We tend to assume God works through the right people, in the right places, with the right credentials. Isaiah 44–45 is genuinely jarring to our assumptions: the Lord names a pagan, idol-worshiping foreign king as the one who will restore His people to their land.
As we continue in Ephesians 2, Paul helps us to think about the difference between being called to do “good works” and earning God’s favor through our works.
Comfort, institutional preservation, and tribal identity can crowd out obedience to God’s call in our lives. Do we hear His call to reach those in need of His Grace and to live in the “risky repentance” that involves?
The wonder of what God does for us is so much greater when we don’t forget the story behind it.
Solomon, Rehoboam, and Jeroboam all treated God’s promises like something they could improve on or control on their own terms only to encounter the pavement courtesy of the black ice of sin. Our efforts end like that, but God’s faithfulness outlasts our failures.
As we continue in Ephesians 2, we’re reminded of how God loves us even when we are of no value at all.
Jim Wolfe traces God’s redemptive plan through four Old Testament “roadside attractions” that foreshadow Christ — skins, boxes, baskets, and snakes. Along that scenic route, we arrive at the true meaning of Christmas, an attraction we actually need.
Pastor Tim talks about the job of officers in the church — what are the “offices’ and what do they do?
We return to Ephesians in a new series in the second chapter and to start us off Pastor Tim reflects on our state without God.
Pastor Tim previews our new Monday night series — Dead then Alive — and reflects on how God rescues us from being dead.