Consider this

 Work and rest are not opposites.   

 We have been told, "Forgive and forget", but I don't think we do that very well.... or maybe even not at all. Instead, more often than not, I think we do something else and call it forgiving. Fortunately, God has been trying to teach us about forgiveness for a long time, so we have lots of resources. This week, we will see what real forgiveness looks like, what it requires of us and why it it so important.  

 Troubles come.... but you do not have to fall apart.    

 For more than a thousand years, people had been waiting for the Messiah who would teach them about God and save them. Therefore, when Jesus started his first sermon, the anticipation was high. However, Jesus' first words were not exactly what the people expected. Find out what he said and why those words are still important today.

                  Have you ever been on a blind date?   If you have, then you know how awkward it is when you know a little bit about someone, but not enough to really know anything about them.                 I think that is how most people are with God.   They know a little bit about him.   For example, they could talk about his love, grace, and forgiveness, but they do not know a lot of the details about who he is and what he is like.   In Psalm 18, David fills in some of the gaps for us.                 This psalm, like many others, celebrates the fact that God rescued David from his enemies.   What makes this one di...

                 The twenty-third Psalm begins, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want”.   David is peaceful and content. He goes on to say that, because God is guiding him, he is not afraid of his enemies or even of death itself.   The last line of the psalm says, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (verse 6).   David’s vision of a future home with God made him experience his earthly home differently.                 Abraham is one of the heroes of the faith listed in Hebrews 11.   Here is what the writer says about him, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. …. He...

                  Timothy had one job.   He was to stay in the city of Ephesus so that he could teach and help organize the church there.                 Timothy also had one big problem.   He had no leverage.   He could not make people listen to him or do anything.   The church, after all, is essentially a volunteer organization.   Additionally, Timothy was young, so it was easy to ignore him.                   Do you know that feeling?   You want to help and direct people to the answers they need, yet you have no way of making them listen or do what is best.         ...