Posts with the category “daily-faith-challenges”

Friday, October 30th The Relationship Principle-Your relationship with God is reflected in your generosity.“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)Your heart gravitates towards your treasure.Your treasure, your money/resources/time most easily flows through your hands to those things that matter most to you.Your heart is directed by what you treasure; by what matters...  Read More

Thursday, October 29th“All that I am and all that I have comes from God.”These are not my gifts, my talents, my resources, my relationships, my opportunities, my experiences, my personality.All I have comes from the hand of God; He owns it, they are His not mine.Which means I’m a manager- not an ownerThe Manager Principle-Everything you have is a gift from God - your talent, your intellect, your p...  Read More

Wednesday, October 28th What’s the Faith Challenge suppose to be? This week my challenge is for you to be with God, hear from God and respond to God. I don’t know what that will look like for you, but it’s your faith challenge. I hope you take up the challenge.This week we’re considering reflecting the generosity of God in our world, as a way of life.The Ownership principleThis first principle is ...  Read More

Tuesday, October 27thDay two of this week’s Faith Challenge.A reminder- What’s the Faith Challenge suppose to be? Where’s the challenge? What’s the challenge? Is it to read something new? To be challenged in your faith walk? An opportunity to grow? Yes, probably some of all of that. But this week my challenge is for you to be with God, hear from God and respond to God. I don’t know what that will ...  Read More

Monday, October 26thDay one of this week’s Faith Challenge. I’m wondering What’s the Faith Challenge suppose to be? Where’s the challenge? What’s the challenge? Is it to read something new? To be challenged in your faith walk? An opportunity to grow? Yes, probably some of all of that. But this week my challenge is for you to be with God, hear from God and respond to God. I don’t know what that wil...  Read More

Thursday, October 22This week we’ve been discussing how the flood is more than just devastation, or even God wipe out the entire world and starting creation over. It is God, handing humanity over to the ruin in created and out of severe mercy, chose to recreate again with Noah, the man of comfort and rest. We said, God gave us a path from ruin to renewal.Folks, I know that firsthand and God used a...  Read More

Wednesday, October 21 Noah waited, we wait, we grow when we trust in the waiting. But trust what and who? Back to the flood narrative. Genesis 8:16-19- 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be ...  Read More

Tuesday, October 20Read Genesis 8:10-16a- 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. 13 By the first day of the fir...  Read More

Monday, October 19thWe are still in the flood narrative, let’s pick up where we left off last week.Read Genesis 7:22-24- 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with h...  Read More

Saturday, October 17Remember John Walton’s statement, “what God does through the flood is most important of all”? The last and foremost thing that should get our attention about this narrative is God’s deliverance- His rescue and redemption in chaos.The critical verse for this declaration is Genesis 6:13, but here’s the challenge. The translation from Hebrew to English in the NIV is stifling or I ...  Read More

Friday, October 16thWhat else do we notice about Noah? Genesis 7:7- 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.Don’t slide past that, that has practical and theological implications.Think about it, the world was being handed over to its ruin because that’s what it chose. Noah and his family are rescued because of Noah’s righteousness....  Read More

Thursday, October 15thReadDid you notice that Noah never speaks a single word in the flood narrative?He asks no questions. He voices no complaints. He makes no dramatic declarations of faith. He simply does what God commands, again and again. The narrator describes him as a flat character on purpose.Notice that passages- Genesis 6:8-9, 22, 7:5, 16- 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord….9...  Read More

Wednesday, October 14th For those of you wondering where Tuesday’s daily faith challenge was, you didn’t miss anything. I didn’t finish it in time and we as a staff had an awesome day serving in Howards Grove Tuesday, so I made the executive decision to bump it from Tuesday to Wednesday and go into Saturday. If you need a refresher from Monday, go back and read Genesis 6:13-7:24, yes, it is a lot,...  Read More

Monday, October 12thYes, I want you to take your time today and read the bulk of the Flood Narrative (Genesis 6:13-7:24). I want you to take your time. TRY not to read it with what you think you already know. TRY to read it with fresh eyes, which means slow, deliberate, with intention of God showing you something “other.”Then, when you are done deliberately reading it, what did you notice? What go...  Read More

Greetings New Lifer-s! Pastor Bill here.This week I encourage you to work through Romans Chapter 12 with me. I have a suggested reading portion for each day and a verse I have chosen for you to focus on.I love nature. (the fact that almost EVERY message I do has a nature illustration might hint at that!)The amazing migration of salmon up the rivers, against the current and against all odds to achi...  Read More

Greetings New Lifer-s! Pastor Bill here.This week I encourage you to work through Romans Chapter 12 with me. I have a suggested reading portion for each day and a verse I have chosen for you to focus on.I love nature. (the fact that almost EVERY message I do has a nature illustration might hint at that!)The amazing migration of salmon up the rivers, against the current and against all odds to achi...  Read More

Greetings New Lifer-s! Pastor Bill here.This week I encourage you to work through Romans Chapter 12 with me. I have a suggested reading portion for each day and a verse I have chosen for you to focus on.I love nature. (the fact that almost EVERY message I do has a nature illustration might hint at that!)The amazing migration of salmon up the rivers, against the current and against all odds to achi...  Read More

Greetings New Lifer-s! Pastor Bill here.This week I encourage you to work through Romans Chapter 12 with me. I have a suggested reading portion for each day and a verse I have chosen for you to focus on.I love nature. (the fact that almost EVERY message I do has a nature illustration might hint at that!)The amazing migration of salmon up the rivers, against the current and against all odds to achi...  Read More

Greetings New Lifer-s! Pastor Bill here.This week I encourage you to work through Romans Chapter 12 with me. I have a suggested reading portion for each day and a verse I have chosen for you to focus on.I love nature. (the fact that almost EVERY message I do has a nature illustration might hint at that!)The amazing migration of salmon up the rivers, against the current and against all odds to achi...  Read More

Friday, October 2ndRead Genesis 6:7-10- 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of hi...  Read More

Thursday, October 1Let’s reread Genesis 6:5-13- 5The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have...  Read More

Wednesday, September 30thFor the next three days I want us to discus, what should get our attention?Read Genesis 6:5-13- 5The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the...  Read More

Tuesday, September 29This week’s passage asks a lot of you. There is historical complexity, cultural distance, and theological weight that can feel overwhelming. Give yourself permission to sit with unanswered questions. The goal of this discussion is not to resolve every mystery in Genesis 6 but to allow the truths embedded in the text to do their work.Read Genesis 6:1-4- When human beings began ...  Read More

Monday, September 28We are continuing our journey through Genesis where we come to the Flood Narrative. Theologian John Walton says, “(this is) some of the thorniest passages in Old Testament to interpret.”Noah, the Ark, the flood, and what was God doing? I wonder, how much of your belief of the Noah, the Ark, and the flood is based up actual scripture versus a mixture of fiction and scripture. Or...  Read More

Friday, September 25thTake a moment and read Matthew 14:15-21- 15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” 16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” 17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fis...  Read More

Thursday, September 24thThere was a statement made on Sunday during our “Ministry Spotlight” of Celebrate Recovery, where Stephanie Johanning said, “she felt like she was seen for who she was, not what she struggled with.” Founding Pastor Bill, in our interview of how we ended up here as a church, referred back to that statement of the value of being seen. Which is my desired focus for today.What ...  Read More

Wednesday, September 23We’ve been observing the question, how did I end up here. Yesterday we looked at Luke 15 and the prodigal story. We looked at how the younger son had to wrestle with that question when he was in the pig trough, how did I end up here? He came to his senses and went home, embraced by a father that loved him, even though he offended him.Today, I want to keep going with the stor...  Read More

Tuesday, September 22This week we are reflecting on the question; how did I end up here? Yesterday we used it as a guiding element of growth and encouragement. It can also be an assessment; do I need to make a course correction in life because I have wandered from my true north? Do I need to reroute because I’ve not been walking faithfully with God or I’ve walked away from the things of God? Where...  Read More

Monday, September 21Let me set our time today this week with this question- Have you ever wondered or thought, how did I end up here? How did I get here?It could be anything, it could be driving, getting lost, and before you know it, how did I end up here? It could be your career path, you started in one place and now you are looking back and you are like, how did I end up here?Or relationships or...  Read More

Friday, September 18thIn the original passage of Genesis 5, what two names and descriptions stood out?Let’s take a look again at Genesis 5:24, 29- 24 Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away… 29 He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” Enoch and Noah, their descripto...  Read More

Thursday, September 17Yesterday we engaged with what appears to be something simple in life, life and death, blessing and curses. But my push wasn’t that they exist, my push was, how do we respond to both blessing and curses?Remember, blessing is goodness, life, increase; curse is challenge, hardship, pain, chaos, and yes death. Both are the reality of life, no one can escape blessing and curse, h...  Read More

Wednesday, September 16th Read Genesis 5 (yes, I know, it may be a struggle- but what do you notice? What stands out? BTW- don’t worry about pronouncing the names, it doesn’t matter) This is the written account of Adam’s family line. When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind”  when they were created...  Read More

Tuesday, September 15Read Genesis 4:25-26- 25 Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” 26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.What do you notice? This has a different feeling, doesn’t it? Reference to God’s p...  Read More

Monday, September 14thI understand that everyone’s algo rhythm is different, and I don’t pretend to understand, nor do I care. But I do find it interesting that my algo rhythm has a lot to do with “not” getting older or shall I say, staying younger. Try this cream, this pill, this workout. This will help with losing weight, growing hair, and other … and if that doesn't work, try this shirt or unde...  Read More

Friday, September 11thJohn Walton in his commentary shares it this way. “How much more should we be in awe of God’s mercy and compassion. We can never know whether Cain responded with such gratitude to God, though his initial response might suggest not. But it is irrelevant how Cain responded. What is important is how we respond once we are impressed with the power of God’s mercy and grace.”Two ro...  Read More

Thursday, September 10thLast thing I want us to pay attention to in this passage, marked by mercy. The interchange between God and Cain continues where God lays out the consequences of Cain’s actions. This wasn’t necessarily a punishment, as much as it was the reality of consequences.Because Cain didn’t tend to what was crouching within, this is the pain that resulted from it. We get this glimpse ...  Read More

Wednesday, September 9thRead Genesis 4:6-9- 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attack...  Read More

Tuesday, September 8thLet me ask you this question that should get our attention within Genesis 4. Are we ruled over or ruled by? Read that questions again before you jump into the passage.Read Genesis 4:6-9- 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your ...  Read More

Monday, September 7Last week I shared the quote from the classic poem by Robert Frost The Road Not Taken, Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.How many times do we truly understand the road we take? How many times, as we look back, do we see that we had options and wish we had a warning, or had greater intention versus simply w...  Read More

Well, hi, New Lifers! Bill McCaskill here with a devotional for your week.My talk Sunday was on the Holy Spirit with a particular focus on doing mission WITH the Holy Spirit, both personally and collectively as part of a church body.Most of you know that my my dearly departed wife Kathy and I were involved in “church planting” our entire married life in some capacity and had the privilege to plant...  Read More