If God is a God of justice (and He is), then how do we live in a time of injustice? David wrestles with this in the middle of Psalm 7.
When commitment costs more than you have to give, and there’s a way out, the practical thing to do would be to take it. But, Ruth chooses to stay, speaking words we associate with weddings in the cold shadow of funerals. God calls us to be willing to hold fast in our darkest places, too.
David doesn’t ask God to only judge others, but himself, too. How can he do that? Does he believe himself to be above sin? Or is it that his hope isn’t in himself?
Problems pile on until life feels more like a grave than renewed life, and we wonder where God is. The Book of Ruth opens with Naomi back from Moab empty and bitter, renaming herself Mara because the Almighty has dealt harshly with her—still certain God is King, yet unable to see whether that King still loves her. Is there hope when we find ourselves feeling the same way?
Pastor Tim takes us to the question “How can we be saved?” from the New City Catechism. This is a challenging but important question.
Sometimes our attempts to fix our situations we need rescue from go as badly as poorly planned April Fool’s jokes.
The disciples at first saw an empty grave, but not a Risen King. We can find ourselves doing the same.
Pastor Tim reflects on the empty tomb’s uncertainty before the disciples encountered the Risen Jesus.
We pray the Lord’s Prayer anticipating God’s work, but a lot of times His glory and power feels quite distant. Is that the bad news that cancels out the good news that He cares?
Sin makes us sick over and over, yet we keep charging right back to the buffet—unlike food poisoning, which at least teaches us to stay away from the contaminated food. That’s the human struggle Jesus faces head-on when He teaches us to pray “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” in Matthew 6:13.