Shepherd's Garage

As we continue the series, "he other Christian trinity," (faith, hope, love) we turn our attention to love.  God is not concerned with our feelings so much as our actions when he commands us to love one another.  How can we do this?  

Hope has several elements but learning to he a good "waiter" is important.  So is integrity.  Hope depends on our integrity.

Hope.  Christian hope is not wishful thinking.  It is grouded in God and His faithfulness.  Hope is also not a feeling.  Sometimes hope is still moving forward when you do not feel like it.  Think of hope this way:  Hope is making heaven happen here.

The steadfast love of the Lord sounds good to our ears.  However, have you noticed the context in which those words are written.  It was a time of lost hope.  Yet it speaks of hope so beautifully.  Hope is hard.  Hope is not some emotion we have it's a commitment that God is merciful and will keep his word.

Faith is belief, trust and obedience but is there another word we could use besides faith.  Matthew Bates has suggested that the word allegiance may be a better word to use in understading the Biblical idea of faith.

When reading Hebrews 11 there are at least three elements to faith.  Belief, trust and obedience.  Focus for today is on trust.

Faith is certainly belief but it also is a recognition of the authority of Jesus and obedience to him.

What is the gospel and what does it mean that Jesus is messiah?  The gospel is so much more than Jesus died for our sins.  Messiah may be better understood as king.  

"Without faith it is impossible to please God."  But we do need to be sure that we have good sense of what Biblical faith is.

We want to be wise and do the right thing and yet we will still find ourselves struggling to be wise.  How do we resolve this?  Ecclesiastes 7:19-29 has some answers for us.  There is one righteous one who never sinned,  That makes all the difference.  Give it a listen and see what you think.

As we study through Joshua and Judges we keep running into the problem of idolatry.  It is easy to dismiss this as a problem they had but we do not struggle with.  We have our idols and we keep them for a number of reasons.  One reason we keep them around is that we stay focued on what we want instead of what we need.  God is more interested in what we need than what we want.  So when He does not...

Just like the Israelites had a territory to conqueor in Joshua and Judges, we have one as well.  Ourselves.  That is the hardest thing we will have to conqueor in this life.  There are lots of things we can look at and learn from the story of Joshua and Judges but maybe the prime one is this.  The last verse of Judges sums up the problem.  "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes."  Strive to...

Abel's blood cries for one things.  Jesus blood speaks a better word to us.  It's why we can say Happy Easter.

Ecclesiastes chapter 7 begins with the importance of a good name.   Ecclesiastes 7:13 tell us this.  Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? ESV. Life will at times be crooked and it was God who made it crooked.  What's that all about?  Let's explore.

We read through the book of Joshua and it's easy to just look at the stories.  What meaning do these stories have for us today.  Maybe if you looked at like this:  We all have a territory to conquer.  That territory is ourself.  Read this way, Joshua is very useful for us as we see the the ways in which the battles we fight are either won or lost.  

Will you be Rahab or Achan?  Good question to ask yourself.  Will you have faith and work for God's purposes or will you work toward your own ends?

Joshua gets to meet the commander of the Lord's army and then hear a word from the Lord.  Lots to talk about here but the main point for today:  Quit trying to get God on your side and make sure you are on God's side.

Ecclesiastes 7:9-13 continues the discussion about how to have a good name.  Two things are emphasized:  Control your anger and do not live in the past.

When is someone ready to be baptized?  Important question, let's explore.

Everyone has questions they want answers to and should try to get answered.  Why and I here and what should I be doing.  The Bible has answers to these questions and others.

In Joshua chapter 1 Joshua is taking over from Moses as the leader of the Israelites.  God gives him some instructions to be a great leader.  However, the advice God gives to him is not what you would hear in leadership seminars today in this world.  It's pretty basic.  Be holy and obedient.  Let's see why this makes all the difference.

Joshua chapter one describes the land that the Israelites will one day occupy.  Yet, to my knowledge, they never occupied all this territory.  Why?  Was it a failure on the part of God or the people or something else?  Let's explore.

Correction.  It's hard to give and hard to take but so essential to all aspects of our life, especially spriritually.

Luke 15:  The Lost Sheep, Lost Coin and Lost Son.  Tough being lost and tough being the one who lost something important.  What can we do about it.  This is not just stories about lost but asking us what we will do about the lost.

How is the day of death better than the day of birth?  Sound counter intuitive.  Very interesting passage from Ecclesiastes 7:1-8. Let's tak a look at what it means to have a good name.