Hope with God... with Andrew and Wendy Palau

Before I experienced the deep love of God, I thought His commands would be like an imprisoning leash that would tug at me and choke at my neck and my freedom. But I’m happy to say I was wrong. 1 John 5:3 says… For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. His commandments would be burdensome if we tried to keep them without His help. But we co...

My friend always says, If there is more than one person in your family, you are a dysfunctional family. Simply because we are dysfunctional people, and we bring all our stuff into our relationships—into our homes—into our children’s lives. Sometimes we have so much pain as a result of our family that we are deeply impacted as we walk through life. Healing can feel impossible. The hopeful truth is...

How do you feel when you hear the word “sin”? It’s an unpopular subject. Sometimes, at first glance, Christianity can look like nothing but a long list of things NOT to do! But the reality is so different. God knows us well. He has intimate knowledge of what will benefit and destroy us. Because this world contains wrong and evil, God kindly shared His wisdom and graciously gave us boundaries desig...

Forgiveness…it’s not always easy. Sometimes the people who hurt us aren’t sorry. Maybe they don’t deserve to be forgiven. Yet, resentment and hatred are poison to our souls. So, what’s the solution? Nothing I can say will make forgiving easy. But what helps me so much is remembering Jesus’ forgiveness for me. Jesus didn’t wait for me to apologize and turn away from my selfish ways. He sought me ou...

Do you believe that God can transform you? This is what God does! In 1 Samuel 10:1, there’s a beautiful sentence about a young man named Saul, who was told that he would be king. Then we’re told that God changed Saul’s heart. The word used for change here means, to turn about—to overturn. Saul was actually given a new heart. Do you need a new heart? God can do this. This happened to another man in...

Have you ever wanted revenge? Maybe you find yourself replaying conversations in your head, thinking about how to put someone in their place. It feels logical at the time. You hurt me, I’ll hurt you back—then we’ll be “even.” But the Apostle, Paul, instructs us in the Bible… Do not repay anyone evil for evil… live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God...

Have you heard the beautiful words of Isaiah 53? These are precious words of confidence for us. Listen to this: Surely He took up our pain and He carried our sorrows. Think of all that’s wrong in the world on a massive scale. And think of all the things you’ve done, or that you have thought, that are wrong. It can be overwhelming and even depressing to think about. But these words of hope are our...

Have you ever thought, “How can I forgive? What happened to me was wrong!” Forgiveness can feel like giving hurtful actions a free pass—like calling things “okay” that are not okay. But that’s not the way God forgives. The Bible says in Hebrews 9 “... Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people.” There’s a very real price to be paid for injustice. We ca...

Are you suffering? Maybe you’re wondering why God has allowed trouble to touch your life. The most honest answer to that question is… we may never know this side of Heaven. But we can trust and believe that God has a good plan. We won’t see the whole picture in this lifetime, perhaps—only little pieces of the puzzle. But God sees everything from beginning to end, and He knows what He’s doing. The...

There is a great mystery we find in the Bible. There’s so many… but there’s one that I don’t think I’ll ever wrap my mind around. God became human. Philippians 2:7 tells us that… He made Himself nothing. Took the nature of a servant. Being made in human likeness. And He humbled Himself. How does the ultimate deity become a human? I honestly don’t know. But this tells me something very important ab...

Have you experienced suffering? We all will if we haven’t already. Maybe you’ve prayed, hoped, and waited for an end to the suffering, and…it just hasn’t happened. It’s easy to get frustrated with God when He doesn’t answer our prayers in the way we want Him to, when we want Him to. But, be encouraged. In Psalm 102, the Bible says, “He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despi...

My parents live 3,000 miles away from me. And, because of this, my year is broken up into segments when I know I will l be with them, or when we’re preparing for the next time we’ll be together. I love being with my parents. Do you have someone like this in your life? Here is this true statement: God loves you. He really loves you. In an authentic, deep, raw, honest way that only the person who kn...

Have you ever looked at your life and wondered, “What did I do to deserve this?” Maybe you’re remembering some of the worst decisions and thinking, “Yeah, I guess I’m getting what I deserve.” Well thankfully, Jesus gives us a much better deal than Karma. When you bring the wrongs of your past to Jesus and ask His forgiveness, your sins are removed—washed away by the blood of Jesus—once and for all...

First sentence of transcript goes here. Is there anyone in your life who is difficult to love? We all have people who irritate us, who hurt our feelings and won’t apologize—maybe even people who are downright cruel to us. And God asks us….to love them?! There’s a Bible verse that helps so much, though—Romans 5:8—and it says, “...God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us even...

Love is probably the most overused and abused word in the English language. I say I love my dog, I love ice cream, I love my new sweater, and I love my children—all using the same word! Do I feel the same affection toward all of these things? No! There’s a love that means I really really really like something, or a word that means I would do anything for this person…even die.    When God says,  “I...

What does it look like to love and follow Jesus? With all of our unique gifts and abilities, serving God can look different to each person. But God wants to weave one common thread through the lives of all His followers—love. You can express your love for God by caring for someone else in need. Jesus once asked His disciple, Peter, “‘...do you love me?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ Peter replied, ‘You know that I...

Do you believe God loves you? You might say to me, Of course, Wendy— God loves the world! But do you believe He loves you? Many of us can believe that a powerful God sees and loves the world, yet we struggle to believe that He sees us, our intimate thoughts, our sins, and our struggles, and He still loves us. Dane Ortlund says, "Many of us tend to believe that if He does love us,... it's a lo...

What do you think of when you hear the word “love”? Many of us think of hearts, romance, and Valentine’s Day. But you may be surprised to hear that love means something a bit different to God. The Bible says in Galatians 5 that all God’s commands can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” This means that the very best way to show our love for God is to learn t...

When I was young, I thought that if I ever really gave my life to following Jesus, I would miss out on all the fun. I was so focused on all the things I would miss out on that I never really gave that much thought to what I would actually gain! Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Jesus doesn’t take the fun out of life. He’s not out to control us! His ways are the m...

One of my favorite promises in the Bible is found in Revelation 21—a promise of what is to come. At the end of the age, when we see Jesus face to face—imagine—when we’re with Him forever! Here’s the promise:  He will wipe every tear from our eyes. How many tears have you cried? Tears of frustration, or grief, loneliness, anger, disappointment, neglect? Even tears of yearning? In some miraculous wa...

We’ve all heard about the fountain of youth. What an intriguing legend! It tells about the adventurers that would seek these magic waters. It would restore youth indefinitely. Wow. But it’s just a story. Jesus offers something even better. Jesus said, “... the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” You may be thinking, How is that possible? Thirst alwa...

Jesus said so many amazing things before He went to the cross. Jesus said so many amazing things before He went to the cross. One of the most impactful is a promise of peace. He said, “My peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives…” That’s in John 14. Think about that phrase: I do not give to you as the world gives. Our striving for peace can be one of the...

Have you ever had the thought  God would never accept someone like me—I’ve gone too far ? I want to let you know Jesus reached out to people of all kinds. Sick people, adulterers, thieves, rulers, peasants—He loved them all! He said_, “ I am the light of the world. Come follow me. I will give you the light of life, so you will never have to walk in darkness again.” _ If your life feels dark and ho...

Can you remember a major turning point in your life? One of those moments that divides your life into clear segments of before and after?  The event of Christ’s death and resurrection marked the dividing line in history. He made a way for humanity to have a deep, intimate relationship with God. In Romans 5:18, the Apostle Paul says this:   “...Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relat...

The significance of Jesus's death on the cross changes everything. You might look at a cross on a church and wonder,  Why is the cross such a big deal?  Well, the cross changes everything for us.  We will all die.  100% of human beings will die, and death is our enemy. It is the universal silencer. But there is one—only one—who is stronger than death—the One True God, the Creator of life, and this...