Today we zoom out from the text of Acts for a Sunday, and ask the question, "How do we handle our suffering when we're one of the crippled people who didn't get healed that day?" How do you biblically process watching God answer the prayers you pray – but for other people? What can you hold on to in those moments to keep you from getting tossed around?
As the cross looms large in Jesus' story, he sits down to a much anticipated dinner with his disciples – the Passover meal – a story full of rich history and remembering, a meal full of significance and joy, a meal full of promise and hope – a meal he leaves unfinished.
God promises us a way out of temptation, but makes no such promise when it comes to suffering. But he doesn’t run from us or watch us suffer from a distance - he enters into our suffering, even giving us the words to say when we can’t work up the prayer on our own
Jesus drills the whole conversation about being prepared for his return to three simple but powerful words: Repent or Perish.
The greatest question you will ever answer in your lifetime is not “who are you?” It’s not “Will you marry me?” And it’s not “Does this dress make me look fat?” The greatest question you will ever answer is one from the lips of Jesus himself: “Who do you say that I am?”
Jesus announces that his mission is to bring good news to the poor (the outcast, the disenfranchised, the disadvantaged, those on the outside looking in.... and it still is.
Sometimes it appears that evil gets to have a field day, while those who are trying to do what's right get trampled. Is it worth the effort to be a Christian?
When his life was threatened, Elijah ran for the desert. Maybe he thought no one would find him there. Maybe he thought the idea of dying by dehydration and starvation would be better than getting killed by the Queen. Scripture doesn’t tell us what he was thinking, other than that he wanted out.
Like a Cubs fan living in St Louis, those who follow a suffering Savior should not be surprised when they suffer.
A baby contributes nothing to their own birth, and is fully dependent on his/her parents to guard them and provide for them as they grow toward maturity. In 1 Peter, the apostle writes that our spiritual birth looks very similar. In this message, we look at how Peter makes those connections.