard right now. We want results yesterday. But, if that’s not the approach God takes towards us, is it the approach we should take towards others?
Most of us are quicker to panic over a dying phone battery than over a dying spiritual one—we coast along, confident we’re fine, while the indicator drops lower than we’d ever admit. As Jesus calls a written-off man in Jericho, He challenges all of us on this: “Do we know how much we need Him?”
Are our words promising things we have no intent to do that leave people to die or are they much needed refreshment in a hurting world?