Resources

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights” (Habakkuk 3:19). Read Habakkuk 3:16-19. Like the prophet Habakkuk before us, we may want to cry out, “God, evil is thriving, and the wicked are succeeding! How long must we cry out to You for help?” When we do this, however, we are asking the wrong questions. Instead of questioning God, we ought to be questioning ourselves. We ought to be asking, What is God teaching me? Do I need to repent? Do I need to grow in faith? Is there something I need to do? You see, instead of blaming God when things look grim, we should be praising Him and examining ourselves. Tough times are an opportunity to look inward and purify our hearts in the power of Christ. This is precisely what Habakkuk discovered. At first, the prophet said to God, “I stand […]

“Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2).   Read Habakkuk 3:1-15.   There are times when we pray and there doesn’t seem to be an answer. There are other times when God’s answer seems to be “Wait just a little while longer. Not yet.” And, as Habakkuk experienced, there are times when the answer we receive is the opposite of what we want to hear. When any of these things happen, it can be easy to sink deep into discouragement. But that is not our only option. Like Habakkuk, we can allow these disappointments to draw us into greater intimacy with God.   Instead of being angry with the Lord, instead of developing a hard heart toward God, instead of deciding to give up praying, Habakkuk turned his unanswered prayer into an opportunity to grow […]

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first” (Revelation 2:4). Read Revelation 2:1-7. In the Roman Empire, Ephesus was an important and prosperous city—the center of pagan worship. Near the city was the famous temple of Artemis, or Diana, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Needless to say, Ephesus was a popular destination for religious pilgrims and tourists alike. The city was so influential that the apostle Paul spent three years there as part of his Gospel mission to the Gentiles. In His letter, Jesus commended the believers in Ephesus for their hard work and perseverance. He applauded their zeal and how they rejected false teachers who tried to lead them astray. He also recognized that they had endured hardships for the sake of His name (see Revelation 2:2-3). However, even with such a praise report, there was a serious problem. The Ephesian church had forgotten their first […]

“Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea” (Revelation 1:11).  Read Revelation 1:1-11.  These days, it’s rare to get a letter in the mail. Friends and family are more likely to send you a text, an email, or a message on social media. So, if someone were to send you a handwritten letter the old-fashioned way, it would grab your attention. Imagine, if you will, what it would be like to receive a note in the mail from your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You would pore over every word, savor every line, and take every statement to heart, wouldn’t you? Then I have news for you: There are seven letters from Jesus in the book of Revelation, and although they are addressed to seven specific churches in history, Jesus also intended them for you today. In context, these letters found in Revelation 2-3 are […]

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25a). Read Romans 7:1-25. In this passage, the apostle Paul outlines four Truths about our life in Christ to encourage us as we seek to live for Him.  We are bound to Christ, not the law (vv. 1-6). Christ frees us from the bondage of performance of the law so that we now have joy instead of despair, life instead of death, love instead of duty, and willing service instead of begrudging effort.  Maturity builds up (vv. 7-13). Immature Christians live depending on themselves. But sooner or later, they fail because the law cannot help anyone overcome their sin. Mature Christians do not blame the law, but daily accept their desperate need for a Savior.  Do-it-yourself religion will fail (vv. 14-23). Temptation will always find us on this side […]

“But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:6). Read Romans 7:1-6. Many Christians today are confused about the balance of grace and obedience. One extreme would have us use grace as a license to sin, and the other is legalism—relying on our good works for our ultimate salvation. You know you’re under the influence of legalism when you get up in the morning and say, “I’ve got to obey today—or else.” When you find mild success, you pat yourself on the back with pride. But when you miss the mark, you become overwhelmed with guilt and shame. Praise be to God—Romans 7 gives us a more excellent way. True freedom is no longer found in our performance—that was the old way of the law—but by trusting Christ’s powerful work […]

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life” (Romans 6:22). Read Romans 6:15-23. If you think you can live a godly life by your own strength, you are in deep trouble. Although we play an important role in our sanctification and are commanded to obey the Lord, we cannot grow into Christlike people without depending on Christ Himself. Therefore, we must surrender completely to our rightful master and loving King—the Lord Jesus Christ. Every person on the face of the earth has either sin or Jesus as their master. There are only two choices; there is no third. The question is Which master are you obeying? Slavery to sin produces unbearable guilt here and now and eternal separation from God forever (see v. 21). In contrast, slavery to righteousness gives you freedom from guilt and shame and guarantees you […]

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6-7).   In 2 Corinthians 11:3-4, Paul laments: “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.”   When Paul says he fears the Corinthians will be seduced away from a “sincere and pure devotion to Christ,” the word “sincere” is not the best […]

“And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:25). Our culture most certainly recognizes Christmas as the season of giving. Believers and unbelievers alike see it as a time of gifting, celebrating, and gathering with friends and family—a time when we overload our schedules with events and obligations, when we make lists and worry about the right gift or about having to get another gift. In the midst of all the bustle, for many, it’s also a time of depression, loneliness, despondency, and discouragement. Why? Because we buy into the message of our secular, commercialized culture that turns Christmas into a carnival—a time of superficial indulgence—rather than the deeply satisfying, soul-awakening celebration it truly is. The holy God, who is from everlasting to everlasting (see Psalm 90:2), who does not need anything from us, not praise nor love nor sacrifices (see Acts 17:24-25), […]

“For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Read Hebrews 12:1-3. Christ knew the glories and splendor of heaven. And yet, He left heaven for earth, and He did so with joy. How can it be that Jesus was delighted to leave the majesty of heaven and come to this broken world in order to do the will of the Father? Though He was counted among the poorest of the poor and the lowest of the low; though He was placed in a feeding trough normally reserved for animals; though most of His life was spent in a small town as a humble carpenter; though He had no place to lay His head during His earthly ministry; though He was betrayed by His closest friends; though He was falsely accused and arrested by the religious leaders of His day; though He […]

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Read Isaiah 53:4-9. God made us to reflect His goodness and righteousness to a watching world. But this life of purpose would not be possible if Jesus hadn’t known His purpose. He knew the reason the Father had sent Him. But He also knew that He was both God and man. He was uniquely suited to be the perfect sacrifice we need. We have all sinned and rebelled against our Creator. Not one of us is without scar or blemish. That is why we need a spotless Lamb—a perfect, sinless, beautiful Savior—to die in our place. Because He came as a man, Jesus understands life in our fallen world and the temptations of this world—even though He never sinned. Because He was fully man, He could represent us and take […]

“Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God’” (Hebrews 10:7).  Read Hebrews 10:5-7. In three short verses, Hebrews 10:5-7, the author of Hebrews gives us the Christmas story according to Jesus. You see, Jesus saw Himself as the fulfillment of Psalm 40. That particular psalm tells us that the sacrifices of the Old Testament were never enough to cleanse us from our sins. No matter how many bulls or lambs the people offered to God, the offerings could not deal with the root problem, and so another sacrifice—a better sacrifice—was needed. That is why Jesus said, “I have come to do your will, my God” (Hebrews 10:7; cf. Psalm 40:8). Jesus was born on that first Christmas for a distinct purpose: He came to die as a sacrifice for sins. That is why, in that field outside of Bethlehem, an angel of heaven pierced the night sky […]