Hope with God... with Andrew and Wendy Palau

Jesus. That name. Whether you are a believer or an atheist or somewhere in between, the name “Jesus” probably affects you in some way. For me, it is a name I love because He is my Savior and my Lord. The Bible tells us that it is a name that is above every other name. Jesus stands alone in glory and power.  There is a worship song – “Beautiful Name” – which says: "Yours is the kingdom Yours i...

I have met so many people who are trying in so many ways to obtain eternal life. Some folks get panicky as they grow older, wanting to know for sure that they will go to heaven. But actually, eternal life is not only heaven. You can have eternal life right now, here on earth. There is a verse in John chapter 17 which kind of jumped out at me the other day. This is what Jesus said about eternal lif...

Recently, my heart has been heavy because of everything I hear on the news. Like you, I’ve watched stories about innocent people whose lives have been taken. Hatred seems to be everywhere.  As followers of Christ, we are called to model Jesus. And what that means is we must fight hatred with love. We must fight injustice with forgiveness, show compassion for all people – even the ones who do not l...

Have you tasted grief? Maybe you are in a season of grief right now. Something has happened and grief has walked through your door. In grief I have found myself crying out almost like a wounded animal. Psalm 73 says, “When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was a brute beast before you.” What an image! We are almost animalistic in our grief. But we are not left there. The psalmist go...

You may have heard of the term P-O-W, which means “Prisoner of War," but have you heard of the term P-O-F? POF stands for Prisoner of Fear. I knew someone who was a POF before he met Christ. His name was Billy, and he was absolutely riddled with fear and anxiety. His bondage to fear was beginning to rule his life. Then, one day, Billy came to know Jesus in a personal way. He read Psalm 23:4 i...

I heard the heart-wrenching story of a young man who spent several years travelling the world... meeting with gurus, shamans, and the like, in a search for spiritual enlightenment. He disappeared in a remote valley of the Himalayas.* I call it a heart-wrenching story because I find it tragic that someone with such a desperate desire to find the truth, as far as I know, never heard the Good News ab...

Is your heart divided? A tension? A wrestling between what you want to do and what you actually do? Maybe thoughts that pull you this way or that? Maybe your loves? You love what is good, but you also lean toward loving things that are destructive and damaging to yourself and the people you love. This tension can at times be so overwhelming and very discouraging. In Psalm 86 the writer asks God fo...

In the springtime I love to see the tiny lambs in the fields. They look so cute with their knobby little legs and big ears. We think of lambs as being gentle and sweet.  At the other extreme are lions. Their massive paws and strong teeth are frightening.  The odd thing is that Jesus is referred to in the Bible as both a lion and a lamb. He is tender and strong at the same time.  There is a song we...

I remember as a young mother looking at my babies and thinking... ”Who thought it would be a good idea to give us these two tiny people and expect us to guide, protect, provide for them? To build a home for them?” It felt like an overwhelming task. Being a parent and building a home has been the most joyful, heartbreaking, difficult, happy, painful, interesting, exhilarating journey. There isn’t a...

Jesus had superpowers, but He didn’t use them to dominate others. The Jews of His day were waiting for a Messiah to come who would rule as an earthly king. But Jesus came with a different kind of power. A greater power – the power of selfless love. Though He could have ruled the world, instead He did something that seemed weak. He let Himself be crucified. Jesus refused to use His power for selfis...

If you are a follower of Jesus, I’m sure you’ve had people ask you, “Why is there so much suffering in the world if God is so loving and kind? Why doesn’t He do something about it?” Well, that’s a question we don’t have a full answer for, but we do know that with God the righting of wrongs is a continual process. You can be assured that God cares deeply about human suffering, about injustice, and...

How are you today? Burdened? Maybe full of anxiety? Possibly just bored with life. But when we walk with God our lives are about so much more than making ourselves happy through each day. When we know God, the Bible says we’re running a race – a spiritual race. And we know there’s a finish line. One day we’ll be with Him. We know this world is not our home. Until then, how do we walk through each...

Did you know that Jesus offers to help you carry life’s burdens? He says, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you… For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Jesus is saying that we can have peace when we trust Him to help us with the hard parts of life. Our all-powerful God will help us through every cha...

Do you feel weak? I have a recommendation for you. Read some of the Old Testament stories about Moses, Joseph, David, Gideon; amazing women like Ruth and Esther and Deborah. These were people just like us. Each struggled in many, many different ways. Yet each had one thing in common: they believed God. They believed that God would forgive them, because He said He would. That He would empower them...

I am always awed to watch the weightlifters in the Olympics raising barbells weighing 300 pounds and more over their heads. They strain mightily to hold that pose, their muscles trembling from the tremendous effort. It looks like such an impossible feat to me, but I’m only your ordinary guy who lifts just a suitcase or a bag of groceries.  There are times in my life when I feel like such a weaklin...

Do you feel trapped? Maybe you’re trapped in a dead-end job, a joyless relationship, an addiction, or stressful living situation. Maybe the trap is one of anxiety or fear. God wants to set you free. He is the chain-breaker. Remember how God sent His angel to break the chains that were holding Peter prisoner in Herod’s dungeon? He has the power to free you from whatever has you trapped and chained....

God is rich in mercy. Nowhere else in the Bible is God called rich in anything. The only thing He is called rich in is mercy. It’s who He is, it is not just something He has.  Do you struggle to believe this about God? That God is defined by favor toward you? That He is leaning toward you instead of away from you? That His way is unchanging and unimpacted by your behavior?  Your affection towards...

During Jesus’ time, to be crucified not only meant an agonizing death, but utter humiliation as well. The Old Testament of the Bible tells us: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” When Jesus was crucified, He was cursed to the worst kind of death, but because He was perfectly innocent, something happened that no one expected – the curse was broken. Jesus had no sin in Him, but He took the p...

Listen to this verse in the book of Hebrews. The Message version says: “We have run for our very lives to God.” Some of us have stories of living very far from God. Living a life of self-destruction. But we had a moment, a season, where we ran for our very lives to God because we knew our future was tragically dark. Maybe you have never run to Him. Maybe you continue to keep yourself at arm’s leng...

We daily see ads and hear reports about cures for all our problems. There are medications and treatments for pretty much everything.  These can help, but they’re expensive and not guaranteed to work. In contrast, Jesus offers us deep peace and healing, and it's all been paid for already. The sin and suffering in our own lives and others around us wear us down. Jesus doesn’t offer us an easy life....

We expect a king to live in a palace, drive around in a Rolls Royce, and be treated with deference and respect. However, when Jesus, who is the King of kings, came into our world, He did not demand any special treatment. He was born into humble circumstances and lived simply all His life. Jesus Himself said that He came to serve, not to be served. In the end, He gave His life for us all. If the Lo...

Have you ever used an anchor? Have you been out on a boat and thrown an anchor overboard to hold the boat steady, to prevent you from drifting or protect you in a storm? The Bible says that the hope God offers us through Jesus is an anchor for our soul. And this hope is firm and secure. Why do we need an anchor for our souls? You probably know the answer to that question. It’s obvious. When the tr...

Human babies are utterly helpless as newborns. Humans depend on their parents for years. This is the way God created us, and it’s the situation that He entered into Himself. Jesus, the eternal Word, the Son of God, became a human baby, vulnerable and mortal. As a child, Jesus relied on His earthly mother and father to feed, clothe, and shelter Him. All the while, He was the same God who was uphold...

Have you ever heard that Jesus offers us living water? What is He talking about? He’s comparing our need for water with our need for Him. Thankfully, most of us have never truly suffered from dehydration – a lack of water that has us craving, yearning for water as the only thing we can think about. We can live for maybe two months without food, but we can live only three days without water. Jesus...

Have you ever drawn a picture of yourself? Imagine what it would be like if you suddenly became the drawing of yourself rather than the flesh and blood version of yourself. That’s a strange thought, but that might help you consider how it felt for Jesus to experience the world as a human being. He Himself was formed in a womb. The creator became one of the created.  In John chapter 1 we read this...