How many of us have uttered this sentence, or held this thought? If ever you feel like you’re too messed up to be used by God, read the Bible. See how He uses deeply flawed people to accomplish His purposes all the time. Just in today’s passage; Jacob is cheated by Laban, so he rigs... Read More →
God appears to Jacob in a dream and confirms His covenant with Abraham. Gods words are positive and encouraging, yet Jacob was afraid. Understanding the awesome power of the one true God. And after this encounter with the Lord, he erects a monument to God, and to mark a place of worship. There are times... Read More →
Esau goes out hunting and come home famished. He asks his brother for some stew and Jacob – as brothers do – needed something in return. Jacob asked for Esau’s birthright and Esau, evidently a drama queen, says he’s going to literally die if he doesn’t eat. So he trades his birthright for some stew.... Read More →
This is a little piece of wisdom from my wife. She always laughs at it, but I’ve always thought it was profound in it’s obvious simplicity. I think this is what we see in God’s method of bringing his covenant with Abraham to fulfillment. Sarah had trouble conceiving, but Hagar had no such issues. Even... Read More →
Abraham is worried about who his son, Isaac, will choose to marry. And so he sends out his oldest servant to find his a wife — not among the Canaanites in the foreign land they inhabited, but from among his own people, Israel. The servant arrives and sets 3 criteria when he prays to find a... Read More →
Influence. We are all affected by it. Whether we are subject to it or exerting it. Such is the case with Lot and his family. When two angels of the Lord come to Sodom to test Lot’s righteousness, he takes them in offering to wash their feet and house them for the night. But the... Read More →
God made two promises to Abraham. One was that his descendants would outnumber the stars in the sky. The other was that he would be given the land of the Canaanites to possess. Both promises were clear. Both were weighty. And both required waiting. Abraham and Sarah wanted a son so badly they could almost... Read More →
Some will read a passage like this and assume unmerited blessing. Others will read it and assume unmerited cursing. Solomon reminds us that both prosperity and adversity come from the hand of the Lord, and that wisdom learns from each. The posture Scripture calls for isn’t suspicion or entitlement, but attentiveness. Abram and Sarai are... Read More →
Just before the flood begins to recede, Scripture tells us that a wind moves across the earth. The Hebrew word is ruah—a word rich with meaning. It can be translated as wind, breath, or spirit. This is the same word used in Genesis 1, when the Spirit of God moves over the formless waters at creation.... Read More →
We are all the hero of our own stories. We narrate our lives in ways that make our choices feel reasonable, even admirable. We know how to frame our motives generously and our missteps sympathetically. Left to ourselves, we rarely sound like villains. Sin is more than happy to take advantage of that. It doesn’t... Read More →
The Bible opens in a way that confronts us before it comforts us. Before there is sin, before there is a fall, before there is any talk of salvation or redemption, there is work. God creates, orders, names, blesses—and then He gives humanity responsibility. The first humans are not dropped into a spiritual retreat center.... Read More →
Good morning, everybody. Hi, Connor. I’m one of the pastors here. You may not know this, but I am a child of the ’80s—I was born in the ’80s. A lot of baby boomers contend that the ’60s was when music was perfected, and honestly, it’s kind of hard to argue. It’s subjective, but the... Read More →