Hebrews 11: 8-12 Summary: Living in fearful or uncertain times requires us to follow a God of justice, trust a God of providence and obey a God of unexpected surprises.
Genesis 3 Summary: Ever since the serpent convinced Adam & Eve to choose their own wills ahead of God’s will, history has been rattled by the human cry, “my will be done.” The third petition of the Lord’s Prayer is the antidote to the human condition. It reminds us that “your kingdom come” isn’t simply […]
Revelation 12 Summary: Revelation 12 reminds us that “your kingdom come” is a wartime prayer. This petition recognizes that we are living in the midst of a cosmic conflict between the desperate fury of a defeated dragon and the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, as the Heidelberg Catechism outlines, it’s a prayer […]
Ezekiel 36:16-32 Summary: Parents know all too well that our reputations are intimately tied up–for good or for ill–in the behaviour of our children. God points out in Ezekiel that that same is true of His relationship with His people. Like Israel, our sin doesn’t just offend God, it dishonours his reputation. This is why […]
Exodus 3:1-15 Summary: By the time God appears to Moses in the burning bush, Israel had been in slavery in Egypt for hundreds of years. It’s easy to imagine why many might have concluded that God must have forgotten or changed his mind about the promises he made to their father Abraham. It’s here at […]
Exodus 2:1-10 Summary: The book of Exodus contains some of the most dramatic divine activity in all of scripture (e.g. the plagues, the Red Sea). However, God enters the scene very quietly here in chapter 2 through some very ordinary events; a birth, a bath, a breastfeeding mother. Yet the irony of these events (e.g. […]
Romans 8:12-17 Summary: The theme of the message is rooted in Paul’s appeal to the Roman church to see that the new community in Christ is evidence of God’s faithfulness to old promises. Rather than longing for the old ways, we should enter into the new wilderness exodus with the trust that God is doing […]
Luke 7:11-23 Bernie Bakker
1 Samuel 26:1-25 Summary: It’s probably hard for us to imagine the kind of restraint David showed in sparing Saul’s life now for the second time (the first is in chapter 24). It would seem he had every conceivable justification to end Saul’s treacherous hunt for his life. Yet David would not lift his hand […]
1 Samuel 20:1-42 Summary: King Saul presents a case study in the deadly sin of envy–not merely coveting David’s success but hating him for it. We ought to expect the same (and even moreso) of Jonathan in whose place David will eventually take over the throne of Israel. Instead we find one of the most […]