There’s so much in this world that can discourage us. We long to make a difference but struggle to understand how. This message looks at Philip’s encounter with an Ethiopian eunuch and shows us how God can use you as a force for good in our world today.
The Good Samaritan is one of Jesus’ most famous stories. Despite our familiarity with it, most people hear the moral but miss the point. While confronting our indifference, prejudice and tendency to justify ourselves, Jesus helps us to see what’s needed for us to inherit eternal life.
We imagine ourselves to be rational people who take precautions in responding to warnings, but the Bible makes it clear that there are many things that keep us from the truth. This message looks at the last days before the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem and the reasons people ignored the warnings and the courage one man showed in responding to them.
The injustice in our world stirs us to act. And there is much in the church that we long to see changed. God’s message to Israel in the midst of their history’s greatest reform movement changes how we see reform, however. The prophet, Zephaniah, helps us to see the limits of human reform and the solutions that God provides.
We can read the Old Testament as if it’s only about Jewish people and their concerns, but at the heart of the Old Testament Scriptures is a message of hope for all nations. It wasn’t always fully embraced by God’s people then and neither is it today. We need the message of this psalm now more than ever.
We see the injustice in our world today and wonder what it will take for God to show His mercy. Today’s passage looks at a man named Phinehas who was as jealous for God’s honour as God is. He secured mercy for God’s people and was promised a priestly dynasty as a result. It is significant that this hero of the early priesthood was the son of a Jewish father and African mother and distinguished by his African features.
Miriam challenges Moses because of his marriage to a Cushite woman. She seems to be motivated at least in part by prejudice because he has married a woman of a different skin colour. God responds by giving her a skin disease. God strongly affirms the marriage between one of the Old Testament’s most famous Jews and his African wife.
People misunderstand the distinction between the commands to foreigners and sojourners in the Old Testament and wrongly assume that God was against non-Jewish ethnicities. This message shows God’s heart to reach the nations in the Old Testament.
Church-going slave owners used the curse of Ham to justify their enslavement of Africans, reading their prejudices into the text and ignoring humanity’s creation in the image of God. The church missed its opportunity then. What will it take to get it right this time?
Moral and spiritual failure often leaves us feeling like we’re in the doghouse. We can feel stuck and struggle to find a way forward. This message looks at how God meets us in those times and clears a path to our restoration.
When confronted with the evil and injustice in our world, we’re often caught off guard. We wonder why God doesn’t do something about it. Meanwhile, we gravitate toward passive indifference or vengeful aggression, and we can find our own character is corrupted in the process. This message looks at how to deal with the world’s injustice.
We all face the pressure of powerful people in our lives; governments, bosses, and popular classmates, but how should we respond to the pressure? Jacob, in Genesis 33, provides us a helpful example, showing us that God’s people walk the path of humility, generosity, and obedience.
In this message we will explore the meaning of the sealed scroll and why no one is able to break the seals and read what is written except for the unique person who is at one and the same time the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, and Lamb who has been slain. Then we will consider why this is important if we are to interpret Revelation correctly, and it's significance for our lives as human beings.
When we feel desperate, the temptation is to fight with the wrong people for the wrong things or just give up and settle. In this message, we learn from Jacob’s wrestling with God how to pursue Him for what our hearts most yearn for.
There are many terms we can use to describe the various fears which we have in our lives. But all the way from the time of today’s passage to the present day, one of the most powerful kinds of fears we have is the fear of other people. This message looks at the only true way we can conquer this fear in our lives - through a different kind of fear.
We often find ourselves wanting to change. But when we start with the behaviour without addressing our thinking, frustration often results. This message looks at how God uses our circumstances and His Word to confront the patterns in our mind that bind us to our past.
When circumstances are difficult, moving on can seem like a solution. But how do you tell the difference between moving on and running away? And even when you are convinced that it’s time to move on, how do you move on without regret? This message looks at a transition in the life of Jacob that teaches us how to end well.
When it’s hard to see God’s blessing and change in our circumstances is a long time coming, we can be tempted to take matters into our own hands. This message shows us that God is at work even in our setbacks and can be trusted as the only source of true blessing.
Some people think that they have to be cleaned up before they come to God. Others assume that through an encounter with Him, they will be instantly changed. Neither of those attitudes aligns with the Bible. This message looks at how God helps us to change.
