Pursuing God with Gene Appel

When we become followers of Jesus, we begin to understand that our pasts no longer define us -- who we belong to defines us. The Bible says our faith makes us a new creation, giving us a new identity. “The old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Cor. 5:17 Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastsid...

In Luke 24:21, before receiving word of Jesus’ resurrection, two of His followers admit, “ But we had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” Like the disciples, we all have a choice to make when things don’t turn out the way we’ve planned -- Will we put our hope in the things of this world or in the promises of God? Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue Go...

In Luke 24 we read of two of Jesus’ followers, who, unaware that He has risen, meet Jesus on the road leaving Jerusalem. In their mourning, they do not recognize that the hope they fear they have lost is right in front of them. This week Gene encourages us to place our hope in Jesus, especially when life doesn’t turn out according to plan. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursu...

“It is finished.” It just didn’t seem right in heaven. And it doesn’t seem right to us. Guilty sinners don’t deserve a substitute like the one God provided.  Jesus paid the price so we could be forgiven and stand blameless before God on the merits of the lamb of God who paid the price for us. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion....

Peter had left everything to follow Jesus only to betray Him in His final hours. It’s in the Courtyard of Caiaphas that Peter, Jesus’ loyal follower and disciple, denies him three times. In today’s episode, Gene contrasts Peter’s cowardice with Jesus’ willingness to endure isolation, betrayal and ultimately death for the sake of those who could so quickly deny Him Pursuing God with Gene Appel is d...

What do you do when you can’t fix the very thing that is crushing your spirit? No matter what you try, you just can’t change it in your own power? Gethsemane means “a place of crushing.” And it was in this very place that Jesus did the only thing He knew to do in those final hours of anguish -- He prayed. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash...

The upper room is a place of radical acceptance. It’s a place where Jesus says to imperfect people like us, “I know what you’ve done and I know what you’re about to do -- but I still love you and still accept you.” Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is f...

The Sunday before Passover was the day when Jews would select a lamb to be sacrificed for their Passover celebration. Jesus chose this day to enter Jerusalem, among crowds waving palm branches and cheering, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Jesus knew what the crowds did not -- that in a few short days they would be cheering for him to be crucified. Pursuing God with Gene...

Isaiah 58:10-11 reveals the result of living out our faith in action. God says, “Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon. The Lord will guide you continually...You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.” Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue Go...

Why do we find ourselves, at times, going through all the spiritual motions yet feeling stuck in our relationship with God? In today’s devotion, Gene shares insight from Proverbs 11:25 to encourage us to learn to give our lives away. Because “Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.” Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Ground...

“For some reason we don’t categorize a ‘lack of love’ as a ‘moral failure.’” In today’s devotion, Gene encourages us to pray that we share in God’s vision for compassion -- that God opens our eyes to be moved to action for the needs that move Him. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s...

Doesn’t our love lack sincerity if we say we care for a person’s soul but not their physical needs? In today’s devotional, Gene encourages us to follow the example of Jesus by living out a holistic kind of love. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for...

It’s all too easy to become ignorant to the suffering of those around us -- to even look the other way. 1 John 3:17 says, “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and sh...

You can study a book carefully, and never be changed by it. James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” In today’s devotion, Gene encourages us to apply God’s word to our lives and in our daily actions . Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by E...

“You remember what’s important to you.” In those moments of crisis or when our faith is tested, we can remember verses from the Bible if we have already developed the habit of memorizing scripture. We become mature in our faith when we hide God’s word in our hearts by first putting it in our minds. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compas...

Jesus says in John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. And the Scriptures point to me!” If you want to be transformed by the Bible, in today's devotional Gene encourages us to study the Bible and apply what we’ve learned. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture...

The purpose of a mirror is to evaluate ourselves. James says that when a person takes time to read the Bible, it's like looking in a mirror. “The man who LOOKS INTENTLY into the perfect law that gives freedom ...will be blessed in what he does.” James 1:25 Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped...

Your faith is being built every time you hear a sermon or listen to a podcast teaching. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing the message, and the message comes through the Word of Christ.” Being transformed by the Bible starts with receiving it with your ears   Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and...

“The more people who are pursuing God and building true community, the more compassion we are going to unleash in a broken world.” In today’s devotional, Gene shares his vision for Eastside Christian Church. “And may the day come where it can be said, “and there were no needy persons among them.” Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassi...

Jesus had a kind of peripheral vision that saw people who were often forgotten or marginalized because He always looked through eyes of love. In today’s devotional, Gene encourages us to see those around us with the eyes of Jesus. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that...

Sometimes we get so busy, even at church, that we can become blind to the needs of those around us. In today’s devotion, Gene invites us to pray this prayer:  “God, put someone in our path today and help us to see them with Jesus’ eyes.” Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s convictio...

We all need corrective lenses to see clearly, spiritually speaking. God wants to help us see others the way He does, which is when we can truly be the hands and feet of Jesus. In today’s devotion, Gene challenges us this week to do something to intentionally “...serve one another in love.” Gal. 5:13 Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compa...

Is your vision getting better or worse for the needs of those around you? This week, Gene takes a look at the book of Acts where we read about the founding of the early Christian church. There were “no needy persons among them” because the early church saw people the way Jesus sees them. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Groun...

How did the Israelites handle the many obstacles they faced in the wilderness? Hebrews 11:30 says, “By FAITH the walls of Jericho fell...” In today’s devotion, Gene shares that when you’re navigating change, you’ve got to live by faith -- moment by moment. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by E...

We all go through seasons where we wander spiritually. And just like the Israelites, sometimes we build our own golden calves to worship instead of “clinging to the Rock.” In today’s devotion, Gene challenges us, wherever we are at spiritually, to align or re-align our lives with the God who made us Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compa...