The New Testament teaches that the church has much in common with Israel in exile. God sent the people of Zion into exile in Babylon so that they might be voices of wisdom in the midst of confusion and chaos. Israel had a choice: become like Babylon, or make Babylon more like Zion.
Read MoreIn the book of Exodus, God takes possession of His people and establishes them as a nation called to devotion, mediation, and servanthood. It is through them that the politics of His kingdom are to spread to the whole world. The narrative of the exodus has been commandeered by many political agendas, including in America. What are we to make of that? How does God's calling on Israel apply to us today?
Read MoreHow does humanity's fall into sin affect politics? We could go on and on about how every government is deeply broken. No one needs help being disappointed in politics. So instead, Dave asks if there's any room for legitimate authority in a fallen world? Teaching from Genesis 9, he explains what we can expect from the world's rulers and, more importantly, what God expects.
Read MoreChristians are story-formed people who find their identity and purpose in the narrative of Scripture. This is not just true about our private devotion, but our public life. To that end, we are beginning a new series on politics and faith. Starting off with creation, CJ shows that politics is not a result of the Fall but was built into the world from the start.
Read MoreWhat happens when God doesn't answer our prayer? Is it because we are praying for the wrong things, with the wrong motives, in the wrong way? Dave finishes our series on prayer by considering one of Paul's unanswered prayers, and finds that even unanswered prayer is good news.
Read MorePaul spends most of his time praying for us. This week he asks us to return the favor. How much time do we spent praying for those who are specifically called by God to give their entire lives to the work of gospel proclamation. This week C.J. encourages us to identify people in our lives who fit this description and labor in anguish in prayer for them.
Read MoreIn this prayer from Paul, he equates the gospel to perfume. What does the gospel smell like? Subsequently, what do we smell like? This week C.J. invites us to consider the ingredients of gospel perfume, the nature of its messengers, as well as the recipients of the message.
Read MoreHow diverse are your prayers? As the white American church reckons with its failure to pursue racial justice and reconciliation, Dave invites us to take a deeper look at our prayer life. Do we pray only for those nearest us? Paul instructs us to pray for all people because God desires that all people be saved and because Jesus died for all people. Belief in the gospel should lead to prayers which cross differences, borders, and even hemispheres.
Read MoreIn this current moment, how can we be comforted by the gospel? How can we comfort others? Is the gospel big enough to account for and reconcile all of the systemic brokenness we see around us? This week, C.J. invites us to remember the sufferings of the Apostle Paul, and to let them encourage us. He also invites us to re-think our understanding of the gospel as is pertains to those in our world who are disproportionately experiencing oppression.
Read MoreOn Pentecost Sunday, we remember how the gift of the Holy Spirit transformed God's people into living temples. Reflecting on the anti-Pentecost events of the past week, Dave asks what it means for us to be temples of God in a broken world.
Read MoreC.J. continues our series on the prayers of Paul, teaching from Ephesians 1. Harold Hoehner calls this "the prayer for someone who has everything." In Christ, we have been given all that we need. That means all we really need is for God to open our eyes to what we have in Him and how we can enjoy it.
Read MoreIn seasons of trial, what should we ask God for? For the next six weeks, we will consider what Paul asks. Today, from Philippians 1, Dave considers prayer in light of God's unchanging faithfulness. If God has always been good, prayer is not asking him to change himself. Prayer is mostly about asking God to change us.
Read MoreOne of the most challenging parts of sheltering-in-place has been finding rest. Whether you're overworked or without work, rest time often leaves us dissatisfied. But as Christians, it is our joyful duty to pursue rest. In Isaiah 55, we find three biblical principles to help us get there.
Read MoreIn crisis, God is looking to test our faith and give us greater life in Christ. But Satan has his own aims, wanting to turn testing into temptation. How do we understand the difference? What do we do? C.J. contrasts our impulse to hide, fight, and blame in the face of sin with gospel's invitation to expose, flee and own our sin.
Read MoreHebrews 11:1 describes faith as confidence in the unseen. This means that faith depends on a robust imagination, which sees God at work and hears his voice and feels his presence in our life. Dave unpacks the importance of imagination for faith, especially during times of crisis. Then, he calls us to exercise our imagination with radical gratitude.
Read MoreThere is a street-level mythology around Jesus and his Resurrection in San Francisco: that it was a late creation of Constantine, that Jesus never really died, that his disciples just wanted it to be true. C.J. tells us why Jesus’ bodily resurrection is the most reasonable explanation for the historical facts.
Read MoreExperts are telling us that many thousands of people are about to die all at once. What does the Bible say about death? How will we offer hope in the face of such tragedy? The Bible teaches us that death is inevitable, tragic, scary, and the result of sin. This is hard news, but it’s also the only explanation for death that we can be saved from. Every other explanation for death leaves us hopeless. Listen how Jesus not only identifies with our experience of death but how he saves us by dying for us!
Read MoreIn light of this experience, we are in a series entitled “As We Wait: Faithfulness in Uncertainty.” What would God have us do in this season? This week, from Exodus 15, C.J. reflects on the Biblical reality of the wilderness and how it applies to this current moment. How might Jesus be inviting you into this wilderness to offer you a freedom far beyond what you can imagine. Are you tempted, as the Israelites were, to return to a yoke of slavery in Egypt because you are not content with these present circumstances?
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