Featured
Genesis – The Favor of God
The reality of God’s favor is this: it has nothing to do with us and has everything to do with God’s sovereignty and faithfulness to His word. He is faithful to His word regardless of our faithfulness to Him.
Spotlight
Genesis – The Salvation of the World
When we make the pursuit of God’s will about us, we miss the entire point of His will. The pursuit of the will of God leads to the propagation of the salvation of the world.
Genesis – The Judgement of the World
The righteousness of God far exceeds our own righteousness. However, His measure of our righteousness is measured not by our actions or obedience, but rather by our faith in Him and our trust in His word to accomplish what He desires in our lives. Noah’s righteousness was credited to him by God due to his faith in Him. As such God demonstrated mercy, grace, and faithfulness to His word for mankind.
Genesis – The Corruption of the World
Corruption itself is not…sin; rather it is the result of sin that has been allowed to take root and wrap its thorny limbs around a fleshly heart. Corruption is merely the symptom of the much deeper rooted problem of our sinful nature.
Jonah Series
Jonah: The Brooding Prophet
The grace and mercy of God is not yours for your own enjoyment and selfish benefit. It is extended to you so that you might extend it further to those around you.
Jonah: Unrepentant Anger
Anger is nothing more than an emotional response to unmet expectations. The question then becomes a matter of managing our expectations.
Jonah: The Repentant King
Humble leadership inspires humble followers, and God honors the humble who submit to His authority. In the same way that rebelliousness begets rebellion from the top down, so does repentance beget repentance when its starts at the top and trickles its way down to those who would follow.
Jonah: The Prophecy of Doom
When God gives a prophet a message to deliver, the heart of the Father is always a heart calling for repentance, even if we selfishly desire the destruction of those the message is intended for.
Jonah: A Return to Dry Land
When we finally reach a place of humble repentance, God has you right where He wants you and He will place you right where He needs you for His purposes. And there is no better place than we’d rather be than in the place where His will is perfected in and through us.
Jonah: A Prayer of Repentance
Salvation is not ours to give or to take. It is God’s and God’s alone. He alone has the power to save. We can’t save ourselves by the works of our hands, the power of our confession, or even our own faith. That is the exclusive domain of the sovereign Lord Almighty. He alone has the authority to save us. He alone has the authority to condemn. He alone is righteous and holy. Thus He alone is worthy of our worship and worthy to be praised.
Jonah: A Fishy Grace
Even in the midst of judgment, God Almighty will often provide a means of mercy in accordance with His sovereignty in order to perfect His will. Sometimes that mercy may come from the most unlikely, and miraculous, of places.
Jonah: Man Overboard
When you claim to be a follower of the Most High God, yet it is readily apparent that you are not following Him but rather you are running from Him, even unbelievers will see the consequences of your disobedience.
Jonah: In Over His Head
Inevitably, any time you willingly hide from God in the midst of your self-induced circumstances, you will find yourself in over your head. There is no hiding from the One who can see deep into the recesses of your heart and mind. The Father will always pursue His wayward child in an effort to get his attention, but He will not force His will upon us. However, He will allow the consequences of your sin to exact its payment in kind. And sometimes, even in the midst of your rebellion, God will still get the attention of those observing from the sidelines.
Jonah: The Coming Storm
When your world is falling apart around you, how do you respond? Do you close your eyes and hope it just fades away? Or do you cry out to the One that can save you in the midst of your turmoil?
Jonah – The Reluctant Prophet
Not one time does the Bible ever say “The word of the Lord left”. God’s word is always coming; it’s never leaving. And its coming always demands an obedient response.
A New Creation Series
A New Creation
The overarching theme of the Scriptures is that God creates, He redeems, and He recreates. God creates that which He loves and He blesses that which He loves. He redeems that which He loves. And He recreates that which He redeems.
A New Creation: In the Beginning
He illuminates the darkness. He fills the emptiness. He brings order to chaos.
A New Creation: Illumination
In an instance, with a spoken word He illuminated the darkness exposing the emptiness and chaos, so that He might set to work bringing order to the chaos and filling the emptiness that only He could fill.
A New Creation: Separation
The gospel is both transformational and conformational, but it requires separation from the ways of the world for that to take place.
A New Creation: Foundation
Fruitful foundations foster faithful followers. In order to be fruitful for the kingdom, you must begin with an appropriate foundation. The beginning of building a life in Christ is beginning with the foundation of the Word of God.
A New Creation: Preparation
In the process of recreating you into the image of His Son, He will illuminate the darkness that has kept you blind to the truth of who you were created to be, set you a foundation upon which to build your new life, and begin preparing you for what He has in store by transforming your heart and mind through the power of the Holy Spirit living in you.
A New Creation: Multiplication
Multiplication within the kingdom requires an intentional investment in the spiritual relationship of believers and the living out of the spiritual life within the world of non-believers.
A New Creation: Sanctification
Sanctification is the process by which God refines His children and reshapes and recreates us into the beautiful creation He always intended us to be from the beginning.
A New Creation: Relaxation
The Sabbath was a gift to man – a gift of prescription and a gift of perception. Prescription because it is designed as a day to rest from your labor, just as God rested and paused from His labors in creation. Perception because it gives man a chance to come into the presence of the Savior and Lord of Creation with boldness and conviction and humility, honoring Him for all that He has done, is doing, and will do in our lives and in eternity.
A New Creation: Consummation
“I live in sin, to kill myself I live; no longer my life my own, but sin’s; my good is given to me by heaven, my evil by myself, by my free will, of which I am deprived.” – Michelangelo Buonarroti