We’ve all charged after something we thought would finally set things right, only to watch it cost us everything we hoped to protect. That’s the dumb-ox pattern God confronts in Isaiah 1 when he asks his people, “Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel?”
It’s great to know about how amazing Jesus is and wonderful to find out that the angels are incredibly powerful creations He made, too. But, where does that leave us?
It’s great to know about how amazing Jesus is and wonderful to find out that the angels are incredibly powerful creations He made, too. But, where does that leave us?
Sin is really sticky — far more persistent than those obnoxious tags stuck on things that we struggle to get off. But, Jesus’s mission in this world was to do what we can’t: remove that sin from us.
God takes us as those who are lost in the dim darkness and offers us a light so overpowering that nothing can stop it — or His mission He sends us on.
Once the Christmas packages are cleared away, the dark sections of life can become painfully visible again—and we may have no idea how to fix them. Revelation 22 meets that helplessness with a river of life, a tree for the healing of the nations, and a coming day when night will be no more.
Most of us know what it’s like to mean every word of a commitment to God and then watch ourselves fail it just the same. Peter, the disciple who promised to die for Jesus and then denied him three times, knew that feeling better than anyone. John 21 is for all of us who find ourselves in that failed committer camp.
We’ve grown so busy we’ve forgotten why we gather, and our culture whispers that rest is laziness—but Exodus 20:8 calls us to remember the Sabbath as a gift, not a rule, a weekly sign that we belong to the God who rescues us and knows what we actually need.
When we’re ready to accuse others of missing the mark of righteousness, are we prepared to explore the differences between ourselves and the righteous person too?
God calls us to fully face the “norm” of death so we can better understand how He works and how our lives fit into His work.