Posts with the category “daily-faith-challenges”

  Rest is experiencing God’s presence, goodness, and trusting in our Creator-King. We do this by setting time apart with a new rhythm of stopping and delighting.This can happen throughout the day, this can begin to form in you a rhythm of taking a day, a Sabbath. Where do you need to start shifting from restlessness to God rest?Hebrews 4:9-11- 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people o...  Read More

  Finally, we see within this seventh day of rest a mimicking within creation, we see a rhythm. Rhythm is our third element of rest according to the biblical worldview. Every seventh day to stop, delight, set-apart from the other days. God built rhythm into creation, including the last day of rest.I appreciate this longer quote from Wayne Muller in his book Sabbath. "In the relentless busyness of ...  Read More

  Next biblical worldview of rest is the statement, 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy… Where else do we see God bless creation? Day five and six, with animals and humanity. He created the animals and said to humanity, “God blessed and said, ‘be fruitful and multiple.”The intention here is to be life giving. Which means, in God blessing the seventh day, his intention is for it to ...  Read More

  Based upon Genesis 2, I want to give you a Biblical worldview of rest. Hear me, there is so much on this topic. In my preparing I came across one podcast series by Bible Project that was fourteen episodes, which is over 15 hours of insight about rest within scripture. I listened to a podcast from John Mark Comer and Practicing the Way where he did a four-week series just on rest. I don’t have th...  Read More

  I don’t know about you, but I’m the type of person that likes to push the limit with my gas gauge. My Father-in-law on the other hand, if it is below a ½ of tank, he’s filling up. Whereas I love the fact that it gives you the number of miles, it thinks you have until you run out of gas.I wonder though, how that also parallels to life? How many of us are running on fumes? Or we push the limit in ...  Read More

  Our daily “faith challenge” is an opportunity to go deeper into Sunday’s message. A time to meet with God. Begin with prayer. Ask God to speak to you from His Word, by His Spirit.“Speak Lord your servant is listening” 1 Samuel 3:9“God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.” Romans 3:25Jesus, innocent of all sin died in our place, ...  Read More

  Our daily “faith challenge” is an opportunity to go deeper into Sunday’s message. A time to meet with God. Begin with prayer. Ask God to speak to you from His Word, by His Spirit.“Speak Lord your servant is listening” 1 Samuel 3:9We have a dilemma and there are two facets to our dilemmaWe have something we don’t want- a sin problem. Because of our sin we experience guilt, shame, pain, and separa...  Read More

  Our daily “faith challenge” is an opportunity to go deeper into Sunday’s message. A time to meet with God. Begin with prayer. Ask God to speak to you from His Word, by His Spirit.“Speak Lord your servant is listening” 1 Samuel 3:9“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins... 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when w...  Read More

  Our daily “faith challenge” is an opportunity to go deeper into Sunday’s message. A time to meet with God. Begin with prayer. Ask God to speak to you from His Word, by His Spirit.“Speak Lord your servant is listening” 1 Samuel 3:9“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into...  Read More

  Our daily “faith challenge” is an opportunity to go deeper into Sunday’s message. A time to meet with God. Begin with prayer. Ask God to speak to you from His Word, by His Spirit.“Speak Lord your servant is listening” 1 Samuel 3:9This week we’re going to soak in some Either Or statements from God’s Word. These Either or contrasts are relevant to each of us.“…they have not believed the testimony ...  Read More

  Today's passages i want you to see how Paul is getting our attention with representing the image of God.Galatians 5:22-25- 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we liv...  Read More

   Yesterday’s question landed us here, If God created us, in his image, as an idol to represent him to the world, through his creative order and generosity, how are you living out that image? I get it though, Genesis 3 happened, sin came in, not only separated us from God and from one another, but it distorted what that image and intention was to be. That’s another reason why God had to send a ne...  Read More

  If you want a brief overview of the Image of God discussion, take a look at this video by Bible Project. Image of God by Bible Project: Okay, we need to look at what we are supposed to be doing with the image of God that was given to us within creation. Again what do we see in the creation story? 26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over ......  Read More

  Ok, we need to get to the main course…. What do you think of when you think of the image of God? When you think image or even the Greek word, eikon (icon), the icon or image of God, what do you think of? Like the golden arches, when you see the golden arches do you think McDonald’s, big mac, filet fish, quarter pounder, French fries? Or when you see the swoosh, you think of Nike and basketball s...  Read More

  Let’s jump into it, Genesis 1:26-2:1, this is the rest of Day six in creation. Remember, we are looking at the Spirit-inspired ancient text, where the authors are sharing with us the creation story, depicting God’s (Yahweh’s) creative work. Where Yahweh, creates order out of disorder, forms and fills, Creator-King who creates a good kingdom. Now humanity arrives on the scene. Genesis 1:26-2:1- 2...  Read More

  Last observation, day one God separated light and darkness and day four he filled the heavens with light to govern. Where do we see Jesus separate light and darkness? Where do we see him separate rule?With a word, he took care of darkness forever and stepped into ultimate rule. “It is finished.” And he breathed his last breath.If you want to jot down a few passages where we see God’s victory ove...  Read More

  Remember, this week we are looking at God’s forming and filling of creation and then how do we see that through the lens of Jesus?Day two was separating the waters, water and sky and day five was filling with sea creatures and birds.Mark 4:35-41- 35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as ...  Read More

  I want to go back the question I raised last week. Do we see Jesus do something similar in his life, that we see at creation?Obviously, if I’m asking the question, it is a yes. I want to show you three stories where we see Jesus, with a word speak into the chaos of the wilderness, water, and darkness and bring order.I’m going to go backwards in the days of creation and Jesus’ life. Day three and...  Read More

  Read Genesis 1:20-23- 20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and ...  Read More

  If you have not had a chance to listen to the message on April 19th or 26th, I encourage you to go back and take a listen. This all builds on each other.My intention last week, wasn’t to land on one specific way creation took place, but to throw out the challenge to all opinions of creation because I believe the declaration of the creation story, of Genesis 1 and 2 isn’t about the HOW of creatio...  Read More

  The Psalmist does a beautiful job of summarizing what we’ve talked about. I share it because this is how the ancients would have understood the creation story. Psalm 33:6-9- 6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the p...  Read More

  We mentioned on Tuesday about how Jesus’ name may not be on the pages of Genesis, but because God is revealed in Genesis, we can affirm that Jesus was as well. Take a moment and read John 1:1-5, 9- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made....  Read More

  Let’s read Genesis 1:1-13. What do you notice, what gets your attention? What is created on each day? How is it created? What do you notice about the repetition of words?Genesis 1:1-13- In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let ...  Read More

  Let’s read Genesis 1:1-13. What do you notice, what gets your attention? What is created on each day? How is it created? What do you notice about the repetition of words?Genesis 1:1-13- In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let ...  Read More

  Last week we introduced our new series on Genesis- back to the beginning, seeing how God establishes life through creation, fall, redemption and repeat. This week we are kicking off the specific verses, going from Genesis 1 to Genesis 50.If you are familiar with Genesis 1 or remember how it started from last week, this is what we read: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Whic...  Read More

  Genesis, origins, the beginning is the story of God, not just history, and it’s not just their story, the origins of Israel, it’s our story. John Walton says, “It expresses God’s love for the people he created and his intention to bless them in spite of rebellion and sin. The picture of love, mercy, and compassion thus portrayed by means of blessing stands in stark contrast to the self-protectio...  Read More

  Notice how God steps into the life of Abram, eventually Abraham and how he starts anew with similar promises of Creation.Read Genesis 12:1-3- The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless th...  Read More

  The talking snake slithers onto the scene and starts up a deceiving conversation with Eve and then Adam.Read Genesis 3:6-11- 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and ...  Read More

  The purpose of Genesis is to remember the beginning of who God is and his activity- creation, fall, redemption, repeat. We see this in Genesis, as the micro-story, but we also see this throughout the Bible. In Genesis we will see it through different words or key ideas; life, blessing (creation), failure (fall), redemption, and covenant (new relationship or commitment).What I want to do for the ...  Read More

  We are kicking off our new series: Genesis- Back to the Beginning.For those of you who were with us when we went through Mark, this will be similar. Don’t worry, it won’t be as long . But what I want to invite you to do is take your time through Genesis. Even if you have another reading plan, go ahead and add this to the list. We are going to take our time going through Genesis and today, I hope...  Read More

Because of his great love, our lives should look different. When Jesus spent the last night with his disciples, he washed their feet before the Passover meal and before everythingwent “amuck”, even though it was for our good. Jesus gives us a new command in John 17. Notice how Peter Briscoe shares it,“Man-made religion and legalism would soon be nullified by the sacrificial death of Jesus “because...  Read More

The spoken word that was shared on Sunday and then again with the Daily Faith Challenge on Monday was written by our very own Holly Vogel and read by Josh and Emilie Dahm.We started and ended the reading with the most popular verse in all of Scripture. John 3:16- For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.For Go...  Read More

Let’s take a brief look at Luke’s account of the resurrection. Luke also wrote the book of Acts. Which based upon word count, Luke wrote more in the NT than any other author. I know Paul wrote more books, Luke just wrote longer books. I share that because Luke gives us great detail with all that he experiences.Luke 24:1-8- On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the...  Read More

  This week is post Easter week. Yesterday you hopefully were able to experience the writing and reflections of Holly Vogel, our Communications Director. She did a fantastic job of capturing the God’s story and our story.Today, I want to go after a little bit different perspective, because I think when we spend time around Easter, no matter our faith journey, I think we can struggle through a lot ...  Read More

  Yesterday was an incredible time reflecting on Jesus - His coming, His death, His resurrection, and His great love. Let us continue in that reflection this morning, so that the significance of celebrating Jesus’ resurrection is not limited to one day a year, but a joy and gratitude we can live in often.A poem called “The Blood That Built a Bridge” or “The Great Love” was shared yesterday and gav...  Read More

“So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud ‘No!’ to the Devil and watch him make himself scarce. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet....  Read More

35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6:35This passage and context of everything around it is so crazy important!  Take some time today reading through John 6, it starts off with the feeding of the 5000 and then Jesus walking on the water.  Jesus was doing these incredible miracles that only hap...  Read More

Each one of us have grown up participating in different traditions within our different cultures, some we understand and some we don’t.  If Jesus is our Lord and Savior, I believe all need to be looked through the lens that Jesus talks about here in Mark 2:18-22, message version.18 The disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees made a practice of fasting. Some people confronted Jesus: “W...  Read More

Biblical fasting is the act of giving up food for a period of time so that I can draw near to God, as I draw near to God, He draws near to me just as it says in James 4:8 yet check out what it says on either side of the underlined verse.7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinner...  Read More

Friday, March 27thWorship is connecting, surrendering, and responding to the revelation of who God is and what wants to do in us and through us.The last observation of worship I want to spend some time on is worship as a response. Specifically, worship is a weapon. An offensive weapon and a defensive weapon. Worship can prepare us and equip us.Simply put, we were born on a battlefield between good...  Read More