Monday Moments

When you hear the term "the glory of God," it's easy to default to the big, showy, types of displays. You might think of miracles and healings, or you might think about the times that God's presence manifested itself in the Old Testament such as pillars of fire, whirlwinds, earthquakes, floods, etc. Moses was someone who had seen all of those things. Despite that, he still aske...

Hope is universal to human existence. We all hope for things, whether it be a positive outcome to a situation or business deal, a shift in our finances, a promotion in a career, a spouse, a family member, or any other number of things. What sets biblical hope apart from optimism, however, is that biblical hope is based on a person, not circumstances. When we base our hope on a situation, it's...

The best stories contain conflict and resolution. Without conflict, the resolution doesn't hold any emotional weight. When we identify with the characters and their struggles throughout their journey, however, the resolution is richly celebrated. It's the same with the Bible. What may seem like a collection of separate stories is, actually, one continuous story with a thread running thro...

Jesus did and said many things that went right over people's heads. Despite their best efforts, they just didn't get it. They completely missed the bigger picture Jesus was trying to get them to see. Hindsight may be 20/20 as they say, but the truth is that we often miss the same things. We try to solve problems with human solutions. We are averse to our need for a savior. We try to forc...

Jesus came to save us. That's first and foremost. He came to set us free and restore our broken relationship with God the Father. In this way, Jesus was reestablishing God's Kingdom on Earth. That was just the beginning, though. Before He ascended, He told the disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit to empower them to be His witnesses. What we read about in the following pages are all the...

Jesus was with the disciples for three years. He died and rose again. He breathed on them the breath of life, which was the Holy Spirit. Even after that, Jesus told them to wait for something more, a gift from the Father. It would be so good that it was better for them that Jesus left. Otherwise, the Holy Spirit would not come. There has been perhaps little else in all church history, however, tha...

Jonah is most well known for being swallowed by a fish and, well, "deposited" back onto dry land. His story is much more than that, however. It's a picture of God's consistent character throughout history despite man's brokenness and flaws. It's a story of God's mercy coming to a people who did not deserve it. These people were enemies of God, much like the Bible...

It's easy to think that if we do enough "good deeds," go to church, say the right things, or just in general "be a good person," we'll get into heaven. We find in Scripture, however, that's just not the case. Jesus had a conversation with one of the leading religious leaders of his day. This teacher knew all the right information and had done all the right things...

It seems so fundamental. It's the cornerstone of the Christian faith. Dig a little deeper, though, and you will find a spectrum of conscious or subconscious beliefs about what it means to be saved. Is salvation transactional? In other words, do I do enough good deeds to be saved? Is it intellectual? Do I know the right things to be saved? Or is it, perhaps, something else entirely? What if th...

The first church in the book of Acts was something spectacular to read about. The people of that day felt the same. The Bible describes everyone as being "in awe" of the church. We feel this way so much so today that we want to "go back" to that model if it were possible. So what is it that is so attractive about that first-century church? It wasn't just the product that c...

Helping people in need can be easier said than done. Whether we're engrossed in our own little world with its to-do lists, or we don't want to be inconvenienced, or if we get overwhelmed by our lack of plausible solutions, it's easy to become anxious about reaching out to help the needy. Peter and John certainly weren't well-to-do enough to solve the world's problems. They...

Loving everyone sounds really nice. It makes great bumper stickers and t-shirt slogans, but it isn't always that easy. The challenge of loving people doesn't make it any less true or necessary, but it's often easier said than done. If we're honest, loving people is hard. It costs us something. We may have to give up our comforts, our time, our energy, or our resources. It'...

It's one thing to feel sorry for the circumstances of others. It's another thing to be so moved by love that you'll do something about it. That's what it means to have compassion for someone or for a group of people. It's the characteristic of God that compelled Him to have mercy on His people. We often find it difficult to have compassion for others, however. Perhaps we j...

Commitment is an interesting word. It's something we can all agree is a good trait to possess. In theory, we all want to be committed. But how do you actually take steps to develop commitment in your life, much less in an entire group of people so that it becomes an engrained part of their culture? In Nehemiah, we see the establishment of 6 covenants to which the Israelites chose to commit th...

When it comes to our goals, our mission, or our everyday tasks, it's easy to get distracted or lose focus. It's even easier when it comes to our spiritual lives because there is a very real enemy who does not want us to succeed and will stop at nothing to make sure we fail. In Nehemiah 6, we see that Nehemiah and the Israelites also had a very real enemy who used multiple tactics to try...

Chaos is something that we encounter regularly in our lives. How we deal with chaos and the aftermath is another matter entirely. Nehemiah and the Israelites had a choice to make. They could live with their chaos and settle for good enough, or they could clean up the chaos and receive God's best for them. So often that's God's invitation for us. We can settle for "good" or...

As Christians, it can be easy to slip into one of two extremes when it comes to the culture around us. Either we become apathetic, withdraw, and wait for the promise of the great "by and by" to come, or we sometimes lose sight of the fact that this world and all its kingdoms are temporary. So how do we live in the middle? Is it possible to care and show concern for what we see in culture...

We often refer to the "walls" in our life in a negative context. Usually they're described as a method of keeping relationships at a distance in an unhealthy way. Walls, however, do serve a very important purpose in our life and are vitally important. What does it look like to restore the walls in our life in a healthy, life-giving way? That's what we're talking about in t...

Nobody is perfect. We know that. More importantly, Jesus knows that. The best part about that fact is that Jesus knows about all our imperfections, mistakes, worst decisions and sins, and yet He loves us just the same. The story of Zaccheus may sound like and odd choice for a Palm Sunday sermon, but it's the ideal story to showcase how much Jesus seeks us out, calls us by our true identities,...

Being a "chosen people" means to be a community in which God's presence lives and whom God uses to bring redemption, relationship, restoration, and salvation to the world around them. God's requirement is to be separate from the culture around us. It's to be different. It sounds easy, but the reality is that it's often challenging and difficult to keep the culture aro...

Life can be hard. We wish it wasn't, but that's just the nature of things. The fact is, Jesus didn't promise us an easy life. He promised just the opposite. His promise is that we would have trouble in this world, but that He has overcome it. Now He lives in us as does the same power that raised Him from the dead. So why do we still struggle with adversity? Is it something we can ov...

Most of us know or have at least heard the phrase, "God is good." It's an integral part of His character, and there are numerous examples within the Bible that show His goodness on display. But if God is good, why do bad things happen? Does that make God less good? These kinds of questions arise within us when the chips are down in life. That's what we're talking about in...

This may sound like one of those odd, Christian-ese phrases. But there is a divine truth that we are the temple of God, the place in which God lives and dwells and is worshiped and His glory is displayed. It's a holy place, set apart from everything else around it, and it is entirely devoted to Him. At least, that's how it was in the days of the Old Testament. God gave the ancient Israel...

In this episode of Monday Moments, we're looking at the transition of the Israelites out of Babylon back to Jerusalem. What's surprising is how many of them remained in Babylon instead of going back to Jerusalem. It's interesting to look at this story with an empathetic lens and learn what it looks like to prioritize God's promises in our life.

When difficult seasons stretch on longer than we thought they would, transitioning can be challenging. Where do we go from here? What do I do now? These might be common questions that arise in these situations. God is so faithful to lead us to the next step of our journey every time if we will listen and follow. That's what we're talking about in this week's episode of Monday Moment...