For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing,

but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

When Christ comes to dwell within a person, something dramatically changes. There is now precious cargo and transformation. There is something inside that is far more honorable and beautiful and costly and precious than the one carrying it.

Let every riverbed become a dry canyon.

Let every ocean become an arid crater.

Let not one refreshing drop form in a cloud,

but this steadfast love will cascade, new every morning.

Relationships don’t just matter, they are critical to living as God designed. Why is that? What do they do?

God is described as “blessed” many times in the Bible. What does that mean, and why is it true?

In our eager but sometimes prideful human pursuits, we often end up in exactly the place we intended not to: embarrassment.

God’s grace is most fully known and experienced in our weakness, so to be given weakness in order to experience grace is, in itself, a grace of God.

The most amazing part of their journey takes place in their last 5 miles, the distance from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. This is where the strange providence of Christmas comes in, and it shows us much about how God works.

He is not a permissive dad who can see no wrong in his son – yet he is not a legalistic dad who can spare no room for patience and mercy. God is the passionate and faithful father who looks to the end that he has planned, and sees victory, and provides mercy in the face of incredible failure.

It may not be coincidental that Solomon uses the analogy of bread for anxiousness. Do you think he ever had a late-night snack because he was worried and couldn’t sleep? Have you?

These kinds of things are commonplace earthly and natural, but they are so much more – they are speakers, revealers, indicators, reminders…

What does it mean to serve God? How do we do it? That question could have as many answers as people asking it, because there is a unique way in which every child of God can use their gifts, talents, and inclinations to serve God and work for His kingdom and glory.

There is a greater, far-reaching scope of work that God is doing, but at times we sense it only as suffering with no gain. But, we are not to despair, we are not to twist that experience to our own destruction, but rather we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ in that suffering, in that learning, in that school of God’s leading.

Whatever that bump in the road might be, whether annoyance or tragedy, we can give thanks because the work of the unchanging God is going on unhindered, and it will result in good.

Genesis 1 is our introduction to God in the truest sense. So, while there is a lot to learn from Genesis 1, here are four things to know about God from this chapter in the Bible.

All the closeness and sweetness that we have with Christ is not forever taken away when we choose to turn aside, it is there to welcome us when we agree with God about the emptiness and deceitfulness of sin, and come back to Him.

The hope within believers doesn't bubble up out of nowhere - it is a hope that comes from the good God. Everyone wants to love life. Everyone wants hope, even if they don’t have it. Christ-follower: you have that hope!

Yes, there is a debt that is owed by Christ-followers that remains unpaid. In fact, the more we pay, the more we want to pay, and the more we realize we owe it.