SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 33-36 “I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd.” (Ezekiel 34:23) Ezekiel laments the failure of Israel to live up to their calling. Wayward hearts, deaf ears, cruel leaders, wandering sheep… refusing to change. God uses the nations to discipline…
Taste and see!
SCRIPTURE: John 6:30-40 “For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:33) God is eternal, undying, without beginning or end; creation is not. Everything in creation depends on God for it’s existence. If God were to let go, for a moment, everything would cease to…
Faith that works!
SCRIPTURE: John 6:25-29 “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:29) This sounds like easy enough work. Go to a class, learn everything you can about Jesus, and believe it. How hard is that? This is a wrong way to understand “believe in”. If someone says they can cure…
Step onto the unknown!
SCRIPTURE: John 6:16-24 “They saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; they were frightened.” (John 6:19) Imagine: as the disciples see Jesus walking on water, suddenly a submarine surfaces. Out pops the head of a captain, and he calls out, ‘Everything OK, need a hand?’ I’m thinking the disciples would be VERY frightened. This would…
The God that multiplies!
SCRIPTURE: John 6:1-15 “Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them…” (John 6:11) So many people, so many needs, so few resources. I can certainly relate to this. Our church finds itself with too few resources, facing too many needs. Yet we serve the One Who has come to deal with these concerns. We believe Jesus…
Challenge for this week!
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 111 “Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.” (Psalm 111:2) When is the last time you thought about God’s work in your life? If you were asked to share about God’s greatness, what would you say? At our church we ask people to verbalize their praise…
Power seems to corrupt
SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 25-32 “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18) This verse summarizes what is going on in these chapters. Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt – headed for a fall. Tyre and Egypt get special focus, it seems for special pride. Tyre was like the highest angel in Eden…
“I don’t need praise, I got love!”
SCRIPTURE: John 5:41-47 “I do not accept glory from human beings…” (John 5:41) What does it mean to give glory to someone? It is to praise, honour, celebrate, or boast about them. Everyone lives for an audience; we want to feel loved and valued. We seek love and value, because that is what we lost when we…
Beyond the words to the Word
SCRIPTURE: John 5:31-40 “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life.” (John 5:39) Jesus is referring to the Jewish Bible – what Christians call the Old Testament. The Jewish Bible was how God was setting up the coming of a Messiah for all nations. Jesus fulfills every promise, addresses every…
Agent(s) of life!
SCRIPTURE: John 5:24-30 “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7) As part of the creation process, God forms a unique creation: humanity (‘adam’). Though humans share common ‘material’ (dust, ‘adamah’) foundations, humans receive…