Consider this

   Consider This:  Can You Get on the Mat?   In Mark 2, four friends bring a paralyzed man to Jesus to be healed.  The house where Jesus is teaching is full of people.  There is no way they can get close to him, so they use the stairs on the side of the house, go up to the flat roof and then start digging through the mud and thatch covering.  Once the hole is large enough, they take the mat the man is lying on and lower it down through the hole.  In this way, they get their friend to Jesus.  This impresses Jesus so much that he forgives the man’s sin and heals him as well (Mark 2:1-12).  This incident can be taught from several different angles.  I have heard it focused on Jesus (He is the powerful Son of God), the four friends (Have faith, bring people to Jesus and do not let anything stop you), and I have even heard a lesson about the doubters in the room (if you do not believe, you will not receive God’s blessings).  Each of...

 Jesus passed one crucial test at the start of his ministry, and it shaped everything else he did. How are you doing with this test?   https://youtu.be/-Z1b48If0eY  

  Thirty years after Peter looked into the empty tomb, he thought about the blessings that the resurrection brings to us. Inspired by the Spirit, here is what he wrote.   “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4)   The resurrection deals with our past by giving us “new birth” into a new life. In other words, we can start again. We can bury our past sins, mistakes, and regrets and be born again. That pattern is what baptism represents. “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans...

 Sometimes, that which seems wrong is actually what we need.  https://youtu.be/45-h25m5byc    

                 One Sunday night, as I walked through the church building, I looked up and saw a guy from my Bible college days.   We were not particularly friendly back then.   Acquaintances more than anything.                “How are you, Tim?” he asked as he smiled, shook my hand and patted me on the shoulder.   “It is so good to see you!”   When I asked what he was doing in Estevan, he replied that he was visiting family in the area.   Then he said, “Hey, if you have time tomorrow, I would love to go for lunch with you!”   I remember thinking, “Wow!   This is an unprecedented display of affection”.   As I said, he had never been this friendly before.                At lunch, we small-talked for a while, and then he said, “H...

 We may not think about the resurrection very often, but here are three reasons why we should.  https://youtu.be/Iw5DD2GNXkI    

                The name Gideon means “Mighty warrior”, and that is what Gideon becomes.   However, when we meet him in Judges 6, he is anything but that.                God’s people had been disobedient to him, so they were being punished.   For seven years, the surrounding nations overran and terrorized them.   In the spring, the Israelites would plant their crops only to see them decimated by hordes of invaders who swarmed in like locusts.   God’s people would raise livestock, but those were taken as well.   It became so bad that the people resorted to hiding in caves and other unseen places.   They tried to keep their activities as quiet as possible.   That is why Gideon was found hiding in a winepress, threshing the little bit of grain he had managed to keep.   He was scared, frustrated, anxious and feeling hopeless (Judges 6:1-...

 Our first response matters more than we know. A quick tip to help, and a bigger picture of what God is trying to do with us.  https://youtu.be/tCJ5tb-f0FM  

  Earlier this month, Jessica McClain was well on her way to winning the United States Half Marathon title and earning the right to represent her country at the World Championships. However, with less than three kilometres to go, Jessica took a wrong turn. The police officer assigned to direct competitors to a footbridge left his post to help with a serious incident nearby. Jessica and a handful of other runners missed the turn and ran more than a kilometre off course. By the time they turned around, it was too late. Jessica finished in ninth place. As you can imagine, this incident has sparked a series of protests and created a lot of confusion about what to do next.   To be clear, Jessica’s effort was not the issue. She trained hard, ate properly, qualified for the race and showed up on the appointed day. Jessica McClain was, by far, the fastest runner in the field. She just ran the wrong way.   That story reminds me of various people I have known over the year...

 Do you ever feel like everything is against you and nothing works out?  Do you ever feel like running and hiding?  Have you ever asked, "What is going on, Lord?"  If so, this will help.  https://youtu.be/J1FRMBOtTyc  

  Asleep. That is the word that Jesus used to describe the condition of a twelve-year-old girl who had passed away. “She is not dead but asleep” (Luke 8:52). Then he went into her room, took her hand, spoke to her, “her spirit returned” (verse 55), and she rose from the dead. Asleep is also the word he used when he said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up” (John 11:11). He brought him back to life, too. In Acts 7, when Stephen is stoned to death for the things he was teaching, it is noted that he asked God to forgive his attackers and then “he fell asleep” (verse 60). Asleep is the word that is used to describe King David’s death (Acts 13:36), as well as the death of some of the believers in the city of Corinth (1 Corinthians 11:30, 15:6, 15:18). Paul used the word three times in three verses when he wrote, “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to ...

 When we do not intentionally slow down, important things get left behind.  https://youtu.be/cc9wNZnfFho    

                 The Bible begins by stating that, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).   As you may already know, things go downhill quite quickly after that.                After God created day and night, land and sea, plants and animals, Adam and Eve, things were good.   Adam and Eve lived in the garden for an unspecified period, and God walked with them as a friend.   God told them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but Satan convinced Eve that she did not need to follow that command.   Then she convinced Adam (Genesis 1-3:7).                When God came to meet them that day, they were afraid and hid from him.   Eventually, they confessed to what they had done, which caused ...