Grow In Faith

Why do Christians sing in church? What does it mean that "the LORD is God"? And why does the Bible call us sheep? Pastor Mike Woodruff of Christ Church continues a Thanksgiving devotional series on Psalm 100, looking at verses 2 and 3. Short answer: The Bible never tells us to worship, because everyone already worships. We all organize our lives around what we value most. (On fall Sunday...

Is gratitude a feeling or a choice? As Thanksgiving approaches, Pastor Mike Woodruff of Christ Church begins a devotional series on Psalm 100, one of the most beloved psalms in the Bible, and what it teaches about thankfulness. Short answer: In the Bible, thankfulness is a command, not just an emotion. Psalm 100 doesn't tell us we have to feel thankful. It tells us to express thanks and to pr...

Why have Christians prayed the Psalms for centuries? And how does Psalm 1 point to Jesus? Pastor Mike Woodruff of Christ Church wraps up a devotional series on Psalm 1 with a few final observations about prayer, the heart, and the One who walked the right path perfectly. Short answer: The Psalms teach us how to pray. They give us words for praise, thanksgiving, confession, lament, and even anger,...

What does it mean to be "like a tree planted by streams of water"? Pastor Mike Woodruff of Christ Church continues a devotional series on Psalm 1, looking at verses 3–6 and the striking contrast between a deeply rooted tree and chaff that blows away in the wind. Short answer: People who put their roots deep into God's Word can survive and even flourish when hard times come, like a t...

What does it mean to meditate on God's Word "day and night"? Is Christian meditation the same as Eastern meditation? Pastor Mike Woodruff of Christ Church continues a devotional series on Psalm 1, focusing on verse 2: the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord. Short answer: Psalm 1 teaches that we make wise decisions not mainly by being smart, but by loving the right things. A...

What does it mean to be truly blessed? Psalm 1 opens the book of Psalms with a choice between two paths, one that leads to life and one that leads to destruction. Pastor Mike Woodruff of Christ Church kicks off a devotional series on the Psalms by looking at Psalm 1:1 and asking a simple but searching question: Which path are you on? Like Robert Frost's famous poem "The Road Not Taken,&q...

Why did God accept Abel's offering but reject Cain's? Cain worked the soil and Abel kept flocks, two honest jobs, so was God being arbitrary? Pastor Mike Woodruff of Christ Church answers a fair and often-asked question about the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. Short answer: It wasn't about one job being better than the other. Farming and shepherding can both be done fully to t...

Why did God give Israel the Ten Commandments and all those Old Testament laws when He knew no one could keep them? Was He setting a trap? Pastor Mike Woodruff of Christ Church explains the real purpose of God's law, and why it's actually a gift. Short answer: The law was never a condition for earning God's love. In Exodus, God rescues His people first (Exodus 19) and gives the law a...

What does it actually mean that humans are made in the image of God? Does it mean God has a body like ours? Pastor Mike Woodruff of Christ Church explains Genesis 1:26, which may be the most consequential claim in the history of Western civilization. Short answer: No, being made in God's image doesn't mean God looks like us. In the ancient world, an "image" was a statue in a te...

Where did Cain get his wife? If Adam and Eve were the first people, who did Cain marry, and who was he afraid of after he killed Abel? Pastor Mike Woodruff of Christ Church answers one of the most famous questions skeptics ask about the book of Genesis. Short answer: Genesis tells a compressed story that follows one family line, not every person alive. Genesis 5 says Adam had other sons and daught...

Was Noah's flood a worldwide event or a local one? Is the story of Noah's Ark even real history? And how could a loving God send a flood at all? Pastor Mike Woodruff of Christ Church answers some of the most-asked questions about Genesis 6–9. Short answer: Yes, there really was a flood. Not because someone claims to have found the ark, but because both the Old and New Testaments treat it...

How long were the days of creation in Genesis 1? Does the Bible teach that the Earth is only 6,000 years old? Pastor Mike Woodruff of Christ Church walks through the major Christian views on the age of the Earth, and explains why this debate shouldn't divide the church. Short answer: Faithful, Bible-believing Christians land in different places on this question, and the debate is far older th...

If God is good and everything He made was good, where did evil come from? How did the serpent get into the garden? Pastor Mike Woodruff of Christ Church takes on what may be the biggest question of all: the problem of evil. Short answer: Genesis never gives evil an origin story, and that silence seems intentional. Evil doesn't get a dignified backstory; it simply shows up as an intruder. The...

Were Adam and Eve real people, or just a symbolic story? And did the serpent in Genesis 3 really talk? Pastor Mike Woodruff of Christ Church answers two of the most common questions about the beginning of the Bible, and why the answer matters for the gospel, for suffering, and for your everyday life. Short answer: Yes. Adam and Eve were real people, the fall was a real rebellion, and the serpent r...

What if the biggest barrier to sharing your faith isn't the other person's hostility, but the fact that nobody has ever asked them? In Part 16, the finale of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff closes out the fall study with Paul's final assignment in Colossians 4:5-6: be wise toward outsiders, make the most of every opportunity, and let your conversation...

A man travels all the way to India searching for the meaning of life, comes home empty-handed, and starts asking gas station attendants what he's supposed to be doing. The reply he finally gets from Chevron? A credit card application. In Part 15 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff shares this classic Mike Royko story from Chicago journalism to make a simple poin...

We agonize over whether to take this job or that one, go this way or that way. But some of God's will isn't a mystery at all. In Part 14 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff points to one thing Scripture makes crystal clear: devote yourselves to prayer (Colossians 4:2). So what is prayer? Mike shares the story of D.L. Moody asking a room of schoolchildren th...

Babies are adorable. But if a baby never grows, it stops being cute and becomes tragic. In Part 13 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff turns to a question every believer should ask: are you growing, or are you just growing older? Mike explains that spiritual growth isn't optional. Romans 8 says God's goal for everyone who comes to him is to be conformed to...

When one word covers your commitment to your spouse and your love of deep dish pizza, it's been spread a little thin. In Part 12 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff recovers the richer, tougher meaning of biblical love and shows why it changes how we treat the people God puts around us. Mike walks through the Greek words behind the English "love": eros...

Some advice is easy to understand and nearly impossible to follow. In Part 11 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff opens with a story from a jog through a British Columbia park, where the local bear-safety rule was "hump, lump, black, attack," and uses it to raise an uncomfortable question: what about the biblical advice we understand perfectly well but are...

We are not auto-focus cameras. In a world engineered to capture every ounce of your attention, how do you keep your focus on God? In Part 10 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff offers two old ideas that still work in a modern, distracted world. First, establish a daily time with God. Mike finds mornings best, and even a few minutes is enough, though he'd recomme...

Is your work just work, or can it be worship? In Part 9 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff wraps up the Greatest Commandment with the most down-to-earth piece of all: loving God with all your strength. That means your energy, your abilities, your hands, your schedule, your effort. In other words, loving God in practical, tangible ways. Mike offers a simple way to th...

Does studying your faith too deeply put your heart at risk? In Part 8 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff pushes back on a myth he's heard for years — "seminary, cemetery," the idea that thinking hard about God cools your love for him. He makes the case for exactly the opposite. Jesus explicitly commands us to love God with our mind, not just our heart...

Money, success, romance, celebrities, your kid's team, your golf game — deep down, we're all worshiping something. In Part 7 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff explains why that restlessness in your soul isn't a problem to fix with more effort — it's evidence of what you were actually made for. Mike points out that our culture's obsession wi...

If worship is just the 20 minutes of singing before the sermon, we've shrunk something enormous down to something manageable — and worship was never meant to be manageable. In Part 6 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff resets what worship actually means, and why it's a whole-life response, not a Sunday-morning activity. Mike unpacks Romans 12, where Paul do...