Text: Esther | Listen to Message God, Are You There? The name of the LORD is nowhere to be found in the book of Esther. The situation – namely, a king’s decree to annihilate all the Jews – seems to indicate that God himself is absent altogether. Sometimes life feels like that. The early chapters of this book introduce us to a woman called Esther and her adoptive father called Mordecai. I say “called” because these were not their real names. In Persian exile, “Hadassah” had been renamed “Esther,” derived from the goddess “Ishtar/Astarte.” “Mordecai” was a derivation of “Marduk,” the...
Text: Ezra 1:1-3; 8:22 | Listen to Message Someone Is Shaping History Let’s imagine you’re a genuine truth seeker and you’re trying to discern whether or not the Bible is trustworthy. Is it really the Word of God – as it claims – or is it merely the product of man? Let’s imagine, too, that you’ve stumbled across these little Old Testament books called Ezra and Nehemiah, and you really want to understand what they mean. Right at the outset of your study, you have questions like: Who is this Cyrus, king of Persia? And why has he issued a decree...
Text: Ephesians 1:3-14 | Listen to Message Don’t Waste Your Life There’s a power-packed piece of advice that goes something like this: Ask yourself what’s really important and then have the wisdom and courage to build your life around your answer.* Modern people tend to build their lives around some combination of career, possessions, a few key relationships, and the constant drive to be happy, comfortable, and successful. In the end, they die and go to meet God. How does that conversation go? “I’d show you my vacation home and my boat, God . . . but I wasn’t able to...
Text: Acts (various) | Listen to Message High Impact Church Planting It’s an age-old debate: Was the book of Acts meant to be descriptive or prescriptive? Is it telling us what to do or just how things were? Acts is a true history of the Early Church and the expansion of the Gospel outward from Jerusalem. But it’s admittedly a very selective history – and a pedagogical history at that. In other words, Luke has chosen and crafted his stories carefully in order to teach us important lessons about the nature of God and His work in our world. One of...
Text: Luke 24:44-53 | Listen to Message The How And Why of Mission No shortage of material has been written on “The Great Commission” – Jesus’ call to his followers (including the modern church) to go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel. Usually the emphasis falls on the command part of this, which is a call to make a certain kind of proclamation: “[You] . . . go make and mature disciples of Jesus Christ.” It’s a simple fact that the mission of Jesus lives on through the witness of his church. If people are going to believe in...
Text: Luke 24:13-45 | Listen to Message The Heart & Soul of The Whole Bible It’s such an odd and inexplicable story. How could some of Jesus’ closest friends walk and talk with him for hours and not even recognize that it’s him? I’m referring, of course, to that first Easter Sunday when Jesus joined two of his disciples on the 7-mile road to Emmaus, “but their eyes were kept from recognizing him” (Luke 24:16). There had been an unprecedented whirlwind of activity in Jerusalem that week. It was Passover; so the streets and Temple Mount were crowded with Jewish worshipers...
Text: Luke 23:26-49 | Listen to Message Witnessing Jesus’ Death On Friday, Christians around the world reflect and remember the death of Jesus. We call this day “Good Friday.” But why is it good? Why is remembering Jesus’ horrific torture and death good? In the end, how are we supposed to remember Good Friday? And how are we supposed to respond to this news of Jesus’ death on the cross? Prior to Jesus’ death, he had been awake all night, paraded to various houses, and experienced mock trials. Jesus was in emotional and mental anguish. He was then ordered to be...
Text: Genesis 3:1-13, 21 | Listen to Message Trading Dishonor for Honor In Part I, we talked about what shame is and where it leads if you don’t respond to it in a healthy way. Honestly, Part I was pretty discouraging – and was never meant to be read as a standalone piece. While it helps explain the world we find ourselves in, it doesn’t show us the way out of our pain. That’s what Part II is for! Immediately after Adam and Eve fell into sin and shame in Genesis 3, God gave us a little hint about the ultimate...
Text: Genesis 3:1-13, 21 | Listen to Message Grasping for Fig Leaves Even if we struggle to define it, we all know shame the moment we feel it. Ever since our first father and mother, shame has been a part of our human experience. The moment Adam and Eve sinned that very first sin, they sensed not just nakedness, but exposure. They were disgraced. They were ashamed. We all know the feeling. Maybe we’ve done or said something sinful. Maybe someone has done something sinful to us. (Think of the shame of being on the receiving end of abuse or adultery,...
Text: Luke 22:63-23:25 | Listen to Message Thoughts on Putting God in The Dock One of the most bizarre things about the last day of Jesus’ life (pre-resurrection) is how many people simultaneously felt comfortable acting as his judge, jury, and executioner. Think about it: Sinful human beings put the Son of God on trial, found him innocent, and were determined to murder him anyway. Why – and what’s this got to do with your life? The why is actually not a single reason, but rather a tangled web of several reasons: 1. Control. Jesus was the real deal, and the...