A Moment of Hope

Today we look at another reason for suffering. Sometimes we suffer because of willful, rebellious decisions. Let's be honest. There are moments when we don't just make a stupid mistake, but we know God's will and willingly choose the opposite. It's rebellion in action. We shake our puny fists at the Almighty. We do what we want. And it's dangerous. I often see this playing out inside the church wo...

In this broken world, suffering is commonplace. If you have lived life for any length of time, you have experienced suffering. What are the reasons for suffering? Here are some of the reasons we have already covered: we live in a broken creation, with fallen bodies, and people's selfishness causes them to hurt one another. We can also experience suffering from our personal mistakes. Sometimes we j...

Suffering is an unfortunate part of this broken world. Creation is broken. Our bodies are broken. Why is there so much suffering? What do we do with it as followers of Jesus? We are looking into some of the reasons suffering exists and also how to overcome it. Here's a major reason we suffer. Because of other people's sin. When sin entered the world, so did the desire to hurt and manipulate others...

Suffering in our world brings so much grief. Suffering also frustrates the minds of people who are skeptics of the Christian faith. Why is there suffering? How could God still be good in the midst of such suffering? These are valid questions and I have much empathy for those who ask these questions. But there are answers. In addition to living in a fallen world, another reason why we suffer is bec...

The presence of suffering in our world is one of the greatest hindrances in people coming to faith in Jesus. Many ask the question,  "How could a good God let bad things happen?" I want to sit with you this week and dig into some of the mysteries and complexities of suffering. Why do people go through suffering? Plain and simple, suffering happens because we live in a broken and fallen world. We b...

I am going to teach you a fancy Latin term today. Ex nihilo. It means "from nothing." This is the message of  Genesis 1:1 ,  "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." God spoke the world into existence. But before that, nothing existed. With a word, God created the heavens and the earth from nothing. He did not need a single thing to create this universe. As humans, we always need...

"God doesn't give you dying grace until you are dying." I believe this quote originated from Corrie Ten Boom, the Christian who survived the Nazi concentration camps in World War II. She lived in a reality that demanded unwavering trust in the timely grace from her heavenly Father. Regardless of who originally said it, this message is so important to understand as followers of Jesus. We may not be...

I have found there to be tremendous danger in self-made success. The problem with people who can work their way into a place of success is that they often find themselves worshiping their creation rather than their Creator. Our culture emphasizes the need to be self-made. Work hard. Achieve. Be successful. Reap the benefits of your success. Don't get me wrong. We should work hard. Colossians 3:23...

You're in sales. God's in management. It's not the other way around. We serve the King of Kings, Lord of Lords and are responsible for living out his commands. Jesus commands his followers in  Matthew 28:19-20 to take the gospel into all the world. This is not optional. Our job, as his followers, is to share this good news. Jesus was sent on a mission by the Father to live his life as an atoning s...

Picture this for a moment. You are sitting by a pool on a hot summer day. You look over to your right and see a grown man playing in the kiddie pool by himself. This man is splashing around with a plastic inflatable dolphin and arm floats. He then lies on his belly in 3 inches of water and begins to kick his feet. He could be fully submerged in the adult pool that is a few yards away, but chooses...

"Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy"  ( Isaiah 61:7 ). The prophet Isaiah revealed God's promise to double the Israelites' portion of what they'd previously lost. This promise came to them while they were still in Babylonian captivity...

We serve a God who is a professional fixer upper. Long before Chip and Joanna Gaines made that phrase famous with their hit television show "Fixer Upper," God has been in the business of making old things new. In Jeremiah 30:3 , God promised to restore the Israelites to the land after they had been removed from it for 70 years. He is the same God today that he was back then. Imagine God like a rep...

God is sovereign over all of history. He began it. He will end it. That word sovereign means to possess ultimate power. The Lord our God has all ultimate power. In  Job 38:4 , God asks Job a very important question. He says,  "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"  He wanted to remind Job that the Creator of the universe was truly sovereign over every detail of Job's life.  God...

"We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope"  ( Romans 5:3-4 ). Hope is one of the strongest forces in the universe. It gives people the ability to keep moving forward. If I was delivered once, I can be delivered again. Think about this illustration. A bunch of rats were placed in a vat of water in an exper...

If you have spent any amount of time with me, you know I love three-word prayers. Simple, childlike, effective ways to talk to God. Here is a simple three-word prayer: Let God arise ( Psalm 68:1 ). Start your day declaring this truth! What exactly am I asking God to do? I'm asking God to rise up and fight my battles for me. I'm relinquishing any false belief that I know how to navigate my life bet...

Let me share with you one of my favorite phrases. So simple. So true. God is in control. In the 1990s, Twila Paris came out with a song. She must love this phrase as much as I do. She said,  "God is in control. We believe that his children will not be forsaken. God is in control. We will choose to remember and never be shaken. There is no power above or beside him, we know God is in control." Toda...

Here we are in a brand new year. What is going to happen in the next moments? Days? Months? Years? No one knows. Ralph Abernathy said, "I don't know what the future may hold, but I know who holds the future." This quote could not be more true. Especially in these times. We don't know what the future holds. Without a deep, abiding faith in Jesus, this could easily create panic, fear, and despair. B...

I love the power that comes from intentionally choosing a child's name. Marilynn and I sought the Lord with each child for a name that would reflect his heart for their lives. Name changes are also significant. Think about a woman whose name changes after getting married. Or a child who gets adopted and takes on the last name of their new forever family. God cares about names too. He cares so much...

As a young baby is developing, there are many stages of development and milestones to reach. From crawling to sitting up to eating to walking to running, a child's life is a series of new beginnings. Over and over again, a young child experiences new things. Did you know followers of Jesus go through stages of development, too? As our faith develops, we experience many opportunities to learn and g...

Here we are at the start of another year! Even in a season of so much unrest and confusion, I feel great anticipation for what God is going to do this year. The Gospel of Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever ( Hebrews 13:8 ) and when I think about that message being released to people looking for hope, it makes me jump for joy. I am sure you have heard the pithy phrase, "Out with the ol...

This will be our final blog of 2022. We hope that you and your family have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. We will resume our daily Moment of Hope on January 2, 2023. Our Advent prophecy today is when Joseph and Mary had to flee to Egypt. The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival." If you remember, Old Testament prophecies were God's way to whisper of the coming Messiah. He gave clues...

As we continue to explore these Advent prophecies, we find our next one in the subsequent verses  10 and 11 of Psalm 72. If you remember, verse 9 spoke to the shepherds being heralded by a celestial choir to go and bow before baby Jesus. Psalm 72:10-11  prophesies the Gifts from the Magi being brought to Jesus.  "May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute; may the kings of...

Did you know that the Psalms were written in the 10th century BC? It is incredible to see how many prophecies were written hundreds of years before Jesus ever arrived. Psalm 72:9 prophesied that desert tribes would bow down before the Messiah and enemies would lick the dust. This prophecy is full of meaning, showing that those who worship Jesus would be both great and small. We see in Luke 2:8 tha...

As we continue to explore these Advent prophecies, we are reminded of the extravagant love of the Father. We see the measure he goes to draw people to his heart. In Isaiah 11:1-2 , Jesus was said to come from the stump of Jesse.  "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdo...

There is such wonder in piecing together the connections between the Old Testament prophecies and the birth of Jesus. Advent prophecies are powerful indicators of the miraculous birth of Jesus. Over 300 prophecies, written hundreds of years before they ever happened, came to pass. God made a promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3  and said,  "I will bless those who bless you, and he who dishonors you...