Pondering with the Peters

In this awkward interruption of the story of Joseph, we read about the royal line of Judah that ultimately leads to the Person of Jesus Christ. This narrative gives hope to believers in Jesus that, despite our scandalous rebellion of the King of the universe, God's grace is greater than all our sin.

In this passage, we see Joseph's sale into slavery, which ultimately points to the Person of Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God who not only became a servant and suffered humiliation and scorn at the hands of His "brothers," but who really did die to save God's people from their sin.

In this passage, we see the difference between worldly greatness and spiritual greatness. Esau may look impressive because he is in the land of his possession and has plenty of offspring, while Jacob is simply a sojourner in the land of Canaan and have become a stench to those around him. But what matters is that Jacob's trust is in the Lord who is more precious than any worldly pleasure.

In this passage, we see God graciously correct and complete the life of Jacob. Jacob was a man who made a lot of mistakes but who trusted in God when it counted. The life of Jacob reminds us that God is still delivering sinful people and keeping His promises today.

In this passage, we see human sin run rampant, but we also see the grace of God on full display. The world is discipling us in many different ways, but we have been called to live lives distinct from the world around us. All of us need the forgiveness and grace of Jesus Christ, and we are the ones who can bring the world this good news.

In this passage, we see reconciliation between Jacob and Esau, which ultimately points us to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the perfectly obedient Son of God, yet who took the punishment for sins we deserved, so that we might be reconciled to God through faith in Him.

In this passage, Jacob wrestles with God and is confronted with his need to fully trust in God alone. In the same way, we too must let go of our self-sufficiency and cling to Jesus who took the blow of justice we deserved, so that we might receive the blessing of grace.

In this passage, Jacob experiences the prosperity and protection of God. Jacob's experience, however, is not unlike that of the believer in Christ. We see that Jacob's Mesopotamian exodus points forward to the Person of Jesus Christ who plundered the power of evil, and who leads His people out of bondage to Satan and into the true and better Promised Land, the new heaven and the new earth.

In this passage, there are multiple wives, multiple births, sister hatred, and the use of surrogacy to celebrate and gloat. But it would be the beginning of God making Jacob's descendants as numerous as "the dust of the earth" (Genesis 28:14). Though the world around us hurts, we can be confident that God is ransoming a people "from every tribe and language and people and nation...

In this passage, we see that the Lord can fulfill His promises even through human deception. Though we are surrounded by all kinds of deceptions, we can be assured that God is not absent or unaware, but that He is transforming us into the image of Christ, who “committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22).

In this passage, Jacob the exile meets the God of his grandather Abraham and his father Isaac. But rather than cursing Jacob for his deception, God blesses Jacob with His very presence. We may sometimes feel forsaken by God, but we who trust in Jesus Christ can be assured that God will be with His people wherever they go.

In this episode, Brenden and Helena have a special guest, Caylea Selke, to discuss atypical missionaries, the positives and challenges of mission work, and the ways God's people can be a blessing to missionaries. For more information on NCEM and how you can get involved, please visit their website: https://ncem.ca/

In this episode, Brenden and Helena talk about the difficulty of striking the balance between family and ministry, and give ways to strike that balance.

While things may have looked really bad on Good Friday, in three days, Jesus would be raised from the dead in accordance with the Scriptures. In this sermon, we look at several examples in the Old Testament where God does resurrection things on the third day, and how these point to how Christ would be raised from the dead on the third day.

In this episode, Brenden and Helena discuss biblical principles for giving, and what their family culture of giving looks like.

In this passage, we see that Jacob deceitfully takes the blessing from his old and blind father Jacob, while his brother Esau receives a kind of anti-blessing. Yet it was God's good plan that "the older shall serve the younger." This doesn't mean that God approves of this deception, but that God can use even human deception to accomplish His redemptive plan, ultimately culminatin...

In this passage, we don't encounter anything new. Everything that happens in this chapter to Isaac has already happened in the previous chapters to Abraham. Thus, Isaac's life is a parallel to the life of his father Abraham. Each of us is passing on a legacy to the next generation, are we passing on a legacy of faith?

In this passage, we see that God, in His sovereign grace, chooses what is least in the world to be His victorious people, ultimately culminating in Jesus who “was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3) to be the Seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent.

In this passage, we see the providential hand of the Lord in providing Rebekah as His appointed bride for Isaac in order to continue the line of the seed of the woman. In His covenant faithfulness the Lord has provided the church as a Bride for His Son, Jesus Christ. Though it may seem like the church is losing, we can confidently entrust our existence to the Lord's providential care.

In this passage, we see the beginning of the fulfillment of God's promise to give Abraham and his offspring the Promised Land. Even when it looks like evil and injustice are at home on this earth, we can have confidence that God will fulfill His promise to provide His people with a homeland, "a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:13).

In this passage, we see that God tests His people for our good and for His glory. We don't tend to think about tests in this way. But we can be comforted by the fact that the God who tests is also the God who provides. The question is: Will we trust and obey Him?

In this passage, we see a series of three seemingly disconnected stories. But what the birth of Isaac, and what God's protection of Hagar and Ishmael, and what Abraham's treaty with Abimelech reveal to us is that we can take comfort in the fact that God will do what He has promised.

In this passage, we see that God is faithful to keep His promises, not because of His people, but in spite of His people. Though old sins will rear their ugly heads in our lives from time to time, our hope is in Jesus who will keep us to the end.

Even though the city of Sodom has been destroyed, the spirit of Sodom is alive and well, even in God's people. In this passage, we see that God isn't content to just take His people out of Sodom, but that He is also taking Sodom out of His people.

In this passage, we note "the kindness and the severity of God" (Romans 11:22). Severity because a holy God must punish sin, and kindness because God has shown us where certain behaviours lead. Before we come down too hard on the wickedness of Sodom, we need to look into the mirror of God's Word and examine our hearts and see if there is any wicked way in us.