Jesus, both fully God and fully man, is the victorious and perfect atonement for our sins. Because Jesus became and remains fully man, He has the unique ability to join two worlds and to break the power of sin and death through the shedding of...
In the opening verses of Hebrews 2, the author warns Christians of their ongoing responsibility to hold close the message of Jesus. He warns that if we do not continually process the hope of the gospel, we may drift away from the Truth. We must...
The letter to the Hebrews should serve as a warning and a challenge for us to know the Word and to know Jesus. The author of Hebrews counted on the biblical knowledge of his audience in order to draw attention to the supremacy of Jesus—to...
This past Sunday, Matt and Bill laid out We Choose, our two-year ministry plan based on our best understanding of how God is directing us. It is a strategic way to budget, allocate, raise, and spend resources in a manner that will help us accomplish...
As believers, we view our resources differently than the world. The way we steward what we have reflects our faith—it reveals what we value. Jesus said, “Where your money is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:34) As a church, we want to be...
In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul instructs Corinth to mimic the generous hearts of the Macedonian church. Because their first action was giving themselves completely away to God, they considered it a privilege to worship with their money. In giving themselves away, they were able to...
Jesus’ gift of salvation was the greatest act of sacrifice, generosity, and obedience. Why, then, do we trust God with our souls and not always with our resources? God gives us instructions to choose between the weak god of money and Him— the faithful Provider....
Jeremiah 17: 5-8 invites us to evaluate what we ultimately put our trust in and what we naturally rely on. In this passage, there are two kinds of trees: one that is struggling and one that is flourishing. The difference between the trees is not...
Anxiety stems from the unknown and can consume our everyday thoughts and life. However, anxious thoughts can be fought and won with what we do know: God sacrificed His only Son on our behalf. Through God’s reassurance to Abraham in Genesis 15 and God’s truth...
David left a legacy behind him of both devotion to God and failure. As he leaves a legacy of corruption and generational disobedience for his sons in 1 Kings, he simultaneously praises the Lord and sacrifices all the resources and wealth he has left to...
2 Samuel 24 brings tension between our understanding of judgment and God’s perfect union of justice and mercy. God encourages David to take a census of the people, and although David’s advisors try to convince him otherwise, David follows through and tallies the people. The...
In 2 Samuel 15, the consequences of David’s sin are being revealed in the rebellion of his son, Absalom. Through his own sin, David helped create the moment and opportunity of Absalom’s rebellion. Upon hearing of this rebellion, David flees Jerusalem but shows his trust...
God sends Nathan to speak truth into David’s life and cast light on the darkness of David’s hidden sin. Nathan risks his life to confront King David’s sin, knowing that obeying the one true King is more important than his own fears or desires. ...
In 2 Samuel 11, we find David at the peak of his power. His army is going to battle, and instead of engaging in work and going with them, he stays behind in idleness. This decision, and the choices that follow, create space and vulnerability...
Once David is made King of Israel, God reveals the sovereign movement and direction taking place over David’s life. As he recognizes the piece he is playing in God’s redemptive plan, David is driven to humility and worship....
The Ark of the Covenant represented God’s presence with His people, but it was in a foreign land and absent during Saul’s reign. As David becomes king, he recognizes God’s rightful place as King of Israel and desires to bring the Ark into Jerusalem, the...
In 1 Samuel 25, we read a story of David, who acts in humility and weakness; Abigail, who acts in humility and strength; and Nabal, who acts in foolishness. Abigail, caught between a fool and a weak man, lives out her Ezer calling. She provides...
While the encounter between David and Goliath is a demonstration of David’s faith, the encounter between David and Saul in the cave shows David’s deep desire to follow God’s plan. When Saul enters the very cave that David and his men are using to hide...
Jonathan is so committed to being a part of what God is doing that he willingly sacrifices his kingdom, his relationship with his father, and his relationship with his closest friend, David. Jonathan’s actions are motivated by his desire to align himself with God, even...
We will all face battles in our lives, but how we approach each battle reflects what we believe about God. Do we believe that God is sovereign and fully engaged in our circumstances, no matter what the outcome is?...
David’s life shows us that God uses the unexpected and the unlikely. Choosing broken people like David to participate in His plan makes His great power known. David’s life is one of tension as the Bible describes him with a heart of integrity and skillful...
Today’s culture holds a different standard of rest and recreation than the Bible. If we don’t arm ourselves with the truth of rest in Scripture, we will chase after hopeless things and attempt to control what is not ours to start with. Rest is built...
Work has been corrupted by our fallen world.. As parents, we have a responsibility to prepare our children for work. We are called to invest in and disciple them to prepare them for their future. This task pushes us to wrestle with the character issues...
Work was created by God and is ultimately good, but it has been corrupted from God’s original design. This corruptions leads us to seek escape in one of two ways: escaping into work or from work, both motivated by proud unbelief and selfishness....
Genesis 1:1 shows us that work is an activity of God, before anything else. His work ethic from the beginning, an example given to us through creation, sets the stage for a life of work. However, as humans, we recognize the challenge of...