Thirsting Souls

What do you know about your God? What is it about Him that makes Him worthy of trust? Listen to these truths from Psalm 115 as we discover the character of a trustworthy God!

When you consider the claim, "Jesus demands you submit everything to Him," it can lead to some incredibly difficult decisions. It can feel like you are giving up on your hope and dreams when you contemplate submitting to Jesus, so the appropriate question to ask is this--if I submit, will Jesus be enough? Open your Bible to find out!

If you live in the real world, it's safe to say that technology plays a significant role in your life. If it's not a smartphone, it's medicine. If it's not social media, it's a refrigerator. Technology is everywhere, and Scripture demands that we submit everything, including technology, to the Lordship of Jesus. How do we do that? Let's go to God's Word to find out.

Do you ever feel like God gifted you with interests and abilities that are totally useless? You're not alone, and as you look at Scripture, you find that when you submit to Jesus as Lord, he uses what you thought was unusable!

Titus 2:11-15 helps the Christian understand that the grace that is needed for live transformation is found by devoting your mind to understanding doctrine.

When your family life reaches the point of desperation, it is often only the beginning of God's glorious plan for your life. Follow along in 1 Samuel 1 as we see how God gives hope to desperate families.

Unpacking the account from the Garden to Golgotha

In Malachi 1, the prophet rips back the curtain to expose the sinful sacrifices of the priests, and in the process, he reveals a great deal about God's character. He is a God who has incredibly high standards for worship and sacrifice. They are standards so high that we cannot meet them.

When we overlook definitions of familiar concepts like church, that leads to imprecision. Unfortunately, imprecision can lead to apathy, and when apathy strikes within the church, there are serious problems which prevent us from accomplishing the purpose that God has given us through new life in Christ. 

What happens when you trust yourself? Our culture preaches that trusting yourself, having self-confidence, is crucial. However, Jesus contrasts that view in Luke 18 with two parables. Both of them teach that trusting yourself is a terrible option.

As a Christian, when you isolate yourself from God's people, you wreck your usefulness to God. God has called His people to serve in community rather than to isolate themselves from others. In the conclusion of his letter to the Colossian believers, Paul teaches the Colossians to express sincere concern for others as a bridge to serving well in community.

In His letter to the church in Pergamum, Christ both commends and condemns the church regarding separation. The Christian life demands that you separate form the world in every area, and we have much to learn from this church's successes and failures.

When you misuse a tool, it loses its effectiveness. Often, Christians misuse prayer and destroy its effectiveness. It is easy to find ourselves using prayer merely to increase our own comfort in life, and we disconnect it from God's purposes. In Colossians 4, Paul reminds believers that prayer proves to be an invaluable weapon in our quest to spread the gospel.

Revelation 2:1-7

Paul wrote to the church in Colossae to instruct them on how new-creation character should impact their relationships. As Christians, they did not get to choose which relationships were impacted because all of them must be transformed by new-creation character. In Colossians 3:18-4:1, Paul targets the two most difficult arenas to manifest new-creation character, but he shows the beautiful ideal th...

Colossians 3 primarily consists of applications. The last few verses of the chapter place an emphasis on how new-creation character should transform your relationships, and Paull gives an interesting command to dads in verse 21. Dads, don't exasperate your kids so that they lose heart. Instead of exasperating them, show that you can listen to them, even when they reveal your character deficiencies...

Colossians 3:12-17 teaches that Christian is not only to put off the old man with its sin but also to put on new creation character. This call requires that the Christian let the Word dwell in their hearts and seek to bring glory to Christ with their entire being.

When Christ enters your life everything must change. In order to successfully live through this massive change from death to life, the Christian must put on two mindsets--the heavenly mindset and the militant mindset. Without these mindsets, sin will destroy you, and you will live your new life as if nothing has changed.

Colossians 1:24-2:5 shares a secret for having a joy that is solid rather than fragile; link your joy to advancing the cause of Christ. Those whose joy comes from advancing Christ's purposes can have a solid joy that cannot be stolen even by intense suffering

Colossians 2:6-23 teaches that there is an unprecedented fullness that believers have in Christ. Religions of the world seek to add to that fullness, and by doing so, they strip all value away. Paul encourages the believers in the church at Colossae to evaluate this poor teaching, remove its restrictions, and celebrate the fullness they have in Christ.

What happens when you orient your life around secondary issues? You end up hopelessly lost. Paul's letter to the Colossians teaches that since Christ is at the center of everything, to avoid being lost, you must orient your entire life around Him rather than secondary matters.

In Colossians 1 Paul gives us the secret to a thankful heart for all that God is doing for the church. The secret is to pray deeply for the church so that you recognize how God is at the center of it all. If you neglect to pray that way, Satan will rob you of the joy of praising God for His work in the church

In Mark 11-12 several groups try to trap Jesus as they as loaded questions. The Sadducees are among them, but their absurd question had one problem; it revealed their ignorance of the Word. Jesus' answer addresses that problem and challenges us on our quest to know the Book so we can know our God.

Jesus sends a special message to the church in Smyrna in Revelation 2:8-11. Because of His nature, He enables you to overcome even death itself, and the treasure He promises richly rewards the faithfulness He requires.

John 13 tells the perplexing story of Jesus washing His disciples' feet. We are left a bit unsure of what the meaning of this act of service is, and we can easily miss the point. However, the text calls us to humble service even during moments of anguish. Christ models humble service, and you can serve like Him too.