Meet Me in the Word: Bible Study with Pastor Tim

Send Tim a note Have you noticed how clever and resourceful con artists can be?  I hate it when they’re good at it and succeed!  I’ll be honest, while I’m mad at them, I’m usually mad at myself too for believing it.  I’m a smart guy, at least I thought I was!  Why couldn’t I see through their charade?  Probably because I was busy believing the best about everybody.  If you can relate to that feeli...

Send Tim a note Jesus offers us grace and forgiveness that far exceeds the magnitude of our sin. More than that, He also offers us a transformed life; a new life that releases us into freedom and gives us the power to change through that same grace. We’re in Romans 6:1-7, the part of the letter where Paul responds to the immense love of God that he talked about in chapter 5.  Support the show For...

Send Tim a note If you’ve ever reached that point where you ran out of hope that God would answer your prayer, you’re in good company.  Sometimes we know what God’s promises are, we’re just not sure they apply to us.   We’re in Genesis 18 today, the part of the story where Sarah has a very honest moment and then Abraham intercedes for people who have long since walked away from God. Support the sh...

Send Tim a note What do you think heaven will be like?  Do you ever let your imagination sort of drift into those possibilities?  Scripture does give us glimpses; descriptions and pictures of it that can help us and I feel like we should read them, in part to let ourselves get caught up in the hope of eternity with Christ.  You can read about that in Revelation 21, 22.  Our passage is  the part wh...

Send Tim a note If you were to look back over the course of your life and write a page or two of reflection, what would that look like? What would people come to understand about you and about how you view God? What about the main themes that show up in your story?   David wrote Psalm 18 in the later years of his life and we catch a glimpse as to how he understood himself and his relationship with...

Send Tim a note If you've ever been duped by someone, you know how embarrassing and consequential that can be. We'd all like to believe that we have good discernment and the ability to see through other people's deceptions but the truth is, people can be very clever. It turns out that our spiritual adversary operates in much the same way, occasionally coming at us bluntly but usuall...

Send Tim a note Have you ever been in a situation where things spiraled out of control? It’s a pretty helpless feeling when events are already in motion that you can’t stop.  You’re beyond the point of no return.  Our passage has an element of that at the beginning but then introduces us to The One who totally reversed the narrative and brought legitimate hope!  This isn't merely a situation...

Send Tim a note Who are you?  What are you doing here?  More importantly, who does God say you are?  And finally, what’s the purpose He’s given you? Each of those questions are reflected in the story of Abraham and Sarah. Their experience with promises, faith, doubt, and questions are all highly relatable to me.  How about you? Leaning into God for our identity can be the most transformative thing...

Send Tim a note Is there something in your life where you know you just need to shove out every single distraction and bring that to Jesus? What are you pleading with God about? We’re talking about fasting today in Matthew 6:16-18, the model that God has given us to do exactly that.  We take time to understand this passage but also to pull in from other examples as well as some (hopefully) helpful...

Send Tim a note When you think about God taking a deep dive into your heart and mind and looking around, what sort of response do you have?  I think it’s perfectly normal for us to hope that those one or two areas remain unseen and unsearched and yet the truth is, God already knows.  His intent, though, isn’t to look for flaws in order to condemn us. His desire is to heal us.  I believe one of the...

Send Tim a note Have you ever told your own faith story to yourself?  I know that sounds a little odd but I’m getting at the idea of actively remembering.  Joshua leads the people in doing what God had asked of them once they entered the land.  Their covenant with God was to be central to their lives and everything they did.  So how about us?  How are we remembering and renewing? Also, I get to te...

Send Tim a note How do you respond to people who continue to treat you poorly?  Our society has grabbed the term “toxic” to describe those people who are that constant problem in our lives. More often than not, the recommendation is to remove that person from your life if you can. Sometimes that is wisdom. Some people have shown their stripes and it would be foolish to believe they would behave in...

Send Tim a note This is the part of the story where our covenant couple (Abram & Sarai) go off-script and the results are not at all what they thought they would be. It's not all bad, though, because the LORD proves himself to be faithful even when his people behave... like people. If you're someone who feels cast aside, overlooked, or just plain used while someone else takes center...

Send Tim a note What have you been talking to God about lately?  What’s He been telling you?  Prayer really is an act of faith isn’t it?  We believe in this ability to communicate with our Creator and yet so many of us have big questions and in some cases, big opinions about it. We ask things like…   “Does it work?”  “Is there a right way?”  “Why don’t I seem to get an immediate response?”  “‘Pray...

Send Tim a note How do you evaluate whether your life is going well or not?  What do you tend to focus on? Tough moments reveal that people, institutions, our own health, and life in general will all let us down but we I believe we can have contentment in God.  That contentment can even become joy, not contrived or forced but genuine, honest delight. David writes Psalm 16 from a good time in his l...

Send Tim a note What do you do after a failure that leaves you feeling discouraged or even disillusioned?  How do you move forward, back into mission and maybe more importantly, back into health?  I think we all want reassurance that we’ll be okay; that we’re not abandoned. This is the part of the story that comes after defeat and a brutal reckoning because of sin.  It's all picking up after...

Send Tim a note What if I told you you could have peace, not just for the thing you’re going through right now but for the span of your life.  If that interests you, you should check this episode out! Paul talks about the kind of peace that doesn’t take away life’s difficulties and chaos but it gives us an entirely different way to go through them.  Support the show For a reading plan and to learn...

Send Tim a note Do you ever look at someone else’s spiritual life and think, “why isn’t mine like theirs?” If that’s you, I want you to hang in there with me until the end - I have some words of encouragement specifically for you. Genesis 15 holds a story of promises, patience, and faith.  We see how Abram not only believes God but brings his questions and doubts to the LORD as well.  We don’t typ...

Send Tim a note What motivates you to do the right thing?  And does it matter?  The truth is we all can be prompted into action by things like rewards, the fear of punishment or negative consequences for bad behavior or even bribes. The Jesus way challenges all of those things and calls us to develop the habit of simply living rightly. Jesus teaches about giving to the needy in Matthew 6:1-4, inst...

Send Tim a note If I gave you 5 minutes to put pen to paper, how would you describe someone who is holy?  Now, if you just jumped straight to “someone saved by Jesus” - I want you to flesh that out a little more: what are their traits?  How do they conduct themselves? Can we discern if someone is living a holy life through observation? While I’m sure he took more than 5 minutes, David does that ve...

Send Tim a note Why is it that the hidden things in our lives cause the most trouble?  One of the big lies we tell ourselves is that if no one else knows, it isn’t causing harm to us. Deep down we all know that isn’t true but it feels easier at the time to try and bury the problem rather than hauling it out into the light. The story of Achan is not an easy read but it can serve as a good reminder...

Send Tim a note What if I told you that your faith doesn’t need to be perfect but it does need to be honest?  What if I also told you that this is one of those things that wasn’t meant for your head so it needs to travel down to your heart?  What if we truly came to accept it?  We explore these things as well as what it means to be children of Abraham in a very real sense. Support the show For a r...

Send Tim a note What would you do with your 15 minutes of fame?  If (and when) you got them, the platform would be suddenly yours and with it comes the  opportunity for influence and the chance to improve your situation.  We see quite a bit of that in our world today, some handle it well and others not so much.  I wonder if any of us is particularly prepared to handle those big successes. Abram ex...

Send Tim a note If you’ve ever read a passage and thought, “that isn’t fair at all!” You’re one of the good ones!  Someone who reads with an honest heart. Today we’re reading some teaching from Jesus that isn’t hard to grasp for our minds but it is for our hearts.  Loving people in general can be enough of a challenge but Jesus calls us to much more than that. What does it mean for us to pray for...

Send Tim a note I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of anxiety in the world lately. I’ll bet you’ve noticed the same thing.  Politically, in so many countries, things feel tense.  I grew up in the late stages of the Cold War and there was plenty to be worried about back then too. Even in their personal lives people face economic uncertainty, strife in families and marriages and at times it just seems...