Our Resolute Hope Podcast

Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh to show us what our Father God is really like.  Embodying every divine attribute, His words and actions had a single purpose:  to point us toward our Father.

Father is a name of summation, wrapping up in a single word all God is and all He longs to be to us.  A father is strong.  He provides and protects.  And He loves his children immeasurably, doing only the very best for them.

When we trust Christ, God abides in us, makes His home in us, and we abide in Him.  But we must continue to abide if we wish to bear fruit.  Unless our minds are set on Him, we can do nothing for His kingdom.

When God makes His home in us, He gets busy immediately.  He becomes to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.  And He begins to train us to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives that honor Him.

God in us means that He lives His miraculous life in and through us - our circumstances, our choices, and our personalities.  His abundant life is more than sufficient for every situation we will ever face.

God making His home in us forges a deep, spiritual union that goes beyond the idea of God with us.  It’s a shared existence where we can experience our unity with Christ through the daily reality of His presence in us.

When God pledged to be our Immanuel, He promised to redeem and restore us, no matter what we’ve done.  To be with us, no matter the enemies and struggles we might face.  To be our sufficiency.

God’s New Covenant was revealed in stages, with hints and glimpses scattered throughout the Old Testament.  Its complete fulfillment was in our Lord Jesus Christ, Who was more than God with us – He was God in us.

The angel revealed to Mary and Joseph much about Who Jesus is and what He will do.  As son of the Most High, He will reign forever as king.  And as Messiah, He will save His people from their sins.

Warrior.  Shepherd.  Leader.  Man of deep faith in God.  All these, and more, describe Joshua, a stunning type of the ultimate Yeshua, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We may wander and stray, but the heart of El Shaddai toward us never changes.  When we choose to live face to face with Him, He promises to make us complete and to supply all our needs, so that we lack nothing.

This name, above all others, shows the heart of our all-sufficient God toward His children.  When we are weak and vulnerable, He is our nurturing, comforting El Shaddai, the One Who promises to meet all our needs.

Safety, welfare, contentment, and completeness are all wrapped up in the word peace.  When God gives us His peace, He gives us the Person of Peace, Jesus Christ.  And through Him, we can cast our concerns in the lap of our God and enjoy His rest.

Come, let’s reason together.  That’s the compassionate invitation from our Lord to safely share all our sins and struggles with Him.  He will show us the truth about our circumstances and, through that truth, empower us to live lives that honor Him.

Knowing God as Adonai changes us.  Receiving Him as sovereign leads to a vulnerable transparency between God and his children, where we recognize our total inadequacy but move forward with a bold trust of His strength in us.

Sovereign.  Ruler.  Master.  All these define Adonai (Lord).  We use this name for God a lot.  But like Abram, we often don’t fully appreciate its meaning until we find ourselves in difficult circumstances we can’t manage on our own.

As covenant maker, Yahweh promises to do it all for us.  He leads, guides, and blesses us, and all we need do is believe and follow.  And when we do, He revives our soul, enlightens our eyes, and makes our hearts rejoice.

Intimacy,  Fellowship.  Communion.  A life shared with those He created.  These words barely begin to describe Yahweh and His desires for a relationship with us.  He describes Himself as I am, our present-tense God.

Our God works to recreate us spiritually, offering us what we need most:  a new heart and a new spirit.  Creating the heavens was handiwork for Him, but He had to roll up His sleeves and bare His arm to secure our salvation.

Our Creator is infinite, beautiful, and mysterious.  While we might see Him as distant and uninterested, the very opposite is true.  He is always active on our behalf, inviting us to draw ever closer and know Him more.

All authority to judge now belongs to Jesus, Who demonstrates the same wisdom, discernment, and understanding as the Father.  Jesus judges pass-fail:  do you have the Son or not?

God alone has the authority, the right and power, to judge.  Only He has the discernment, understanding, and wisdom to judge rightly every time.

Defender and protector are attributes of our warrior God.  But sometimes He fights for us in different ways, motivating then inviting us to join Him in His plans then empowering us to play key roles in His kingdom.

When we’re surrounded by enemies, feeling vulnerable and powerless, our Shepherd God has prepared His table for us.  He offers His rest, peace, and blessing no matter what we might face.

Green pastures and still waters sound great, but what about the dark valleys?  Psalm 23 shows us that, no matter where we are, the Person of Peace - Jesus Christ – is always with us.