We want hope, but we want to know it isn’t empty—especially when other powers seem to have the final say over our lives. In Ephesians 1:20–21, Paul points to God raising Jesus from the dead and seating him above every rule and authority, but do we live as if we believe that?
We can be full of hope and still put that hope in plans, forecasts, and outcomes that never arrive. When disappointment turns us into expert worriers—or convinces us that life will only get worse—we’re reminded to look to our true hope and the Power behind it.
Pastor Tim reflects on the continuing impact of Easter and our opportunity to think more deeply about that.
Maybe you’ve had a Christmas where the lights and the music were all there, but it felt like you were watching from the other side of a piece of glass—present for the season, yet not really in it. Isaiah 53 describes a Savior understands how we feel on that other side of the glass and came to break it.
James encourages us to listen but not to stop at listening. Combining listening and acting is necessary for arriving where God wants us.
How often do we “listen” to other people without really listening? How often do we jump immediately to actions and words that don’t reflect the heart of God? James challenges us to do something different.
How do we deal with darkness and uncertainty in life? Can we count on God’s blessing? James helps us to think about this.
Waiting is hard—praying for years with silence the only reply, watching others move while you stand still, wondering if God has forgotten or if you took a wrong turn. That was Isaac in Genesis 25: married at forty, still childless nearly twenty years later, the promise hanging unfinished. What do we do in the long stretch when nothing seems to move?
James challenges where we find hope as we begin this new series in the first chapter of the Epistle from James.
It’s easy to hunker down when life gets complicated. We’ll just manage what’s in front of us and quietly wonder whether God’s bigger plan still has a place for us in it. Genesis 24 takes us to the story of a family facing down that same question.