It's easy to trust God when things are good. But what happens when things AREN'T good? What happens when the worst ghosts from our past come back to haunt us? What happens when the pain we thought we left behind is staring us right in the face?
As we pick up Joseph's story this week in Genesis 42 things get interesting when that very thing happens to him. But now, the tables are turned. Now Joseph has all the power, and can do whatever he wants. Take revenge? Grant mercy? Joseph can do what he wants. The real question is, will Joseph continue doing what he's done to this point? Or will he take matters into his own hands. Either way, Joseph has some big decisions to make.
Read More
Joseph's life has been anything but a cakewalk. In reality, it was worse than most of us could possibly imagine. Betrayed by his brothers. Sold into slavery. Accused of crimes he didn't commit. Forgotten about in prison. It's a tragic story.
And yet, as we pick up Joseph's story this week in Genesis 41, things are looking up in some huge ways. It's a miraculous turnaround, but Joseph played a critical role in it. It can be so difficult to not let the betrayals and injustices in our lives consume us, and Joseph's life is a perfect case study in how to make sure that doesn't happen. If he could survive what he did, maybe we can learn a few things from it.
Read More
The beginning of Joseph's story was terrible. After being his father's favorite son, he was betrayed and sold into slavery by his brothers. It doesn't get much worse than that. But for Joseph, this was just the beginning of the roller coaster of his life.
As we pick back up this week in Genesis chapters 38 and 39, things get a lot better. Then a lot worse. Then a lot better. Then, well, you get the picture. It's a pattern we probably understand. Ups and downs. Highs and lows. Mountains and valleys. No matter what words you use the idea is the same, and the hard questions that come along with it are, too.
Read More
Our time is precious. It runs out quickly. And if we aren't careful, before we know what's happened it's all gone. It's an age-old problem, and one that is more and more important as we live in an ever-busier world.
As we finish up Fundamentals this week, we're looking at what might just be the most important fundamental of them all, because, without it, well, we just won't have time for the rest. To figure out how to solve this problem we'll look to the life of Jesus in the Bible for how to not just manage our most precious resource, but how to invest that resource with purpose.
Read More
We were made to worship God. There's nothing more fundamental than that, but what does that mean? For most of us we probably think about music, singing, lifting hands, or other things along those lines. We talk about "worship" as if it's music, but that's complicated. What if we don't like the style? What if we don't like raising our hands? What if we really don't like singing at all? And, if worship is about singing, how can we even know if we're doing it "right"?
This week we'll explore the fundamental reason God made us – to worship Him, but more importantly we'll look to the words of Paul to learn what that looks like practically. And for each of us, when we fulfill our most basic God-given purpose in the way God intended, our relationship with Him grows, but, according to Paul, we are also able to follow Him more closely as well.
Read More
God created us for relationship and intimacy with Him, but so many of us don't experience that intimacy in our faith. Why? What is it that keeps us from having exactly what God says He wants, and that He created us for.
In part one of this four part message series we'll look at the words and life of Jesus, strip back all the religious stuff we tend to attach to faith, and learn one simple, small habit we can put in place to give us access to the intimacy with God we so desperately want.
Read More