From the Blog
-
From Followers to Family
Sociologists have a term for the way many of us live now: “networked individualism.” We have traded smaller, tightly connected communities for sprawling networks of online relationships.
We may have hundreds of followers and still not have a friend to call at two in the morning. We know what someone we have not seen since high school ate for lunch, yet we may have no idea that the woman sitting two rows away has not slept in a week. We are more reachable than any generation in history, yet somehow harder to truly reach. Digital contact may represent connection, but it cannot fully replace it.
In the book of Hebrews, the author urged believers, who were in danger of drifting and withdrawing, to live faithfully in fellowship as God’s family because of the access they share through Jesus Christ. -
From the Feed to the Word
You can text a friend in seconds, video chat with family across the country, and scroll through hundreds of updates before breakfast. And yet so many of us feel isolated, distracted, and hungry for something deeper.
Our theme verse comes from the apostle John, who understood something about the limits of long-distance communication: “Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete” (2 John 12).
Even John knew: some things can only happen face to face. -
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. -
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 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 -
The Consummation
We started with creation, where everything was good. Then came the fall, where sin broke everything. We saw the flood, the covenant, the exodus, the giving of the law, the founding of the Davidic kingdom, the exile, the coming of Christ, the work of the cross, and the birth of the church.
From beginning to end, it’s been one story: A holy God rescuing His broken world through Jesus Christ. But every story begs the question: How does it end?
Today, in The Consummation, we don’t just see the end of the story, we see the fulfillment of every promise God has made from Genesis onward. In the book of Revelation 21, the apostle John saw a vision that revealed how God will ultimately bring His redemptive story to completion. -
The Cross (It’s Empty Now)
So far in The Story, we’ve traced it from creation and the garden, through the fall and the flood, to God’s covenant with Abraham; from the exodus and the law, to the conquest and the kingdom under David; through the heartbreak of exile—and then last week, to the arrival of Christ, the long-promised Savior who stepped into history to redeem what was lost.
But today, in this message, we reach the climax. If the Bible is the Story of everything, then the Resurrection of Jesus is the hinge upon which everything turns. We aren't just celebrating a religious holiday; we are celebrating the day the ending of your story might be rewritten… from "Death" to "Life."
To understand how we fit into this victorious story, we must look at how we respond to the "first importance" of the Gospel, which is the Good News that Jesus saves!
In the apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he reminded them of the first importance of the gospel he had preached to them in order to strengthen their faith in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection and warn them from believing in vain.