The Book of Psalms is one of the most beloved and most often-read books of the Bible. Bible commentator James Johnston wrote: “Many of our favorite songs and hymns are portions of a psalm or a paraphrase. We go to the Psalms when we’re laughing and when we’re crying. Amazingly, they often say what we…
In the wake of great tragedy—the drowning of his four daughters after a collision at sea, Horatio Spafford penned these famous lyrics from the hymn: “It Is Well with My Soul.” When peace like a river attendeth my way,When sorrows like sea billows roll;Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,It is well, it…
Through this series of lessons in Luke 18, Jesus is trying to rectify our faulty thinking on one very important issue: too often people think that they can be good enough to earn eternal life with God, but that is a flawed assessment! I can only imagine what must have been going on in the…
We’ll be returning to Luke 18, this morning—looking at verses 18-30. In this passage, Jesus says that God is the only one who is good. And in the Scripture—specifically in the Book of Psalms—the Bible tells us over and over again that the Lord, He is good! Only God is good, and we aren’t God.…
Think for a moment about some of the people in your life that you would consider a spiritual giant. Who are some of the people who had an impact on you in a positive way in your walk with the Lord? I want you to pick two from your list that stand above them all,…
In Acts 13:22, the Bible describes David as a man after God’s own heart—a man who was obedient to God’s will. Think about that for a minute… What do we know about King David and how he lived his life? There are many positive attributes and exploits that we could list here, but for just…
The prayer that is recorded in Colossians 1:9-14 is a beautiful prayer that is chock-full of rich content for us to model our prayers after. This is the prayer that I asked our supporters to pray for us when we were serving as cross-cultural missionaries in Asia, and it is the same prayer that I…
When we talk about the prayer of forbearance, we are talking about prayer that is characterized by patience, endurance, and long-suffering (or another way to think about it is would be “suffering long”). In your community groups this past week, you talked about some of the reasons why God does not answer prayer as quickly…
In our message today, I want to explore some of the most audacious and grandiose teachings of our Lord during His time here on earth. Teachings so extravagant that we struggle to know what to do with them! How can our Lord Jesus say to us: “Ask, and it will be given to you”? This…
This morning, we’re going to be looking at Psalm 88 and considering the concept of a “Prayer of Desperation.” This psalm is considered a psalm of lament. One of the most notable authors on this subject is Mark Vroegop. He explains that: “Lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust. It is not…