From the Blog
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A Discerning Life
We all face decisions that Scripture doesn't answer explicitly. Whom should I marry? Which job should I take? Speak up or stay quiet? Say yes to one good thing, knowing it means no to another? Should I make this purchase? How do I respond to this trial or trouble? Decisions, decisions…
In a world full of competing voices, we desperately need more than information. We need spiritual discernment. The good news is that God doesn't leave His children to figure life out alone. Through Christ He gives us His Spirit, renews our minds, and teaches us to recognize His will. If you are in Christ, this life is available to you. Paul now shows us what a life shaped by that renewed mind looks like.
In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he urged believers, knowing the days are evil, to live with spiritual discernment regarding the will of the Lord. -
A Transformed Life
Romans 12 tells us to "be transformed by the renewal of your mind." But that naturally raises a question: How? How does someone actually live a transformed life?
Have you ever wondered why so many Christians struggle to experience real transformation? We believe the Gospel. We know Christ has saved us. We still worry like the world worries, chase what the world chases, lose our temper over the same frustrations, seek our identity in our careers or accomplishments, and return to the same sins we've battled for years. The problem isn't that Christ has failed to transform us. The problem is that we often continue living as though our old life is still our true life.
As we will see today, we can learn to live as the new people Christ has already made us. In Colossians 3:1–11, the apostle Paul taught the Colossian believers that because they had died and been raised with Christ, they were to live out the transformed life that Christ had given them. -
A Counter-Cultural Life
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to drift? No one accidentally becomes more like Jesus. We don't wake up one day more holy, more prayerful, more loving, or more obedient without intentional pursuit. Left to ourselves, we drift. We conform. That word pictures a mold or pattern that quietly shapes whatever is pressed into it. The world has a pattern, and if we're not careful, we'll naturally fit right into it.
In 1 Peter chapter 1, the apostle Peter wrote to Christians living as exiles throughout Asia Minor, exhorting them to live differently in this world because they belonged to God through Jesus Christ. -
A Worship-Filled Life
We talk about worship often in the church, but there is often confusion about what it actually means. Many of us reduce worship to singing. But singing is only one expression of something far deeper. Worship is not primarily a moment in a service, it is the orientation of a life. In fact, every human being is already a worshiper. The question is not whether we worship, but what we worship. Something will sit at the center of our lives and shape everything.
And what we worship always takes control. It determines how we spend our time, where we invest our energy, what we sacrifice for, and where we place our hope. Whatever sits at the center becomes the engine that drives us or the weight that slowly crushes us.
And in Psalm 63, we see what it looks like when a life is anchored in worship of the only One worthy to carry the weight of our souls. In Psalm 63, while David was in the barren wilderness, he expressed his desire to live a worship-filled life whose greatest desire was not comfort or safety, but the presence of God. -
The God Who Turns our Sorrow into Joy
We are a forgetful people. We tend to remember our pain more readily than God’s faithfulness. We remember wounds, fears, disappointments, and losses, but quickly forget the ways God has sustained and delivered us. If we’re not careful, we’ll misinterpret God’s mercy and blessings as mere coincidence rather than His hidden hand at work in our lives.
The book of Esther reminds us that God not only works to deliver His people; He calls them to remember His deliverance. In the final section of Esther, Mordecai and Esther established the annual festival of Purim to commemorate how God overturned Haman’s decree of annihilation, turning their sorrow into joy. -
The God Who Delivers From Death
In previous chapters, we saw that even when God is not mentioned, He is not missing. God positioned Esther as queen for a purpose she did not yet understand. We saw the crisis unfold as Haman’s hatred toward Mordecai turned into a genocidal decree against the Jewish people. Faced with fear and uncertainty, Esther chose courage, calling for prayer and stepping forward in faith. Then God turned the tables on Haman’s wicked plans and Haman himself was destroyed by his own gallows.
Now as we come to Esther 8–9, the enemy Haman is dead, but the danger is not. The decree still stands. Across the Persian empire, the people of God are living with the shadow of an appointed day of death hanging over them. Can God still be trusted when the threat is still on the calendar?
This text answers with a resounding yes. It shows us that our God is not only powerful enough to expose the enemy – He is faithful enough to carry His people all the way through the danger. In Esther 8–9, the author described how God providentially delivered His people from death by positioning His servants to issue a new decree that enabled the Jews to overcome their enemies and survive Haman’s irrevocable edict. -
The God Who Turns the Tables
Have you ever watched someone do wrong and appear to get away with it? Have you ever wondered why the proud prosper, why dishonest people advance, why those who manipulate and wound others seem to succeed while the faithful suffer? Maybe you've prayed, waited, and tried to do what is right, yet evil still appears to have the upper hand.
There are seasons when God's hand feels hidden and the wicked appear to be winning. Esther reminds us that while God may seem silent, He is never absent. Even when we cannot see His hand, He is at work preparing to turn the tables. So when evil appears to be winning and God seems silent, how does God work to rescue His people?
In the book of Esther 6:14–7:10, the author recorded how God providentially reversed the wicked plans of the Persian official Haman and saved the Jewish people from destruction. We can see how God providentially reverses the plans of the wicked to save His people. -
The God Who is Already at Work
This week, as Esther approaches the king and Haman’s plot continues to unfold, something remarkable happens. There are no miracles, no visions, no dramatic interventions—just a series of ordinary events. A banquet. A delay. A restless night. A remembered deed. And yet, through all of it, God is at work.
Because if we’re honest, this is where many of us live. Not in the dramatic moments, but in the ordinary details of life. And in those moments, we often wonder: Where’s God? When delays come… when plans fail… when evil seems to be advancing… when nothing seems to be improving… it can feel like God is absent.
But Esther shows us that even in the most ordinary and unnoticed details, God is already at work. In Esther 5:1–6:13, as Haman’s deadly plot advanced and Esther sought favor, a series of seemingly ordinary events revealed that God was already at work to deliver His people. -
The God Who Calls Us to Speak Up
There are moments in life when following God will cost us something. Moments when standing for what is right puts us at risk. Moments when silence feels safer than speaking, and compromise feels easier than conviction. And in those moments, God often feels hidden. We wonder: Where is God when evil is advancing? Where is God when the pressure is on? What we need is the courage to trust that even when God seems silent, He is still sovereign and He is calling us to act.
And that’s exactly what we see in Esther chapters 3 and 4. God is not named, but He is not absent. He is working behind the scenes, pressing His people into moments where silence is no longer an option. He is calling them to speak up in faith when fear says to stay quiet.
In Esther chapters 3 and 4, the narrator recorded how God, though never named, sovereignly worked to call His people to courageously speak up in response to Haman’s evil genocidal decree against the Jews of Persia. -
The God Who Works Behind the Scenes
Many of us struggle right here. We believe God is real—but when life feels chaotic, when circumstances don’t make sense, and when God seems silent, we start to wonder: Is He really at work in my life? If you’ve ever felt like God is distant, inactive, or hard to see, then this book is for you.
And that’s exactly what the book of Esther helps us see, that even when God seems hidden, He is not absent. He is working behind the scenes.
In the book of Esther, the author showed God’s people living in exile under the Persian King Ahasuerus that the Lord was providentially working behind the scenes to accomplish His purposes for His people