Adventurous Living - The Meadow Springs Community Church Podcast

"The day of the LORD is an awesome, terrible thing. Who can endure it? That is why the LORD says, 'Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts.' Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful. He is not easily angered. He is filled with kindness and is eager not to punish you." After all of Israel's unfaithfulness, idolatry and evil… THIS. This is our God!

Is a pattern becoming clearer? Israel rebels, God brings some terrible consequences but His love and mercy are more powerful than Israel's sin. Like Hosea with Gomer, God proves Himself to be a faithful husband to Israel.

The books of Ezekiel and Daniel take us through a series of unfortunate events that lead to the Babylonian captivity of Israel. The faithfulness of a few key people, despite immense persecution, can fill us with hope for the present day. We likely will never face a fiery furnace or be dropped into a cave with a lion, but our world is imperfect and our tenure here will be filled with suffering. But...

Lamentations is the result of Israel's 'bad acts'. God's people have repeatedly broken their covenant with Him and now things are just bad. Awful, in fact. They look around and see sorrow, death and God's anger at their disobedience. "I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss" they lament, "But the unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By His mercies we have been kept from com...

Jeremiah was called by God to be a prophet and warned Israel about their coming judgement. The people and their leaders, kings and priests again had broken the covenant with God - sin and injustice was rampant and idols were abundant. Jeremiah begged them to turn back to God and away from the chaos they had created. Will they ever learn? How will God heal their hearts and convince them to turn awa...

We're beginning Love This Book Part 3: The Prophets. Once again, the nation of Israel is declining at a rapid pace and turmoil abounds… even the best of the best leaders cannot pull the brake lever on this speeding train. The plea is for the people to STOP! Just stop, because judgement is coming… but so might future blessing?

Ps. 49, a wisdom psalm, begins by grabbing us by the collar and demanding our undivided attention. God has got something great and wonderful for us and choosing to live apart from God's wisdom and boast in worldly things will be our death, unceremonious and with no eternal destination.

During our lifetime, we can invent, build, discover and achieve many things but it is highly likely that in 100 years, no one will remember you or anything you did. Sounds more than a little depressing, right? But a life spent on those pursuits still ends - time devours everyone and no one escapes death. Might we be better off living life as we actually experience it and not chasing what we think...

The book of Proverbs offers the accumulated wisdom, passed down through many generations of God's people, so that we may live well is God's good world. Is it a bunch of promises or a formula for success? Not at all. Proverbs does, however teach us that God's justice and goodness are objective realities that we ignore at our own peril. Are we open to follow and apply God's wisdom - the road to succ...

Why do bad things happen to good people? This is a tough one for a lot of us. We live in an amazing but complex world that, for now, is not designed to prevent suffering. We want to make sense of it all but our understanding is too simplistic - we need to trust in God's wisdom, sovereignty and His character. We need to come before Him in honesty and prayer to help process the world and its faults,...

We've been going through each book of the Bible this year, and we land in the book of Esther this Easter Sunday. It might seem odd, but consider a couple of things: Are we willing to trust God's providence even when we cannot see Him working? Do we believe that God uses the mess and moral ambiguity of people to accomplish His purposes? YES! We know He is ALIVE and always working behind the scenes,...

"We are Your people, the sheep of your pasture; we will thank you forever and ever, praising your greatness from generation to generation." Psalm 79:13 What makes someone worthy of such adoration? Trust, confidence and honesty - tell Him 'all the things' …the good and bad. He made you. He loves you. He already knows.

The Israelites are returning to their homeland after exile to Babylon. They desperately desire to rebuild the temple and set right their relationship with God - their hopes are high, but opposition causes some low morale. Again, they are disobedient and therefore, disappointed. What will God need to do to transform their hearts so they will follow and obey Him?

The people of Israel got their king - several of them, in fact. It's what they asked for, right? But what did having a king actually achieve? Not much… Sin again rears its destructive head and all of the kings, one right after the other, run Israel into the ground. So, what now? Is there anyone who can get things back on the right path?

When the people of Israel ask for a king, they are asking for someone who would provide a sense of security and safety in a scary world. How do we, today, learn to look to Jesus and trust God in the areas where we feel insecure?

This is our God. This is who He is - He loves us. This is our God. This is what He does - He saves us. As worshippers of Yahweh, there are no truer words! We come to the LORD in worship and in celebration of what He's done in our lives... HALLELUJAH!

The book of Ruth is a beautiful example of how God works behind the scenes and how His will is so connected to our daily lives. But why? Might He have had a grander purpose for Ruth? How about now? Is God working in the "day to day" of our own lives?

The book of Judges is the tragic story of Israel's moral corruption and bad leadership - basically, they were a total failure. They had become no different than the Canaanites that had just been destroyed. Here's an interesting question: What kind of impression would the book of Judges make on someone who was reading it for the first time? Yikes…

The book of Joshua is the story of Yahweh fulfilling His promise to give Isreal the land. We know their journey to get there was, well, an extended one because of their disobedience. But God… He is always faithful to keep His promises.

"Oh, what joy for those whose rebellion is forgiven and whose sin is put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the LORD has cleared of sin, and whose lives are lived in complete honesty!" Psalm 32:1-2

In the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy, the Israelites continue to rebel and only their children will enter the promised land… when will they learn? Will Moses' final message to his people take root?

Moses is given some pretty specific instructions at the outset of the book of Leviticus. What are they for? Let's dive in and get some insight to the book, it's important theme of holiness and how God's people respond to some uncomfortable truths.

The book of Exodus opens on a depressing note. Jacob and his sons have died. However, the writer tells us there were many decendants. So many, in fact, that they quickly filled the land and caught the eye of the new king… and not in a good way. So begins the long and terrible Egyptian enslavement of the Israelites. But also on display were God's great signs and wonders and His unmistakable provisi...

On January 8th, we begin a year-long deep dive into the narrative of the Bible and discover how as a whole, it tells the story of God's commitment to bring good out of evil. Our big goal for 2023 is to fall more in love with Jesus as we journey through each book of the Bible, discovering how they all contribute to one story of God's commitment to bless humanity and redeem a fallen world.

Imagine this scene for a moment... standing in your office during a regular, run-of-the-mill work day. Then, in a sudden flourish, the CEO of your company rushes in and says, '"you've gotta see what's going on outside. You don't want to miss this..." I imagine that's a bit like what happened to those shepherds that night long ago. They were being invited to witness something amazing, some good new...