Podcasts about that god

Moses knew. David knew. Paul knew. What did they know? That God provides presence, peace, and strength when we're stressed out.

Would you like to hear about Rockstar Gospel impact in print, in film and in music?  Host Tina Yeager welcomes John Schlitt, multi Grammy and Dove Award-winning singer from the legendary Christian rock band Petra, and his wife, Dorla, a veteran educator and best-selling author of the new children's book, "The Adventure of the Scarlet Thread: The Promise Fulfilled." Join us as we uncover how this duo blends their creative gifts—spanning music, literature, and ministry—to reach hearts across generations. Discover Dorla's passion for connecting young readers to the continuous story of scripture and learn how sustains a vibrant artistic legacy dedicated to Christ. From engaging educational resources and devotionals to upcoming tours, albums, and documentaries, today's conversation will encourage you to find your purpose and impact for God's kingdom—no matter your stage of life. Listen in for wisdom, practical tips, and inspiring stories from a couple living fully in sync with their faith and calling. In This Episode Children's Literature With Purpose: Dorla shares the passion behind her new book, The Adventure of the Scarlet Thread: The Promise Fulfilled, originally inspired by her years in church ministry. Discover how her book and the accompanying Educator's Guide help readers of all ages see the Bible as one continuous story, deepening awe for God's faithfulness (02:13). Music That Endures: John reflects on his journey from leading Petra, to launching solo projects and documentaries, while remaining dedicated to glorifying Christ with every note. He emphasizes the role of encouragement and prayer in sustaining both his voice and mission (16:14). Supporting Each Other's Calling: Marriage, ministry, and mutual encouragement are at the heart of their impact. Hear how and keep their spiritual and creative lives in sync, offering wisdom for families and couples pursuing big dreams together (11:13). Resources Mentioned Adventure of the Scarlet Thread: Find the book and educator packs on Amazon and schlittshop.com for your home, classroom, or church (10:14). Petra's Newest Projects: Catch up with the latest Petra tour, new album "Hope", and powerful documentaries via johnschlitt.com and girdermusic.com (23:04). How Can You Support? and invite your prayers: For continued health and creativity For their voices and memory on tour That God's purpose shines through every project Let's cover them—and each other—in prayer for boldness, clarity, and Kingdom impact! We're thrilled to accompany you on this journey of faith, growth, and transformation. As always, we appreciate your support! Please subscribe and share this episode. We can't wait for you to join us for future episodes of Flourish-Meant. To book Tina as a speaker, connect with her life coaching services, and more, visit her website: https://tinayeager.com/ Optimize your mind and body with my new favorite, all-inclusive supplement, Cardio Miracle! I love the energy and focus this health-boosting drink mix provides without toxins, caffeine, or sugar! Get a discount on your purchase with my link: http://www.cardiomiracle.com/tinayeager Live your healthiest life with Sustainable Healthy Weight Loss! Tina Yeager's unprecedented whole-person program is bundled with profound insights and tools to help you embrace the revitalized, slimmer you that you might never have dreamed possible! OR Manage stress and anxiety in 10 minutes a day with the course presented by 15 experts, Subdue Stress and Anxiety https://divineencouragement.onlinecoursehost.com/courses Connect with Tina at: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tyeagerwriting/ Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinayeager/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tina.yeager.9/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TinaYeager

Group Guide Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week. 2 Samuel 16:15-17:29 Spencer Cary Download TranscriptMy name is Spencer and I am one of the pastors here. We are going to be in 2 Samuel chapter 16. We're going to go all the way through chapter 17 today. So, if you have a Bible around you, those black Bibles, you can grab one of those. We're going on page 306. and most of the text or all of this text will be on in those Bibles. We'll have some text on the screen as well. I'll try to cue when that comes up, but you can go ahead and follow along there. I've been following Jesus for 20 years at this point.And there are times when you follow Jesus long enough that just feel really dark. whether that's for suffering, whether that's affliction, sadness, all types of things that come upon us. But there are times where it just feels very very dark. But like the words we just sang, when darkness seems to hide his face, as the original hymn said, when darkness veils his lovely face. It's just this idea that if you follow God long enough, you're going to have times where you just don't feel the presence of God. you don't feel his goodness. And then when that happens, there are questions that begin to linger.Does God love me? Is he for me? Does he care about me? And those questions can linger in a way and surface and sometimes resurface when we are going through times that are difficult, when we're traveling through times that are very dark. Man, if you follow Christ long enough, that's that's going to happen. the reality of following Jesus this side of the fall. But then there are moments there are moments where God in the middle of darkness and his kindness breaks through. And it doesn't always mean that your circumstances get better. But in the middle of suffering, in the middle of what feels like hopelessness, God meets us in some wonderful and powerful ways.And that is the experience that all of God's people feel in the lifetime, the marathon of following Jesus. And maybe that's you right now. Maybe that maybe that's where you're at. That you just feel darkness and all the things that come with that we just talked about. And if that is you, and certainly for all of us, it will be us at some point. If that is you, then this part of the story of David is actually going to be, I think, wildly encouraging because David's been in it. We have I mean it's like week after week as we're following his story right now. He's living in the aftermath of his sin against Bathsheba and Uriah and he's dealing with the discipline of the Lord and it just feels unrelenting.But today, we're going to see that in the middle of all of this darkness that he's walking through, we're going to see God shine through like like a like like in a really difficult storm, like a light that just pierces through. We're going to see some hope that's found in that. And then as we look at this as Christians, we'll be able to take a step back and see that this is the hope that he has for us as well. So, I'm going to pray for us and then we're going to work through the story together. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the good news of the gospel that we just got to read, sing, and pray.I pray that you would help us as we seek to understand who you are even as we encounter the sufferings of this present life. So may you give us ears to hear in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. All right. So, before we jump into verse 15, let's recap a little bit where Mike took us last week. Absalom, the son of David, has been leading to this point a very successful rebellion, a civil war against his father, King David. And David has fled Jerusalem. Absalom has entered Jerusalem, is set up on the throne. And now Absalom is seeking to establish his reign. Picking up in verse 15. Now Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel came to Jerusalem and Ahithophel with him. Okay? So Absalom has a party of men of followers of leaders and it's going to be referred to as the men of Israel. And the most prominentfigure in that party is a man named Ahithophel. Ahithophel is a counselor to the king. He was a counselor to David. He was someone that David brought in to give wise counsel and advice. But now he's betrayed David and he's joined his son in this rebellion. And we don't really know why. Some have theorized that Ahithophel that when you follow his line, he has a son named Iliam. And that that might be the same Iliam that is the father of Bathsheba. That this might be the grandfather of Bathsheba and that he's exacting some type of revenge against David here. We don't know that to be true, but he has betrayed David and now he's joined in with Absalom and he's giving counsel to him. But he's not the only one seeking to give counsel to this new king. Verse 16.And when Hushai the Archite, David's friend, came to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, "Long live the king." Long live the king. Okay, we'll pause there. There are a lot of names as we're going to see in the story today. There's a lot of names last week, so some of this stuff is hard to track. But if you remember back from last week, Hushai is a spy that David has sent to disrupt Ahithophel. So in 2 Samuel 15, what we read last week in verse 34, this will be on the screen. It says, "But if you return to the city and say to Absalom, I will be your servant, O king, as I've been your father's servant in time past, so now I will be your servant. Then you will defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel." This is David sending in Hushai to defeat the counsel of Ahithophel, which he knows is going to be veryhelpful to Absalom. And then in verse 37 it says, "So Hushai, David's friend, came into the city just as Absalom was entering Jerusalem." So that's what's happened here. He has sent he sent Hushai in to be rival counsel to Ahithophel to disrupt all of this. And Hushai, who's playing the part of double agent quite well, comes in immediately and says, "Long live the king."Now Absalom may be pretty but he's not that stupid because he knows that Hushai is a friend to David. So he responds verse 17. And Absalom said to Hushai, "Is this your loyalty to your friend? Why did you not go with your friend?" And Hushai said to Absalom, "No, for whom the Lord and this people and all that the men of Israel have chosen, his I will be, and with him I will remain. And again, whom should I serve? Should it not be his son? As I have served your father, so I will serve you." So Absalom says, " don't you like play golf with my dad?Like, aren't y'all boys? What's happening here? Why are you where why are you here?" And he's like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I play golf with whoever sits on the throne. I'm for the position, not the man. And the Lord is with you and the people are with you. So I am with you. So I'm here to help you. And it's great. You're David's son. You're the next. So he plays the part of double agent quite well. He doesn't get immediately thrown out. The question is, is he going to be able to keep his cover as he's trying to infiltrate his way into Absalom's influence? Verse 20, then Absalom said to Ahithophel, "Give your counsel. What shall we do?" So he's looking to what's my next move is now that I've established my place in Jerusalem. And Ahithophel in verse 21 said to Absalom, "Go into your father's concubines whom he has left to keep thehouse and all Israel will hear that you've made yourself a stench to your father and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened." Okay, that is a diabolical plan. All right, for a variety of reasons. First, this is a egregious sin. This is an egregious violation of the law. Leviticus 20:11 prohibits this. It gives the death penalty for anyone who will lay with his father's wife. And though concubines were seen as lesser status wives in the reign of the kings, they still are wives of the king. So what Ahithophel has recommended is a wicked and gross violation of the law. But as far as evil plans go in and its most brilliant base form, it's smart. From a worldly perspective, from a godless perspective, this is a massive power play. This is his way to show all the rebels that are fighting for him that I mean business.So it's wicked and it's evil and it's vile and it's obscene, but also it's very cunning. So Ahithophel gives him this counsel and Absalom listens. Verse 22. So they pitch a tent for Absalom on the roof. And Absalom went into his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel.Now in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God. So was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed both by David and by Absalom. And that's a way of saying that Ahithophel's counsel was so valued. It was like hearing the word of God. Meaning that the word of God says this, you do it. Ahithophel says this, you do it. And he recommends this rebellious, cunning, and wicked act. And Absalom does it. And they pitch a tent. And they work out this plan in front of all of Israel. But this is also fulfilling the prophecy of Nathan after David sinned with Bathsheba and murdering Uriah. For Nathan the prophet in 2 Samuel 12 will be on the screen. It says, "Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and givethem to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the sun. for you did it secretly, but I will do this before this thing before all Israel and before the sun. So God gives up Absalom to his own sinful desires. And this brings judgment upon David and his house. And Ahithophel's counsel is followed. And he makes himself a stench to David and his followers. Now he's got more counsel to give becausenow they've got to reckon with David himself. And this is where we're going to see rival counselors Ahithophel and then Hushai is going to come into the scene and both of them function like the cabinet of the king. Right? So if you follow US history every US president has a cabinet and if you follow some of the biggest battles that have happened between these cabinet members. These are counselors to the king. The biggest one is is the original cabinet. So in Washington's presidency, he had Jefferson and then he had Hamilton. And both of them represented two very different political philosophies. That's why he put them in the counsel in the first place in the cabinet because he wanted to see two rival philosophies go at it, which didn't work out very well. They actually ended up forming two different political parties that came out of that. But if you follow theythey've written all this down. If you follow some of the history of how they fought, there were times where Hamilton would go on these 45minute monologues. He just go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and it's and this recorded that Jefferson would just be like head back just like just so annoying. And then there are times where Jefferson would win the day and he would get the influence of Washington and it's recorded that he would like sneer and like make faces at Hamilton, which is just funny because these are our founding fathers. of the people that helped found this nation and we can all act like children in our own sinful state at times. But that's not abnormal.That's not just US history. That's ancient history. That's happened for thousands of years that kings and presidents and prime ministers and sovereign leaders, they have counsel that they bring in often to oppose one another to find what is the best way forward. So what we're going to see is that type of cabinet battle here starting in verse one of chapter 17. Moreover, Ahithophel said to Absalom, "Let me choose 12,000 men, and I will arise and pursue David tonight. I will come upon him while he is weary and discouraged and throw him into a panic, and all the people who are with him will flee. I will strike down only the king, and I will bring all the people back to you as a bride comes home to her husband. You seek the life of only one man and all the people will be at peace and the advice seemed right in the eyes ofAbsalom and all the elders of Israel. Okay. So Ahithophel's plan I'll be honest is very very good. This is a good plan. He says listen we have a standing army of 12,000 men tonight that we can ride out of here. In fact, I will lead this. I will lead. You can stay put. I'll lead these 12,000 men. And we're going to catch David because David's not just traveling with his warriors. He's also traveling with his wives and probably some of his children, but with some grandchildren. He's got and they're tired and they're discouraged and they're weary. And he says, "You know what's going to happen?We're going to come upon them. It's going to be like lightning warfare. Boom. We're going to come in quick. And then all we have to do is cut off the head of the snake. All we have to do is take out David. There won't be lots of bloodshed. Only one man has to die. And then guess what? You're good. There's no more threat. Everyone gets behind you and you're the king. Now, that's an objectively good plan. All the commentators, everyone's looked at this and said, "That's a smart way to do this." And they hear it and they say, "Absalom likes this. The elders who are sitting in counsel like this." Now seems to be happening here is you got Absalom with a counsel of elders. Ahithophel comes in he makes his pitch and they like it and then he exits. Then verse 5, then Absalom said call Hushai the Architealso and let us hear what he has to say. So Ahithophel leaves Hushai comes in and now Hushai has to follow up a very very good plan. And that's difficult because if you have to outdo a very very good plan, you it's hard. If someone said, you know what, you're going to have to out-pitch ice cream as the staple dessert. That's a hard thing to do. You know why? Because ice cream is amazing. The fact that you can take the best part of milk, which is cream, and slowly turn it to where it's not so hard where it's just like ice, and it's not too soft that it's just this perfectly formed. and you could throw chocolate in it and all types of things. The person who pitches that idea originally, that's a good pitch. It's for you to come in and try to pitch something else. Unless milkhates you, it's a pretty good dessert. So that's what's that's happening here. Hushai is has to come in. He's going to outdo a very very good plan. Verse six. When Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom said to him, "Thus has Ahithophel spoken. Shall we do what shall we do as he says? If not, you speak." So they tell him, "This is Ahithophel's plan. Should we do what he says?" Verse 7. Then Hushai said to Absalom, This time the counsel that Ahithophel has given is not good, which I so appreciate as the opener to what we're about to read as a monologue because it's like Ahithophel has chosen poorly. Like, this is just no. It's the equivalent of Trump just saying wrong when someone says something it's just no immediately we're diverging this is not a good plan so then he starts to pitch his plan first by poisoning thewell of Ahithophel's plan verse eight said you know that your father and his men are mighty men and that they are enraged like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Besides, your father is an expert in war. He will not spend the night with the people. Behold, even now he has hidden himself in one of the pits or in some other place. And as soon as some of the people fall at the first attack, whoever hears this, hears it will say, "There has been a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom." Then even the valiant men whose heart is like the heart of a lion will utterly melt with fear. For all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man and those who are with him are valiant men. All right, pause.Hushai basically chooses fear. He chooses fear, which I don't know if you've been bombarded with the most obnoxious political ads that have been ra running right now, but all of them, 95% of them are fear-based because fear is effective. So, he chooses fear. He says, "You ever seen a bear robbed of her cubs? It's not good. You don't want to get in the middle of that." And he's enraged. They're furious. They're very upset with you, Absalom. So, I know you're thinking, "We've got the numbers. We've got 12,000 men. We can catch them off guard. First off, no you won't. You think David is stupid? He's hiding. He's off. You remember how you used to be hiding in the caves all the time? You think you're going to find him easily cut off the head of the snake? No. No.No. You He's not with his people. You're about to enter a hornets's nest. And let me tell you something. This is what he does. He says he says, "Your men, they've got strong hearts. Some of them courageous like lions. But the moment they start taking L's on the battlefield, the moment they start getting slaughtered, it's going to spread like wildfire. And everyone knows that David and his mighty men are bad. And that is 100% true. I mean, you look at some of their resumes, they are bad to the bone. And he says the moment that they start hearing that people are getting slaughtered, your men'll run.Seeing them not super courageous once they start getting defeated, that's a bad plan. So that's how Hushai begins. He poisons the well with fear. Okay. Now that he's poisoned it, he's going to shift to his plan. Verse 11. But my counsel is that all Israel be gathered to you from Dan to Beersheba as the sand by the sea for multitude, and that you go to battle in person. So we shall come upon him in some place where he is to be found and we shall light upon him as dew falls on the ground and of him and all the men who are with him not one will be left. If he withdraws into a city then all Israel will bring ropes to that city. We shall drag it into the valley until not even a pebble is to be found there.Okay. So what Hushai just did is he is wisely buying time. That's what he's doing. Ahithophel's plan is quick. That night he says, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't want that. Already talked about this. This is this this is going to go wrong for you. Also, Ahithophel's super old. You want him leading you to battle?" No. Here's what's going to happen. We're going to slow it down. We're going to go from Dan to Beersheba, which is basically from north to south. Think Maine to Florida. Okay? We're going to gather all the people of Israel, not 12,000 men, hundreds of thousands of men. We're going to get all of them in our side. that we're going to find David and we're going to surround him. He doesn't matter how mighty his men are, we will have numbers upon numbers upon numbers. And then once we surround him, we're going to win. And ifsomehow he escapes and he makes it to a city where there's where there's walls, guess what? We'll have so many people we'll take ropes, throw it over the wall, rip the walls down, bring all the pebbles into the valley, and guess what? We'll kill every single one of them. That's the option. That's the one you should choose. It's guaranteed. It's going to take some time. But let me tell you something. You don't want to go out without the numbers. That is Hushai's plan. And you've got these two different plans. One, which still, I'll be honest, is way better. Very quick. 12,000 men coming upon them as they've been running. They've got women and children with them. Boom. Kill David. Done. or Hushai's plan which is long drawn out buying time.What are you going to choose? Both are given. Verse 14. And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, "The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom. So they choose Hushai's plan. And what we see in this is this is what David prayed for. If you remember back in 2 Samuel 15:31, it says, "And David said this on the screen." Oh Lord, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. He prays this and God answers this prayer. For it says, "The Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel so the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom." David's prayer is answered because ultimately God is going to bring judgment upon Absalom for his wickedness and his rebellion against David, the Lord's anointed king.So while that's happening, Hushai seemingly he's out of the room. So he's left the room. They're in here discussing this and they are making the decision that Hushai's plan is very very good. Hushai outside the room is now not going to wait to see what happens next because he heard Ahithophel's plan and that's a good plan. So he has got to get a word to David because David is exactly where Ahithophel said he would be. He's out in the open. He's not hiding. So that was all smoke and mirrors and he's got to get word to David in case Ahithophel's plan is taken. And that's what we pick up in verse 15. Then Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar the priest. Okay, we got a lot of names here. Stay with me. Zadok and Abiathar are priests, Levitical priests that were loyal to David. So Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar, the priest,thus and so did Ahithophel's counsel, Ahithophel counsel, Absalom and the elders of Israel. And thus and so have I counseled. Now therefore send quickly and tell David do not stay tonight at the fords of the wilderness but by all means pass over lest the king and all the people who are with him be swallowed up. So he says you've got to leave now. If they follow Ahithophel's plan they're going to catch you. You've got to get out of town. You got to get out of the wilderness. You got to get away as far as you can. So that's the word they give to Zadok and Abiathar. Verse 17. Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at En-rogel. Okay. Jonathan and Ahimaaz are sons of Zadok and Abiathar. They are Levitical priests as well. And they're waiting at En-rogel which is just outside of Jerusalem. And it says a femaleservant was to go and tell them. And they were to go and tell King David for they were not to be seen entering the city. So what we have here is a chain of spies. One to the next to the next to the next to get to David. so that David and his crew can leave and flee danger. But verse 18, the young man saw them and told Absalom. So both of them went away quickly and came to the house at a man at Bahurim who had who had a well in his courtyard. And they went down into it. And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth and scattered grain on it, and nothing was known of it. So while they're trying to get the message out, one of Absalom's men sees what happens. So they go, they hide in a well and then the woman very smartly spreadscovering over the well, puts grain on top of it, very much like Rahab and the spies in Jericho and hides them so that they can evade capture. Verse 20. When Absalom's servants came to the woman of the house, they said, "Where is Ahimaaz and Jonathan?" And the woman said to them, "They have gone over the brook of water." And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem. So they successfully evade capture. Verse 21. After they had gone, the men came up out of the well and went and told King David. They said to David, "Arise and go quickly over the water, for thus and so has Ahithophel counseled against you."Then David arose and all the people who were with them, and they crossed the Jordan. By daybreak, not one was left who had not crossed the Jordan. So chain of spies works. They cross and guess what? They didn't even need to because Hushai's plan won. And Ahithophel's plan was defeated because God has determined to bring his judgment upon Absalom. And that plan is now in full effect. And Ahithophel cannot handle the defeat of this rival counselor. Verse 23. When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and went off home to his own city. He set his house in order and hanged himself and he died and was buried in the tomb of his father. Now, it's possible that Ahithophel was so poisoned by his own pride and self-worth and his own great advice, his own great counsel that the moment that he's defeated, he can't handle it and hecommits suicide. It is also possible that at this point he may see the writing on the wall and that David is actually going to win this war and he'd rather take care of it himself as opposed to falling to David's sword. We don't know for sure. I lean towards the former. I think the text more I think pushes in that direction that when he says his counsel was not followed I think what's bound up in here is pride which just for the moment is a very good case study and a warning sign to anyone who puts their worth and their value and their work and their abilities and their talents and what they do. Because if you put so much value into those things and those things are taken from you, what you've done is you've set up an idol to worship. And when that idol is taken, it can lead you to some very dark places.And what this serves as is a cautionary tale to be mindful of not putting so much of your value and your worship and the things that you do because that's what I think Ahithophel does. And when his counsel is not followed because of his shame, he goes and takes his life.So let's finish out the chapter verse 24. Then David came to Mahanaim and Absalom crossed the Jordan with all the men of Israel. Now Absalom had set Amasa over the army instead of Joab. Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra the Ishmaelite who had married Abigail, the daughter of Nahash, the sister of Zeruiah, Joab's mother. and Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead. Verse 27. When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi the son of Nahash from Rabbah of the Ammonites and Machir the son of Ammiel from Lo-debar and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim brought beds, basins and earthen vessels, wheat, barley, flour, parched, beans and lentils, honey and curds and sheep, and cheese from the herd. for David and the people with him to eat. For they said the people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.The chapter ends with even though they're in the wilderness and even though they're on the run for their lives and even though it seems like things are going against them, God still cares and raises a people to provide provisions for them in the wilderness. And that closes chapter 17 to set up next week which we will see is the great battle between Absalom's men and David's men.Okay. So, if you've been with us the last few weeks, if you study this just in its immediate context, it's very hard to see the light in all of this darkness because we've seen so much of it. At this point, David has suffered for years under the discipline of God. He's watched his family be torn apart. He's watched his nation be torn apart. He's had to deal with the emotional agony of his own son leading a rebellion against him to murder him. I mean, he it's all these chapters, it's dark. And in the middle of all this darkness, in the middle of all this brokenness, in the middle of all of this pain and suffering, is a reminder that God is still for David.Because what commentators will say is that in all these chapters of suffering, right in the middle in verse 14 of chapter 17 is this shining light that breaks through the storm. So it says, "For the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom." And that right there is the glimmer of hope that the wickedness and the evil, the dishonor of his father, the dishonor of his nation, the dishonor of his God, Absalom will be judged. and that the covenant that God made with David is remembered. Does David deserve to have favor? Absolutely not. Does God remember his covenant of favor towards David?Absolutely. That no matter how dark it has gotten, no matter how bad has gotten for David, God remembers his covenant to him. God remembers his covenant to his people. That is the glimpse of light that breaks through the storm of all of this darkness that we're reading. And as you take a step back as a Christian, it is a helpful reminder for us because we I think also we forget this because we will go through seasons of intense present darkness, of suffering, of affliction. And in the middle of all of the suffering, in the middle of the affliction, in the middle of all of it, those questions can linger. Is God for me?Does he care about me? Does he love me? Because it doesn't feel like it right now. If you follow Jesus long enough, you will have been there. And the good news is we don't just have the scriptures that testify to how God meets his people in the middle of darkness. We also have wonderful stories from church history. In the modern missions movement in the 19th century, there's a lot of missionaries that went out to parts of the world that were very difficult to reach and very difficult to reach with the gospel. One of them was named John Paton. John Paton was a missionary.Him and his wife, they went to the island of the New Hebrides Islands in the 19th century. It's an island that had zero Christians, had tribes that were cannibals. And he arrived on the island then not long after arriving there, his wife died. And then their infant son also died. And in his autobiography he says, "Then in a moment altogether unexpectedly, she died on March 3rd to crown my sorrows and complete my loneliness, the dear baby boy whom we had named after her father, Peter Robert Robson, was taken from me after one week's sickness on the 20th of March.Let those who have ever passed through any similar darkness as a midnight field for me, as for all others, it would be more than vain to try to paint my sorrows. And he just says that after losing his wife, after losing his son, after being obedient to the Great Commission to go and make disciples of nations that did not know him, that he felt such an intense loneliness it would be vain to try to paint and describe his sorrows. So he dug two graves with his hands and buried his wife and buried his son. and he's alone on an island with people who are trying to kill him.And this is what he writes. I'll put this on the screen. Stunned by that dreadful loss and entering upon this field of labor to which the Lord had himself so evidently led me, my reason seemed for a time almost to give way. The ever merciful Lord sustained me. But for Jesus and the fellowship he vouchsafed to me there, I must have gone mad and died beside that lonely grave. And it's such a wonderful reminder that even in the darkest of moments, even when all hope seems lost, even as he's buried his wife and his son and he's alone on an island under the threat of death, that in the intense darkness that he faced, Jesus Christ came. He says, "The ever merciful Lord sustained me. but for Jesus and the fellowship vouchsafed to me there, he says without it I would have gone mad beside that lonely grave and that story in some versions happenedover and over and over again and he continued and now that island for centuries at this point was converted to Jesus and has a legacy of Christ but God's people sometimes go through intense bouts of suffering I don't think any of us have ever faced anything like that. But in the middle of darkness, in the middle of complete what seems like hopelessness, God shines through to his people. And the reason he does this is because when he saves you and redeems you and seals you with the Holy Spirit, he never leaves or forsakes us. He is for us. And even though darkness may seem like it's prevailing, even though hope may seem like it is lost, even though it feels so sad and lonely, God is for you if you belong to him. He is for your good. It may not seem like it and he may not answer you with the circumstantialchange that you want, but God breaks through to his people. I don't know why some of you have suffered in the way that you have. I don't know why you feel the way that you do, but I do know that if you belong to Jesus Christ, he is with you. And my hope and my prayer is that you would sense it just like Paton did. That he would break through. That you would sense it just like David did and be reminded that just as David had a covenant that was made with him, we because we belong to Jesus Christ have a covenant that was made with us by his blood. that when Jesus Christ goes to the cross and sheds blood for our sin and then captures us and brings us into the family of God, that covenant is remembered and it is never forgotten that our God is for you. And wecelebrate that regularly and remember that as we come to the table. George is going to come up and we're going to prepare to take the Lord's Supper, which is a meal of remembrance that Jesus instituted and gave to the church. On the night that he was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it. He said, "This is my body that was broken for you." And then he took the cup of the new covenant. He said, "This is my blood that was shed for you that as often as you eat and drink this, you proclaim my death until I return." And Jesus gives us that meal to remember the covenant that was made with his blood.That God loves you so much that he gave up his one and only son. that you even in this life that is filled sometimes with suffering and darkness would persevere by faith trusting in the finished work of Christ and finding those moments where God encounters us with his presence and breaks through the dark questions that linger in our soul looking forward to a day when there will be no more questions like that because there will be no more suffering or sin or brokenness. There will only be him in eternity. So as a Christian you get to come to the table remembering the work of Jesus Christ as a reminder as a memorial as remembrance that he is for you. Even if it doesn't feel like it right now he is.So may you prepare your hearts and then in a moment you can come to the table. There's gluten-free at that table back there. If you do not belong to Jesus Christ, we don't want you to come to the table. We want you to come to Jesus. We want you to place your faith in him. We want you to see what it is like to walk with a God who loves you so deeply that he gave himself for you.And the invitation is for you to follow Christ. And if you want to know more about that, find me, find another pastor, find a Christian who brought you here today, and we can show you what it means to follow Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you might prepare our hearts to receive this meal of remembrance. God, I pray that you might help us, especially those of us that belong to you that are right now feeling so hopeless, feeling such darkness as so many of your people have done and felt. God, I pray that you would as they take this meal, would you break through the darkness, would you help them see that you love them, that you're for them, that they belong to you, that they're treasured by you.May they remember who you are. And for those who do not belong to you, I pray, God that you would compel them to faith in you this morning. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Come when you are ready.

After talking about the struggle between the two wills that remain in him after salvation, so he does the things that he wants to do. he reminds us of the only hope, God. That God through Christ is the one that delivers us from sin and not only at salvation. He is the one who delivers us from the body of death as we go through our lives and are tempted to sin. He is the one that breaks the power of sin in our lives, including by scourging us so that we receive the peaceable fruit of righteousness. He is ultimately the one who frees us from the body of death through the resurrection of the dead at glorification. After which, we will no longer have a body of death, because we will have an incorruptible body that cannot die. It is important to remember, it is God who starts our salvation, sanctifies us through the rest of our life and then glorifies us, so the to God alone belongs the glory.

A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli with Foundry UMC, May 24, 2026, Pentecost Sunday. “We Know Who We Are” series. ​​​​Texts: Acts 2:1-21; John 20:19-22​​​​   Last Tuesday evening, I found myself seated at a table listening to live jazz in the nave of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC. The occasion was the celebration for my mentor, Rev. Dr. Serene Jones upon her retirement as president of Union Theological Seminary after an extraordinary 18-year tenure. It was such a gift not only to be in the room with and for Serene, but to reflect on her influence upon my life through her words, actions, and friendship. And when she rose at the end of the evening to address the crowd, she urged all of us to pay attention to the prompting of Spirit and to follow God's call on our life.   It was a gift to receive this charge: to ponder, remember, and honor God's call upon my life and how Spirit has been falling afresh on me at every age and stage of my journey. Sometimes Spirit's meddling and God's call have felt aggravating, disruptive, heavy, and even painful. But, with every twist and turn along the way, God has brought me through and Spirit has stirred me to keep going.   And the truth is, I didn't always recognize Spirit's presence while it was happening. Sometimes it was only later, looking back, that I could see how God had been nudging and guiding and sustaining me all along. Maybe you know something about that too. Maybe Spirit has shown up in your life in ways you didn't fully recognize at the time—in a relationship that changed you…a burden you couldn't shake…a moment of courage you didn't know you had…a conviction that kept growing in you…a grief that opened your heart…or a persistent tug toward compassion, justice, mercy, or love.   And it makes me think about how we focus just one day of the liturgical year on the miraculous story of Spirit blowing into the community of Jesus's disciples and setting them on fire to move out into the streets to tell God's deeds of power. But, really, Spirit is at work in all sorts of ways all the time.   I get it, though, why we make a whole day out of Pentecost. It is a powerful story, the church's origin story really, of the moment when the disciples realized that Jesus' promises would be kept—that the Holy Spirit would baptize them and empower them to continue the saving work of God in the world. That very day they did things that seemed impossible—they spoke in ways that people from all over the known world could understand. And in that moment Peter recognized and proclaimed the fulfillment not only of the promise of Jesus, but the prophecy of Joel. That God would pour out Spirit upon all flesh, empowering all to have visions and dream dreams and prophesy. It's very dramatic—like a sci-fi movie that brings unlikely people together acrossunimaginable odds to do extraordinary things—with the bonus of great special effects. And I love it! But I also recognize that Pentecost wasn't the first time Spirit showed up among the disciples. Maybe it was the first time they recognized so clearly the Spirit who had been carrying them all along.   How else were they able to have the courage to leave their familiar lives to follow Jesus? How else were they able to go into villages and tell the good news and care for the sick and those struggling with their demons? How, apart from Holy Spirit, did they feed the five thousand? How did they stay together after the trauma and terror of crucifixion?   And maybe that's why I love the quieter story in John chapter 20 so much. The disciples have had the wind knocked out of them. By grief, fear, trauma. By watching everything they thought was going to happen collapse before their eyes. They are huddled behind locked doors, trying to figure out what comes next.   And then Jesus comes among them—not first with demands or instructions, but with peace. “Peace be with you.” And then he breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And honestly, I need to receive this right now and am pretty sure I'm not alone. I believe many people have had the wind knocked out of them. By grief. By fear. By the cruelty and chaos of this moment. By exhaustion. By disillusionment with the church. By watching Christianity so often get presented as domination instead of service, exclusion instead of welcome, certainty instead of compassion.   And on this Memorial Day weekend, many of us are carrying grief not only for lives lost in service, but also for the deep fractures in the country those lives sought to protect.   Many of us wonder whether the church can still mean something beautiful. Whether faith can still sound like Jesus.   We need the story we tell today! John and Acts tell it differently—but perhaps they are showing us two movements of the same Spirit. In John, Spirit comes like breath in a fearful room—restoring peace, courage, and life to weary people. In Acts, Spirit comes like wind in the streets—pushing those same people beyond fear and beyond every barrier to bear witness in a broken world.   But it is the same Spirit. The Spirit who restores breath to weary people. The Spirit who revives people who have had the life knocked out of them. The Spirit who reminds fearful people who they are.   And only then comes the sending. Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you…” Notice that Jesus does not come into the room and say, “Once you've resolved all your fear…once you feel confident…once you fully understand everything…THEN I'll send you.”   No. The doors are still locked. The disciples are still afraid. And yet Jesus breathes Spirit into them anyway. God's mission doesn't wait for us to feel ready. Spirit meets us in the midst of fear, uncertainty, grief, and confusion—and sends us anyway.   What does it mean to be sent by Jesus as Jesus is sent by his Father? If the accounts of Jesus' life are our guide, then it means that we, like Jesus, are sent into the world to bring healing into places of suffering, hope into places of despair, mercy and forgiveness into places of sin, comfort into places of grief, peace into places of violence, love into places of hatred. To be sent as Jesus is sent is to be bearers of God's life in the world, to put our lives on the line for the sake of justice, and to stand in solidarity with those who are hurt by the systems of the day.   As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are a people who are not only gathered into the family of God—those who “go to church”—but we are also, inherently, a sent people, called to BE the church all the time and in every place we are.   Think for a moment of the life-giving rhythm of our bodies breathing in and breathing out. A healthy body needs to do both. The in-breath of the Body of Christ—the church—is the Spirit gathering us in to be loved, supported, fed, strengthened, and given purpose through sacrament and worship and study and community. Every Sunday or whenever we gather, the Body breathes in, takes in God's grace and power. And the out-breath is like the Spirit of God blowing out across the chaos of the world at the very beginning, bringing peace and new life. The “sent-ness” of the church is like that—the church moving out into the chaos and brokenness of the world to bring love, mercy, healing, and hope. Every day between Sundays the Body exhales, breathing the Spirit into places thirsty for life and hope and kindness.   As the founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley, famously said: Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.   I remember during the painful debates and divisions of the United Methodist General Conferences of 2016 and 2019, one of the pieces of legislation brought to the floor proposed changing the United Methodist mission statement—which is “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world”—by dropping the second half: “for the transformation of the world.”   I was aghast at the idea. It felt like a vision of discipleship focused only inwardly, as if Jesus followers were meant to crowd back into locked rooms and focus only on their personal “disciple” ticket. It sounded like a church withdrawing its prophets from proximity to the powers and principalities that so desperately need their voice. It sounded like a church trying to hold its breath. I'm happy to say the legislation didn't pass. Because the story of this day—the story of Pentecost, the story of the work of Holy Spirit in and through disciples across the ages—is clear: Spirit always exhales—sending us into the world to embody the love and justice of Christ. The way we say it at Foundry is “Love God. Love each other. Change the world.”   And so I want to extend to you the same charge I received from Serene: pay attention to the prompting of Spirit who is always at work and respond to God's call on your life. Every day. In all the ways and places and by whatever means you can. And if you aren't sure where to begin, I invite you to decide right now on one act of service or outreach you will do this week, even small, for the wider community. Just do one concrete act of service beyond your usual routine. It could be running an errand for a friend who needs a hand. Or calling your state or federal representatives. Or paying for someone's meal. Or any other thing that Spirit prompts.   Because Spirit has been nearer than you realized all along. And Spirit will keep giving you breath—and wind at your back—to move beyond yourself and into the wondrous, love-fueled mission of God.

What is enough? How do you know when you have enough? Is the answer: “Just a little more . . .”? If so, you're not alone, but you're also on a dangerous road. From the rich fool who built bigger barns to the algorithm that lives in our pocket, something has always been working to convince us that the next thing is the thing that will finally make us secure. But Jesus names a deeper truth: greed isn't really about money at all. It's about where we go for safety, and whether we trust our stuff or our Father to be the ground beneath our feet. Greed Dr. Eric J. Gilchrest | May 31, 2026 Check out the weekly sermon here or on our SRBC podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. This Sunday we're exploring:The rich fool of Luke 12 and how building a bigger barn was a dangerous replacement for the work only God can doHow the algorithm and our social media networks form us every day into people who can never quite be satisfiedGreed as a trust problem: the quiet transfer of our security from God to the things in our closets or our bank accountsWhy the offering plate is one of the most counter-cultural things we do — and how the practice of charity and generosity is an important way we take the offramp from greed back onto the narrow road that leads to abundant life Like what you hear? We'd love to know.At South Run, we read every message personally. Whether you have a question, want to share how God is moving in your life, or are thinking about visiting in person, this is the place to start. If you click the link below, Pastor Eric will personally reach out to you. Listening online? Let us know. Sermon Transcript South Run Baptist Church | Springfield, VAPastor Eric GilchrestMark 3:1–6; Matthew 5:21–22; Exodus 34:6–9; Jonah 4May 10, 2026 — Mother's DayThis is a full sermon transcript from South Run Baptist Church in Springfield, Virginia. In this message, Pastor Eric Gilchrest preaches on anger and wrath as part of the ongoing "The Jesus Way" transformation series on the seven deadly sins. Drawing from Mark 3, Genesis 4, Exodus 34, Jonah 4, and Matthew 5, this sermon takes the congregation on a biblical tour of what Scripture says about anger — the difference between righteous and unrighteous anger, what Jesus' own anger reveals about the nature of God, and how to keep the fire in the fireplace. Announcements: Bridge Walkers and a Joint Service on May 31stGood morning, friends. It's good to be with you. Before we get started, there's just a couple things I want to say. There's something that I haven't alerted you to yet, but this is as good a time as any. So a few weeks ago, right before Easter, I was invited into a group of pastors who met over the course of two days, and there was an evening together. We stayed at a hotel. There was a grant connected to it. And it was a group of white pastors and a group of black pastors in the area here, in the Virginia, D.C., Maryland area. And the hope of this — it's a group called Bridge Walkers, which gets its name from the walk from Selma to Montgomery back in the 60s. And as somebody who lived right outside of Selma in Marion, Alabama, I know the scene well. In fact, I was there at the 50th anniversary of it in 2013, and it was a really powerful event. And so the meeting was one that I definitely wanted to participate in. And as we gathered together, we had some really frank discussions about race in the United States and in the church, and how we can be, as a church, agents of reconciliation.And so the fruit of this and the hope of where this all goes is for our churches of these pastors to do some things together over the coming year or two. And so the first of these is coming up May 31st, which happens to be the exact same day as the picnic. I did not get to pick this, it just kind of happened this way, which is in part why we are holding the picnic immediately after the service. And Jeff was right. I will be dressed for the part, and I need you to be dressed for the part too. The picnic will be fun. We'll have games. We'll drag stuff out. But then we wanted to give enough time for those of you who would like to attend this service to get home, maybe take a nap, or do whatever you do on your Sunday afternoons. And then at 6 p.m., it's up in Glen Arden, Maryland, we will have the first of these services together. I don't know what to expect, but I do expect that God will move, and I expect the Holy Spirit to be present, and I expect some of our preconceived notions to be challenged. I expect transformation is always beckoning us, and I am deeply hopeful for what might come out of this. So put that on your calendar. This is May 31st, just right around the corner, and it is 6 p.m. that evening.Happy Mother's Day: A Childhood Binder and a Mom Who Saw All of YouToday is Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to the mothers and the spiritual mothers in the room. I was trying to think of what to say at this point, and what came to mind was a collection of photos that I found from my childhood that my mom had gathered together. It was one of those binders that back in the 1998 time frame when I graduated from high school, that people would put photos into and they'd put words about what was happening at that time. And my mom was way into this. And so she chronicled my whole childhood from zero to 18 and then presented me with this big binder. And now as a father of an 18-year-old, I think about that a little differently.And I think about what it means to be a dad, only because I can't think about what it means to be a mom, because I'm not one. But I know this much on the receiving end of it all. I had a wonderful mom who looked after me in ways that I don't think I'll ever be able to fully appreciate. She saw every last bit of me and who I was, and she was there every step of the way, even if I didn't realize it. And so for all the moms in the room, I am grateful. We are all grateful. And for those of us who have moms who are still alive, may we reach out to them today and give them the thanks that they deserve.Let's begin with some prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray a special prayer of blessing over the mothers in this room today. Lord, the kind of love that you call us into, that agape love, a self-giving kind of love, I can think of no better human example than what mothers do on a day-to-day basis for their children. And so, God, may we all aspire to that. We give you thanks for them, and we give you praise for that kind of love, and may we be drawn into being those kinds of people too. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.The Jesus Way Series: Vanity, the Seven Deadly Sins, and Today's Stop — Anger All right, we are — if you don't know — we are on a road together, a path, right? And this began a few weeks ago. Well, I mean, it kind of began a long time ago, but we're on this transformation kick. But then since Easter, we've been walking in these two ways. And I've been trying to show you that there is this narrow way, right? It's the way that Jesus is drawing us into. It's narrow because fewer people choose it. It's a little hard. There's more friction to it. It requires something of you to be on it. But it is the way to life and to fullness of life and to eternal life. And this is what Jesus is trying to get us to do. But then there is this other way. There's this broad way. It's bigger and wider, and it's much easier to find yourself on it. And it's marked by a number of things. And so two weeks ago, we talked about vanity as one of the markers of this way. And it's easy to just kind of slide into vanity. And then today, we're talking about the broad way again. And I want to talk about anger. And I know it's Mother's Day. So apologies ahead of time for this. I do want you to know there was a toss-up between this and gluttony. And so I put gluttony on Father's Day. So, you know, you can get ready for that too. And I'll say, all of the analogies are aimed at the men in the room today. So all the stories — you know, like I'm looking at guys here — women, you get the day off. So you're welcome. All right, so just clarify a couple things up front. I originally had the name wrath for this sermon, and I was afraid that it might draw up like the wrong image for you. But here's the truth of the matter. The word anger and the word wrath — actually, it's the same thing. The roots of these are the same, like the down deep parts of it. They're just two different words for the same thing. The goal of what I want to accomplish in this sermon today is to really lean into the middle section of this rotten tree that stands before you. We've already touched on vanity, the far left, and we'll get to each of these branches at some point over the weeks here. And then just to remind you, at the base of all of this is your pride and your ego. It's kind of the thing that is the last thing that will die in this earth, right? Because if you could just simply root that part out, then it would take care of the rest. But pride is much trickier than simply just plucking it out like a weed. It has roots that go much deeper than you or I can really frankly imagine. So today we're just focusing on the middle one. We're talking about wrath or anger. And I have thoroughly enjoyed this. Maybe I enjoy it too much. I'm realizing this right now as I said that. I have like a thousand things I want to tell you, and I will only tell you maybe ten of those. And so if you think to yourself, well, Pastor Eric, I wish you had talked about this — I probably could have and maybe should have. But I'm glad that you're leaning in and you're really digging into what you need to know about anger and wrath. Also, it's a pitch to come to Sunday morning Bible study where we do go deeper for a whole hour on this topic. The goal of the sermon is, with the theme of roads and ways and all, to take you on a tour — like a driving tour of your Bible — and the things that it has to say about anger. Think of it this way. We've got a few key destinations I'm trying to get us to. And then as we go to those destinations, there's like bathroom stops I want to point us at, or maybe just a couple things that you should have in your view as we head to these main stops. First Stop — Mark 3:1–6: Jesus Gets Angry in the Synagogue The first stop is the one we read already, which is Mark chapter 3. And so I'd encourage you, please, open your scriptures, open your Bibles to Mark chapter 3 as we dig into what Jesus demonstrates for us about anger. Mark 3:1 to 6. Again, he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, come over here. And then he said to the Pharisees, he said, is it lawful? Does the law permit? Does your Bible tell me that it's okay to do good or harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill it? He's asking them, how do you read your Bible? What's the right thing to do here? But they were silent.And then he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, stretch out your hand. And he said, I'm going to teach you how to read your Bible. And I'm going to teach you what it looks like to keep the Sabbath. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. And the Pharisees went out and they immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him how to destroy him.There are two angry parties here. Jesus gets angry and clearly the Pharisees do as well as they seek to destroy him by the end. There are just a few things that I want to point to in this passage that will become important. And the goal as we make these stops on this journey together is to maybe build up a case of the kinds of things we can say about anger based on what we find in our scriptures. The first would be simply that Jesus does get angry. And it's actually okay for you to be angry too sometimes — with a huge caveat around it. Because anger is actually one — it's the only sin on the list of the seven deadly sins — that it's okay to, we'll say, participate in when it's not a sin. The sin looks a whole lot like the not-sin. It's the only one that looks like this. Knowing how to distinguish between the sinful version of anger and the righteous version of anger, it takes wisdom and it takes maturity. I don't recommend it to the littlest ones among us. It's a little bit like holding a knife. Like, you want to teach someone how to do this and to train them well, or they're going to do what? They're going to cut someone, maybe themselves. And anger is much the same way. And we need to learn how to use it in a controlled manner.But Jesus does get angry. And then I'll say this about his anger. If you read closely, what is he angry at? It's actually remarkably precise here in Mark. He's angry at their hardness of heart. He's not precisely angry at them, just generally, as if Pharisees are awful people or something like this. No, he's angry at something specific. The object that he's directing his anger at is their hardness. There's something in them. And he says there's something really wrong with that. And it provokes some anger in him.The other thing I'd say is that his anger is connected to justice, which is what anger is always connected to, by the way. Usually — well, actually both in the righteous form and the unrighteous form. When something's gone wrong in the world, righteous anger says, something's wrong with the world, and I want to fix it. When anger is unrighteous, usually you're saying, something's wrong with my world, and I want to fix that. The last thing I'd say about this passage is maybe the most important of them all, which is that if you really look closely at verse 5 there, it says this: he looked around at them with anger, grieved. Two emotions are sitting together — anger and grief. Anger and grief. How does one have anger and grief sitting side by side? Well, the only way is if you manage to find empathy for the one you are angry with. It's when moms and dads say it — and I promise they mean it, kids — when they say, this is harder for me than for you. Well, they mostly mean it. I feel grief over having to discipline. I feel grief because I want your world to be right. And Jesus here is feeling grief for the Pharisees, saying, I wish your hearts were not so hard. I could teach you a better way. I could teach you a way to life.Thumos and Orge: Two Greek Words for Anger in the New TestamentAll right, let's keep going on our journey here. Actually, let me pause one more minute. This is a good opportunity to introduce two words that appear in our New Testament. Both of them are words for anger, and they are thumos and orge. It's a hard G. We're still talking about the sin of anger here. Thumos and orge.I want you to think about anger as a fire. This is the metaphor for anger often. And fire, much like a knife, is something that can do damage or it can do good. Thumos is the damaging kind. It flames up quickly. It's the road rage. It's somebody getting upset, right? And it's named specifically in Galatians 5:20 and Ephesians 4:31, if you want to look those up. Galatians 5:20 is right next to the fruit of the Spirit. You know the fruit of the Spirit? These are the ones we love to talk about. But there's the fruit of the flesh right before it. And in this fruit of the flesh is thumos. It's that anger that rages up, right? This is what we're trying to avoid.But the one next to it is orge. And orge — sometimes it is unrighteous anger, it's not always righteous — but it is a controlled anger. It has some measure of control around it, as I say, a controlled burn, right? There are times where if there's a fire in your fireplace, that's a great thing, and it's controlled. But if that fire jumps out of your fireplace and is uncontrolled and creeps up the walls, now we've got a different kind of problem. Our goal today is to learn how to keep that fire in the fireplace.Pit Stop — Genesis 4:3–7: Cain's Anger and the Sin Crouching at the Door All right, we'll move on. We need to take a quick pit stop, however, on this journey and look at Genesis chapter 4, verses 3 to 7. This is the famous story of Cain and Abel. You probably know what happens to Abel and then maybe to Cain. Cain murders his brother. But before he does, we read a little bit about how this gets set up.In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he did not And so what happens? Well, Cain was very angry, and here we see the burning starts, right? The fire begins to burn. And Cain's face fell, and the Lord said to Cain — the question you should be asking yourself this morning — which is, why are you angry? Why are you angry? When you get angry, why? What is under that for you? It's a very good question. And why has your face fallen? And then he says — God says to him — if you do well, won't you be accepted? And if you do not do well, and here's the key, "sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must master it."And what is the sin here? The sin is anger, and it's burning in him. And he says, you must master it, you must keep this in the fireplace. And if you don't keep this in the fireplace, it's going to destroy everything. We know exactly what happens. The sin that was crouching does what? It leaps out of that fireplace, and Cain kills his brother. And we have the first murder in all of Scripture.Murder is a terrible sin. It's actually not one of the deadly sins, is it? It's not one of the seven. Because underneath murder — and Jesus teaches us this in Matthew 5 — underneath murder sits the thing that's in our heart. We call that anger. Second Stop — Exodus 34:6–9: God Reveals His Nature as Slow to AngerAll right, the next stop on our tour is Exodus chapter 34, verses 6 to 9. I would encourage you, go ahead and pull your Bibles there now. Exodus 34:6–9. This is where Moses is up on the mount, Mount Sinai. He's getting the Ten Commandments. But in this very important scene, God reveals his nature to him. And he tells us, and he reports to us, what kind of God he is.And I'll say God is angry at times. God can have wrath. I do not deny this, and I don't want to even diminish this in any way. But I'd encourage you as we read through this to recognize a very important fact — that even for God, maybe especially for God, who is perfection and the thing that we are trying to strive for — God's wrath and anger flows from his love. Love is the primary, and out of that flows his anger. You might wonder, well, Eric, how in the world does that work? That doesn't seem obvious to me at all. But I would point us back to maybe Mother's Day or the fathers in the room. When you get angry as a parent, like in a good way, a good angry, when you see your child being hurt by somebody and that mama bear rage wells up — why? Because you want to protect your child. An injustice has happened or is about to happen and you want to protect them. God is not dissimilar. He knows what is good for us. He knows when the world is off kilter. He knows when you are off kilter. And he knows that when it is and when you are, that this is destructive to you. And he wants to save you from your destruction. And we call this anger. And it's him maybe punishing or reaching out and trying to fix the situation. And sometimes — and parents know this — the discipline requires something harsh.So it goes like this in verse 6. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed. And this is what the Lord is saying about himself. "The Lord, Yahweh" — and he says it twice, Yahweh, Yahweh — "I am a God who is merciful and gracious, and I'm slow to anger." And there it is, right? I'm not quick to anger. I am slow to anger. I am gracious. I'm merciful. I'm slow to anger. I abound in this. The word here is hesed. It's a steadfast love. It is a love that never quits. It is like a mother's love — like, you can do all kinds of things, but your mom is just going to love you throughout and throughout and throughout. And this is what God is saying of his very self, that he has this kind of hesed love, a steadfast love, of faithfulness. And he keeps steadfast love for thousands. And more than that, he's forgiving. And he forgives all the kinds of words for sin that appear in your Old Testament. Sometimes we call it iniquity, sometimes transgression, and sometimes sin. And he says, I'm willing to forgive all of these things. He then does go into the fact that he is a just God, and there needs to be justice. And so he says he doesn't clear the guilty just by virtue of wiping it away. And he, in fact — and this needs some explanation, and fortunately this is going to have to wait for another day — he visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children so that the third and the fourth generation, they sometimes feel the effects of the father's sin. I think you know this to be true just if you look through your family history and you think about your father and his father and his father and the ways in which their failures have a way of creeping through a family line. I think that's what God is teaching us here.And so Moses quickly bows his head toward the earth and he worshiped and he said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, oh Lord, please let this God — let you, God, the one who is merciful and slow to anger — that is the God we need in our midst. Because we're a stiff-necked people and we need you to pardon our iniquity."This is a remarkable passage in its historical context. There are lots of gods in the ancient world, if you don't know. There's a group that's praying to a God named Asherah at this point. And that God happens to be really good at fertility matters. Or there's the folks who are crying out to Baal. And Baal is one of these like really fickle gods who may get angry with you and then doesn't. And you never know who you're going to get with Baal. Or if you fast forward in time, you might get the God of Mars, who is the God of war. And that's the God you're going to meet in the pages of history.But this God, Yahweh, is unlike all the other gods. There is no other God named in history, certainly at this point, who describes himself in the ways that our God describes himself. This description literally changes the course of history. Because we should look to our God, to this God, and say to ourselves, thanks be to God that you are the God who is all of these things, and especially the God who is slow to anger.This passage is, again, as I said, one of the most important in all of the Old Testament, and we know this with certainty because — I've just got a couple here, Psalm 30 and Micah 7 — but you could do a Google search later on how many passages from the Bible as a whole, but especially our Old Testament, appeal to and quote from Exodus 34, and you'll be amazed. The Bible repeats this part of the Bible over and over and over again. Psalm 103, Nehemiah 9, Psalm 86, Joel 2 — or the next stop on our journey, Jonah chapter 4.Third Stop — Jonah 4: HOT Anger and Everything Jonah Gets WrongLet's turn there together. Jonah chapter 4. Jonah is a troubled prophet. I would encourage you, whatever you do, do not look to Jonah as an exemplar. He will let you down. Jonah is one of these — actually he's the only prophet who I can really say that about. The whole book is an upside-down prophet. He's not doing what he should be doing, and he's doing what he should not be doing, and we see this ever so clearly in chapter 4 here.We'll read it. For the sake of time, I'm not going to spend nearly as much time in it, but what we see is an angry prophet. Now, prophets are actually often angry. You should know this. The other prophets are too. They're just angry, typically in the righteous kind of way, because again, if justice is the name of the game for anger — the prophets are looking out and they're seeing injustice and unrighteousness everywhere. And they're shouting at their people, you got to fix this. And they're angry with them. And they say, the world's not right, and it should be. And you need to be doing something about it. Jonah is angry as well, much like the prophets. But he is, we'll say, more self-centered than he should be. And so it goes like this. If you don't know the story of Jonah, the lead up to this point is that he has taken his word of disaster to the Ninevites, and he has said, you need to repent. And they said, okay, we will. And they did. And then God relents, and he does not destroy them. And Jonah is not pleased with this. Chapter 4, starting in verse 1: "It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry." There you go. It's just kind of on the face of it. He's displeased. He's angry. What's he angry about? That God was the merciful God. He wanted the war God, the wrath God. He wanted Mars. He wanted Baal. But instead, he got Yahweh. And he prayed to the Lord. And he said, "Oh Yahweh, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish." If you don't know that part of the story, he didn't even want to go to Nineveh at all, and so he fled. And so he says, this is why I left. I didn't want to come here. And then he just says it outright. "I knew you were a gracious God. You were merciful. You are slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster." He said, this is why I didn't want to come. I was looking for Mars. I was looking for the God of war. I wanted you to come in and destroy this whole place. And I knew, I knew you wouldn't do it.Jonah's upset. Does he have a righteous anger? Let's all say it together. No. No, he doesn't. He's showing us all the wrong ways. And he goes on: "Therefore now, Lord, please take my life from me." Twice he's going to ask for this — "for it's better for me to die than to live." And then God asks him the same question, or a similar question to the one Cain gets, right? Do you do well to be angry? Again, the question maybe you're being asked right now. Do you do well to be angry? And Jonah went out of the city, and he sits east of the city, makes a booth for himself there. He sat under the shade till he should see what would become of the city. And the Lord God appointed a plant to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head to save him from the discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of this plant. But when dawn came the next day, God appoints a worm that attacks the plant and it withers. And when the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that again he might die and said, it is better for me to die than to live. And God asks another time, do you do well to be angry for the plant? And Jonah says, yes. Wrong answer, Jonah. But he says, yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. And the Lord said — and here's the convicting part — he says, you're angry about all the wrong things. Your anger is an unrighteous anger. You're targeting the wrong targets. You are not upset about what I get upset about. Your anger is self-serving. This is what he's saying when he says in verse 10: "You pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. But shouldn't I have pity on Nineveh, a great city in which there are more than 120,000 souls? Shouldn't I care about that? Shouldn't I have pity on those people? And shouldn't you too, Jonah?"And then the story ends very abruptly. It's kind of one of these where you feel like maybe there's a missing chapter somewhere and someday we'll uncover it. But for today, this is what we get.Diagnosing Your Anger: The HOT Framework — Wrong Heat, Wrong Object, Wrong TimingThere's a few things from this that I want to kind of put into your cap to maybe help you remember something about anger that will help you diagnose it later on. I'm calling this HOT — H-O-T — hot, Jonah's hot anger. So there's the wrong heat, which is to say the wrong heat level. He gets too angry about the wrong things. His anger is the wrong intensity — he gets so angry about this plant. But he's not angry about the right things with regard to the people. And then the wrong object, right? The wrong object of his anger. So he's angry not about what is just or unjust. He's instead angry at God. He's angry at God's mercy and ultimately at the loss of this plant. He's very interested in this plant. And then lastly, the timing of it all is wrong. He stays angry for too long and it burns for too long. He's still upset about leaving Tarshish. He brings that back up, right? That was sitting somewhere in his heart that he didn't even want to go at all. And so he's mad at God for taking him out of Tarshish and his own land and heading over to Nineveh. And he's holding this grudge.But all of this speaks something to your anger and my anger, which is sometimes our anger is too hot for the situation. And when the kid spills the milk at the table and you blow up — is that the right heat level? No. No, it's not. The object of our anger — maybe you do blow up at the table, Dad. And you get angry with the kid in that moment. But that's not even the object of your anger. You're angry from work earlier that day where your boss said something to you that you didn't like. And now you're upset generally speaking, and then when the kid spills the milk, you yell at him. That is not the object of your anger. Don't take it out on him. Or the timing of it all — maybe you've been holding this grudge for years, and you've just been gathering it over time. This is why we need to forgive, and we need to reduce our resentments. And if we are going to walk this Jesus way, the way that leads to life, it is going to require some wisdom around all three of these things. Final Stop — Matthew 5:21–22: Jesus on Anger, Murder, and What's Sitting in Your HeartAll right, one more stop on the way. This one's Matthew 5:21 and 22. This is Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. This is perhaps the passage maybe I should have preached from, so I am. "You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry" — and there Jesus is just calling it out for us, even if you've got anger in your heart — "will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire."There's a lot in this passage. A lot can be said, so I'll just keep it simple. If anger is sitting at the root of this and it's sitting in our hearts, there are any number of fruit that can come out of that anger. Sometimes it's murder. I hope that's not the case for any of us. But sometimes it's just calling someone, you fool, you idiot. Or maybe it's just the rolling of your eyes at that person you think is an idiot. Or maybe it's you online. Maybe it's what you're saying in the comment box, right? To say, you don't know what you're talking about. And it's a self-righteous kind of anger. And it sits there and it burns.And here's what I'd say about all this. There is a destruction that is happening. Jesus calls this the way of destruction for a reason. Because you are aiming at God, believe it or not, when your anger is unrighteous. Because you are saying, the world is not as it should be, and I don't trust God to fix it. So I am going to fix it myself. And then the damage you're doing is all around you too. This one's a little more obvious — if you walk through the world and you're an angry person, constantly throwing barbs at other people, you are affecting them. You are changing the climate of the room when you just simply walk into it. But then also, what may be missed is that you — you are destroying yourself from the inside out.And it may actually feel good to be angry. I learned this. I didn't realize. I am a non-confrontational person by nature. I don't like conflict. But I have learned over the years some people love conflict. They actually like the fight. To them, it feels good. It feels like you're alive. But what's happening in that situation, and really any situation where anger is burning within you, is that from the inside out, you are being hollowed out. Three Antidotes to Anger: Soft Answers, Lament, and HopeThere are some antidotes to anger, and I will keep these brief, and three. One, Proverbs 15:1 tells us that a soft answer turns away wrath. Jesus teaches us the gentle way, the gentleness, gentle startups. This is always the first step forward. Anger might come way down the road, right? But you need to be slow to it. Number two, lament. Learn to grieve like Jesus grieves in Mark 3. Learn to grieve even alongside your anger. And I would encourage us mere mortals — unlike Jesus, us mere mortals — we should probably start with grief and allow the anger to follow, because it's going to be a much more trustworthy form of anger if we do. And the last thing is hope. Hope. You see, the angry person, as they rage at God — Jonah, as he rages at God — ultimately is saying, I don't trust you, God. I don't trust your way to be the right way. But we need to be people of hope and people of faith who trust that even though it seems like the world is all cattywampus — and it is, like it's all upside down — we hope and we trust that the God of the universe is fixing all the things. And we play our part. And we live as people who expect the unrighteous to receive their due reward and for the wrongs to be made right again. And that we only have control over ourselves and our hearts. And so we better take control of them, lest that fire jump out of the fireplace and begin to burn the house down all around us. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, you are a passionate God. We are to be passionate people. And some of the angriest among us can show us something about what it means to have passion. But God, it can be dangerous to hold that fire. And so, Lord, we ask for your wisdom. We ask for people who will gather around us and be honest with us about the nature of our anger — whether it's the slow-burning anger that leaps out of the fireplace eventually, or whether it's the kind that just flares up all the time. God, you are teaching us a better way, a narrow way, a way that leads to life. May we walk with you down that. Lord, we pray this in your holy name. Amen.‍ ‍South Run Baptist Church | 8712 Selger Drive, Springfield, VA 22153 | Sunday Worship at 11am Serving Springfield, Burke, West Springfield, Lorton, Alexandria, Fort Belvoir, and Franconia, Virginia. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Welcome to our daily bitachon. One of the fundamentals of bitachon is to realize that you have a loving father in heaven that you could rely on. Reshit Chochma in Shaar HaAhava, seventh chapter, said that one of the ways that we know that God loves us is because he gave us the Torah. That's one of the biggest signs of his love for us and as Shavuot is coming, we have to think about that as well. And as it says in Devarim, כי שאל נא לימים ראשונים you're going to ask from the days of old, did anything ever happen like this? השמע עם קול אלוהים did anyone ever hear of a nation that God spoke to them? And he quotes the Zohar as saying that through Matan Torah, Hashem showed תוקף אהבתו יתברך לנו his tremendous powerful love for us like a father loves his dear son. And that's what it says in Pirkei Avot, chavivin Yisrael, dear are the Jewish people, שנתן להם כלי חמדה שבו נברא עולם we received the dear utensil through which the world was created. God used the Torah to create the world, that's his machinery, and he gave that to us. And he tells us that one of the ways to remember this is in your daily prayers that the Anshei Knesset Hagedolah, the men of the Great Assembly, established in our daily prayers. ahavat olam ahavtanu, an everlasting love you loved us, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem our God, chemla gedola viteira you had compassion on us. And what does that compassion referring to? It's referring to the fact that he gave us the Torah. Pay attention to that. That's the way we say how do I know that Hashem loves me? From the fact that he gave us the Torah. Look at the words that it says in that beracha. Avinu, our father, ba'avur shimcha hagadol because of your great name that is attached to us. בעבור אבותינו שבטחו בך because of our fathers that rely on you and read through line by line. Avinu av harachaman, our father, our merciful father, rachem aleinu have mercy on us. And now although we're in galut, nagila venismecha bishuatcha we rejoice and be happy in your salvation. What do you mean your salvation? That God's with us in this difficulty. So when we get saved, he gets saved. ובנו בחרת מכל עם ולשון he chose us from all the nations. He's a poel yeshuot, he's constantly creating salvations we don't know about it. וקרבתנו מלכנו לשמך הגדול you brought us close to your great name, that's after the whole long story of love. And what does that mean, says the Arizal? It means you brought us to Har Sinai to give us the Torah. The Torah is shmo hagadol, the Torah is God's great name. The source for birkat hatorah is כי שם השם אקרא when I announce the name of God, havu godel Lelokeinu, give him greatness. So when you're mentioning the name of God, when you learn Torah, give him greatness and bless him. Whenever we learn Torah, the Torah is God's names, whatever that means. That means this is the essence of what we know of God. A name is what you know of somebody. The Torah is God's names, that's what we know about him is the Torah and he gave us that knowledge. And he says we continue our prayers, this is every day, after we say Kriat Shema. goaleinu goel avoteinu your savior, our redeemer, the redeemer of our fathers, till the words ga'al Yisrael he says הכל מורה על אהבת הקדוש ברוך הוא לנו . This all shows how much Hashem loves us. The miracles that he made for us, taking out of Mitzrayim, hitting the firstborn, splitting the sea. If you read these words of our prayer, not out of rote he says, for sure your heart will be aroused to a tremendous love and desire for Hakadosh Baruch Hu and want to cleave to him and pray to him. And this is an important point as a famous story that they once asked Rav David Feinstein or Moshe, I'm sorry Rav Reuven Feinstein, Rav Moshe Feinstein's son should live a long life, how did you know that your father loved you? Your father was a great rabbi, posek hador, busy with everybody. How did you know that he loved you? And he said two things that I remember that stand out. Number one was whenever we had guests over Shabbat, the greatest of people that they could be, my seat was never moved, I always sat next to my father. Number two is my father would get up early in the morning to. So when I got up I could put on those warm pants and feel warm on a cold day. That's how I knew my father loved me. So that means a child has to sometimes look for little things. Of course it's obvious your father loves you, but you want to look for the little signs, the little indicators. And that's the same thing with God. How do I know my father loves me? Well, one of the main ways we know that he loves you is he gave you the Torah. And he doesn't just give you in the past but every single day we say noten haTorah, he's giving us the Torah. So if anybody here is listening to this class, what's really happening is they're hearing words of Torah that God gave them. Every day the Torah that we hear, whether we learn or hear from others, is a gift of God. So let us think of these important lessons as we get to Shavuot, and realize that this giving of the Torah is a fatherly love. We say every single day hashivenu avinu letoratecha, bring us back our father to your Torah, vekarevenu malkenu la'avodatecha, and bring us close our king to your service. We refer to God as our father and as our king. When it comes to Torah, hashivenu avinu letoratecha, the fact that we have a Torah is an expression of God's fatherly love to us. Our service to him, that indicates the slave-servant relationship, there God is a king. But God is our father when it comes to Torah, and one of the responsibilities a father has to a son is to teach him Torah, and that's what God does. So let's appreciate that love expression that we're getting this Shavuot, like a father loves a son and gives him.

What if the biggest problem in Genesis 3 wasn't just disobedience… but deception?In this episode, Dr. T. Michael W. Halcomb uncovers the serpent's strategy in the Garden of Eden—not to deny God, but to distort His character. The lie? That God was holding something back.But when humanity took the bait, they didn't become like God… they became afraid, ashamed, and hidden.And God's response? It wasn't rage—it was pursuit.This episode explores the deeper meaning behind the fall, the first hint of grace in Scripture, and what it reveals about who God truly is.#jesus #podcast #faith #bible #biblestudy #christ #theology #history #scholar #jesuschrist #christianeducation #christianity #eden #education #educationalvideo #educational #god #provetext #glossahouse Study deeper with GlossaHouse:

When the storms in life strike, as they inevitably do, it feels as though we're caught in a small boat out on a stormy ocean. At that point, what we really need is some solid ground beneath our feet. And fortunately, God knows that only too well.   Dealt a Cruel Blow You know you can always tell when we are starting a new series – I am excited. I love to get onto a new series in God's Word and that's what we are doing today. We are starting a series called "On Solid Ground" to listen to what God has to say into one of the central dilemmas of our lives and that dilemma is this: dealing with the storms of life. I remember when I was a young boy – I was about four or five years old. My mother and my sister and I sailed in a ship from Australia to Europe. Now that was a four week sail through the Suez Canal and back again. It's a long way and I remember, even to this day, there were some huge storms along the way. I remember they had ropes in the corridors on the ship to hang onto. I have never forgotten those storms and remember, this was a large cruise ship and yet it seemed to get tossed around in those storms. I was sea sick; I was very afraid as a young kid, even though I was on this big cruise liner. I remember going out onto the deck and seeing the huge waves and the winds and the ship was pitching around in this fearsome ocean and for me, there is nothing as frightening as an angry sea and a violent storm – the ground as it were, moving under your feet. For some people life seems to be a constant storm. The ground under their feet is never solid – there is always some fear and some uncertainty and they can never quite figure out why. What is going on – why is my life always like this? Now many of these people believe in God and yet life seems to be one endless storm. What we really want to have is solid ground under our feet. When you are in a storm the question is – how? That's what we are going to be exploring in this series called "On Solid Ground" starting right here and right now. Now if you have a Bible, I'd like you to grab it because we are going to be spending most of our time in the first eight chapters in a Book called First Samuel, in the Old Testament. We are going to discover the truth that we kind of know or we should know and yet it gets lost in the world that we live in. See this is a 'me' centred world where so often we find ourselves going to God asking Him for things for me, for me, for me and little by little, instead of God being God we expect Him to start being like a performing dog – to do tricks on our command. It may seem harsh but you get God the wrong way around and it spells dog. Am I expecting God to start dancing to my tune or am I dancing to His? It's a good question. That's what we are going to be exploring in this story and it begins in the storm. It's a story about a woman called Hannah and it turns out that she is going through some incredibly tough times in her life but she has the Creator/creature relationship the right was up. Open you Bible – let's go to First Samuel – it's the ninth book of the Old Testament. It's kind of just over a third; between a third and a half way in. We are going to start at the first verse of the first chapter of First Samuel. There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah, son of Jeroham the son of Elihu the son of Tohu the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives; one was called Hannah, the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children but Hannah had none. Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh where Hophni and Phinehas the two sons of Eli, were the priests of the Lord. Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters but to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her and the Lord had closed her womb. And because the Lord had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year – whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord her rival provoked her until she wept and wouldn't eat. Elkanah, her husband would say "Hannah why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you down hearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?" Pretty tough! Anybody who has ever gone childless or had someone in their family who has gone childless will know the incredible pain of a couple who would like to have a child and yet they can't conceive. Can you imagine this going on year after year after year and in between these annual trips, as well? And of course, there were two wives – now the Bible doesn't talk about the fact that there were two wives – obviously the author doesn't feel a need to comment – praise God that has gone away. But never the less, poor old Hannah had a pretty tough time – a real storm, year after year, the pain of being childless and she had lots of choices in that space. She could have been angry; she could have lashed out; she could have withdrawn. And her husband is pretty useless; typical male – "What's the matter, why are you crying? You've got me!" So what does Hannah do? Let's look at First Samuel chapter 1, beginning at verse 9: Once they had finished eating and drinking at Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the door post of the Lord's temple. In the bitterness of her soul, Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord and she made a vow saying "O Lord Almighty, if You will only look upon Your servants misery and remember me and don't forget Your servant but give her a son then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life and no razor will ever be used on his head." As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her "How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine." "Not so my lord" Hannah replied, "I'm a woman whose deeply troubled. I haven't been drinking wine or beer. I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Don't take your servant for a weak woman – I have been praying here about the great anguish and grief that I have." And Eli answered "Go in peace. May God of Israel grant you what you have asked Him." She said, "May your servant find favour in your eyes." Then she went her way and ate something and her face was no longer downcast. Turns out she does have a son, calls him Samuel, gives him over to God as soon as he is weaned and he comes and serves as a priest in this temple under Eli, whom we discover later is one bad dude. He is the priest; he is supposed to be the go between, between God and His people and yet he and his sons have no respect for God. We will look at them later and also we will see Samuel's fate. At the start of the programme I talked about this "me, me, me" thing – always asking God for stuff; kind of turning things the wrong way round, instead of us being made in God's image, we try to remake Him in ours. And yet here is this story – this story that begins in a storm – this story that begins with Hannah in a storm and she is asking God for something. Did you notice she doesn't lash out or whine or complain? She humbles herself before God and asks her sovereign God; pours her heart out to Him. Eli, this scoundrel, with as much spiritual insight as my pet cat, thinks she is drunk and feeds her with platitudes – "May the Lord give you what you ask for." Yet here is a simple woman at the bottom of the heap, pouring her heart out to her God. And notice what it says after she does that, in verse 18 of chapter 1: "Then she went her way and ate something and her face was no longer downcast." See Hannah's feet were on solid ground – even before her prayer is answered – a seemingly impossible prayer. You know what that tells me? She trusted her God – no matter what His answer would be – she trusted Him; she let it go; she stopped worrying and God answered her prayer. I'm not saying "Let's all be like Hannah" – we are clearly not, our storms are different to hers but what we discover in this story is that when we put God in His rightful place – God – He honours that. We are going to have a look at her understanding of her God again next.   Chalk and Cheese What comes next in this story is Hannah's prayer of thanksgiving. She is in this storm; she asks God for the impossible; she has got the taunts of the other wife and she comes to God in a prayer of humility; pouring out her soul and God answers her with a son and she gives that son back to God for the rest of his life. Now listen to what she prays and how she rejoices. We are now at chapter 2 of First Samuel, beginning at verse 1: Then Hannah prayed and said 'My heart rejoices in the Lord, in the Lord my horn is lifted high, my mouth boasts over my enemies for I delight in Your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides You. There is no rock like our God. Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance for the Lord is a God who knows and by Him deeds are weighed. The bows of warriors are broken but those who stumble are armed with strength.' And this prayer goes on and on ... read it for yourself in First Samuel chapter 2. And you know what it's all about? The power and the sovereignty of God! It's about a Hannah who went to God with this in her heart – God is above all things. Not this attitude of "Let's reform God in my image. Let's turn Him into a performing poodle." You know how I know that? Because when she poured out her heart to God she offered her son back to Him and she honoured that promise when God delivered her son. There is a challenge there for each one of us about how we go to God – how we see Him – as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords or some puppy dog that performs tricks on our command? Come on! And how can we tell the difference? See, this is a very hard thing to discern sometimes. How can we tell the difference between a right and a wrong attitude towards God? Let's go back to His Word and we will see what a wrong attitude looks like when we look at the priest Eli and his sons. Join me is First Samuel chapter 2 verse 11. Remember Eli was the priest that was at the temple when Hannah went to pray. Eli's sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord. Now it was the practice of the priests with the people, that whenever anyone offered a sacrifice and while the meat was being boiled, the servant of the priest would come with a three pronged fork in his hand, he would plunge it into the pan or the kettle or the cauldron or the pot and the priest would take for himself whatever the fork brought up. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. But even before the fat was burned, the servants of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing "Give the priest some meat to roast – he won't accept boiled meat from you but only raw." If the man said to him "Let the fat be burned up first and then take whatever you want, the servant would answer "No, hand it over now, if you don't I'll take it by force." So this sin of the young men; the young priests was very great in the Lord's sight for they were treating the Lord's offerings with contempt. You see the way we tell the difference about our heart attitude towards God is through how we behave. Hannah could have complained; Hannah could have fought back; Hannah could have acted up badly; she could have lashed out at her husband; she could have grumbled at the other wife and yet, in her pain, who could have blamed her? She could have shaken her fists at God and instead she went to Him with her mission impossible and poured out her heart to God and trusted Him because He is God and then she had peace. He honoured that! Here's an amazing truth – it's one of those pivotal passages in the Bible that tells us a huge amount about why, when we have a wrong heart toward God, things go badly in our lives. Listen to First Samuel chapter 2, verse 30; this is a verse that's worth writing down. God says: For those who honour Me, I will honour. And those who despise Me shall be treated with contempt. And what we read in the remainder of chapter 2 of First Samuel, starting at verse 27, is that God deals with Eli and his two sons and He sends a prophet to Eli and this is what happens. First Samuel chapter 2, verse 27: Now, a man of God came to Eli and said to him "This is what the Lord says" "Did I not clearly reveal Myself to your father's house when they were in Egypt, under Pharaoh? I chose your father out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, to go up to My alter to burn My incense, to wear an ephod in My presence. I also gave your father's house all the offerings made with fire by the Israelites. "So why do you scorn My sacrifice and offering that I prescribed from My dwelling? Why do you honour your sons more than Me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by My people Israel?" Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel declares "I promised that your house and your father's house would minister before Me forever," but now the Lord declares "Far be it from Me; those who honour Me, I will honour but those who despise Me I will disdain. The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your father's house so that there will not be an old man in your family and you will see distress in the dwelling and good will be done to Israel. In your family line there will never be an old man. Every one of you that I do not cut off from My alter, will be spared only to blind your eyes with tears and grieve you heart and all your descendants will die in the prime of their lives. And what happens to your sons Hophni and Phinehas will be a sign to you - they will both die on the same day. And I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and in My mind. I will firmly establish his house and he will minister before My anointed one always. Then everyone left in the family line will come and bow down before him for a piece of silver and a crust of bread and plead "Appoint me to some priestly office so I can have food to eat." The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the Word of the Lord was rare – there were not many visions. There it is – these priests were in a position of power and authority and responsibility and they ... they didn't honour God, in their words and in their deeds, they rejected Him. And God dealt with them. Hannah on the other hand – well, she was like chalk and cheese compared to Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. Hannah was the lowly of the lowly – these priests were on the top of the social religious register but that made no difference to God. "I will honour those who honour Me and those who despise Me shall be treated with contempt." The priests failed! The Word of the Lord was rare – their job was to tell people what the Word of the Lord was and yet, in those days it was rare. You know, if you can't change the people, sometimes you have to change the people and that's exactly what God does here. Ultimately, young Samuel becomes the priest and the prophet of Israel – he is the one that grows in favour and we are going to look at his story next week.   It's About Honour Let me ask you something. Who was on solid ground, Hannah who honoured God or the priests Eli, Hophni and Phinehas who pleased themselves? See, it's so easy to be like Eli, Hophni and Phinehas but it's hard to be like Hannah. You know why? Because we can't really see God – not like we can see the physical reality that we are in – not like we can see our circumstances – not like we can see the storm and feel the fear. All those things seem so much more real than this notion of a God that we can't see – a God that we have to put our faith in instead of being able to touch and hear physically. And so this present reality takes over and God has to fit into our present reality. Absolutely, it is easy to be like Eli, Hophni and Phinehas! It's easy to relegate God to one of the things that has to fit into our present daily agenda. But God is no less real for the fact that we physically can't see Him. He is no less powerful for the fact that we interact with Him in faith. God is God and solid ground is the place that Hannah knew – she stood before God. I once heard someone say that peace is trusting in the sovereignty of God. Hannah had that peace. For that very reason – in the eye of her perfect storm, in that place of taunts and disappointments and hurts that she couldn't even utter when she poured out her heart to God – Hannah discovered God's peace through a simple, simple act of faith. So many times over these recent years for me, when the storms have blown in – so many times and you know, in a sense - each time I feel so inadequate to deal with those storms. Isn't that the point? When we are on that ship in the ocean, doesn't matter how big the ship is; doesn't matter how strong we are, we are nothing compared to those storms. People come against you – circumstances, finances, things that really hurt, things of real fear, horrible things that people do – and we feel so inadequate just going and praying about them, well, "What good is that?" But you know what that prayer of faith is? That prayer of anguish and pouring out our hearts before the Lord, like Hannah did, it's honouring Him as the sovereign God. It's saying "God I may be smaller than this storm but this storm is nothing more than a pin prick for You. You are above all things, above all powers, above all dominions and circumstances and storms." And listen again to God's Word. First Samuel chapter 2 and verse 30. God says: I will honour those who honour Me and those who despise Me will be treated with contempt. Who had solid ground under their feet – Hannah or Eli, Hophni and Phinehas? Now next week we are going to see how God's contempt was poured out on Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. Remember that prophesy from the man of God, saying to Eli, "Your two sons Hophni and Phinehas are going to die on the same day as a sign to you that there will never be another old man in your line." We are going to see that happen next week and we are also going to see how God's honour was carried forth for Hannah through Samuel her son. We haven't talked a whole lot about him today but this Book is named after him – First Samuel. We will see that next week on the programme. God blesses Samuel – God sets him up as the priest and the prophet and the judge over the whole of the nation of Israel. This nobody woman, this Hannah, who couldn't have a son, honours her God and God takes that and changes the course of history. God's blessing to Hannah flowed on, down the generations through her son. The question we need to ask ourselves is this: when I look at my life, when you look at your life, do we look like Hannah or Eli? Because that's how I figure out whether I'm someone who honours God as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, as the sovereign of all things. Is this the God I go to, to pour my heart out to? Or do I steal His stuff? Is He the God I rejoice in when He answers me or the God who I try to kind of fit into my schedule when I can be bothered? That God who I manipulate and massage and mould into whatever I want Him to be. Make no mistake – God takes His honour and His glory very, very seriously. He gives them away to no man and to no woman. And as we will find out in the lives of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, it's a matter of life and death.

Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: 2 Samuel 19–20,  Psalm 55, Matthew 28 Click HERE to give! One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on the Daily Radio Bible, a daily Bible‑in‑a‑year podcast with 20‑minute Scripture readings, Christ‑centered devotion, and guided prayer.This daily Bible reading and devotional invites you to live as a citizen of Jesus' kingdom, reconciled, renewed, and deeply loved. TODAY'S EPISODE: Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible for May 11th, Day 131 on our journey through the Scriptures. Join Hunter, your Bible reading coach and brother, as we read from 2 Samuel 19–20, Psalm 55, and Matthew 28. In today's episode, we journey through King David's grief, political challenges, and restoration, reflect on David's heartfelt cries in the Psalms, and witness the resurrection of Jesus and his message of hope: "Don't be afraid. Go and tell." After hearing these powerful words, we'll spend time in prayer together, seeking courage and focus for the day ahead, and be reminded of God's steadfast love and presence—even to the end of the age. TODAY'S DEVOTION: Don't be afraid. Go and tell. Be sure of this. Those were the words the disciples heard after Jesus was raised from the dead. "Don't be afraid." These are the first words they hear as they approach the empty tomb. There's much to be afraid of when facing such uncertainty, such emptiness—questions without answers, situations that don't seem resolvable. Yet, the word of the risen Lord is, "Don't be afraid." The unanswered questions in your life need not cause you to fear. Why? Because he is with you. Because goodness and mercy are following you all the days of your life. Those first words are followed by a calling: "Go and tell." Go and tell your brothers, your sisters, the whole world, that they, too, need not be afraid. Go and tell them that the story of Jesus is alive and ongoing. That God's love continues on. That our journeys haven't ended—that God is not finished with you yet. There is hope for tomorrow. He is redeeming your past. He is alive today. Go and tell. And as Jesus meets them on the mountain, he gives one more assurance: "Be sure of this. I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Our comfort in uncertainty is his presence. Our calling is to speak hope into the world. The story isn't over. The tomb is empty. Christ is risen. Don't be afraid amid your own uncertainties. Go and tell. Be sure of this—he is with you, and you are loved. That's the prayer I have for my own soul today: that I will live in the light of the hope of the resurrection, listening for his voice, echoing, "Don't be afraid." It's the prayer I have for my family, for my wife, my daughters, my son. And it's the prayer I have for you. May it be so. TODAY'S PRAYERS: Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose  through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.   Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.   And now Lord,  make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon.  Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope.  Where there is darkness, light.  And where there is sadness,  Joy.  Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.  For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life.  Amen And now as our Lord has taught us we are bold to pray... Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image. And nourishing us with spiritual food, now send us forth as forgiven people, healed and renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world, and continue in the risen life of Christ.  Amen.  OUR WEBSITE: www.dailyradiobible.com We are reading through the New Living Translation.   Leave us a voicemail HERE: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible Subscribe to us at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dailyradiobible/featured OTHER PODCASTS: Listen with Apple Podcast DAILY BIBLE FOR KIDS DAILY PSALMS DAILY PROVERBS DAILY LECTIONARY DAILY CHRONOLOGICAL  

May 10, 2026: May God's words be spoken, may God's words be heard. Amen. Happy Mother's Day, and many good wishes to those celebrating. It is a joyous occasion for most – offering a time to appreciate the love of their moms with maybe flowers, a visit or a call, or some other way to thank them. For others, this is also a difficult day, or one that brings about mixed feelings at least. For they are those whose mother's have died, or those whose mothers are absent – in whatever way that may mean – or those mothers who have lost a child, or those women who could not have one. For these people Mother's Day can be troubling, awkward, or even painful. And if that is you, know that we, your parish family, are holding you in prayer. And so, as I say each year, that is that is why I like to think of today as less about Mothers specifically, and more about women – mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, nieces, aunts, and friends. Women who have been a part of our lives – nurturing, mentoring, loving, caring. That is what we really celebrate today – the journey of women – us, if we are women, and those women who have been a part of our lives. And there was a woman listening to St. Paul in the passage we heard today from the Acts of the Apostles, but you wouldn't know it based on the reading for this morning. As the story we heard goes, St. Paul was speaking before the Areopagus. What we didn't hear was why. See, while he was waiting for his preaching buds Silas and Tim to arrive in Athens (why is a whole other story), Paul had been walking around town seeing among the bustling city lots of monuments to various Gods, even an altar that, as he would later note, was inscribed with this: “to an unknown God.” As Paul does, he taught people in the synagogues and the streets about Jesus. Now, this is where the previous verses get funny, and why I think they should be included. It goes like this: “…some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, “What does this pretentious babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.” … So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.” That is part of what is missing from the story. The part we did hear was this… St. Paul then speaks before the council, mentions the bit about the “unknown God,” and in classic Paul style, uses their own poetry to counter the notion of such a thing. He quotes Aratus (a Cilician poet) in the phrase “For we also are his offspring,” and likely refers to Epimenides of Crete with the phrase “For in him we live and move and have our being” to counter the idea that any God would be unknown to their own creation. Socrates would have been proud of his use of their own words, and given that Paul was university educated, with excellence in rhetoric and debate which we see in his writings, it also isn't surprising. Then Paul told them about Jesus – about his life, death, and resurrection. For reasons that confound me, that is where the lectionary stops this reading. But on this day, when we celebrate the women in our lives, we need to hear, as the late Paul Harvey would say, “the rest of the story.” The text continues with this: “When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed, but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” At that point Paul left them. But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.” Now, there are are a few things to note about Damaris, especially on a day when we celebrate women. First, that she is mentioned at all by the author. In his book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony, New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham argues that named individuals in the Gospels and Acts are not random, but rather were known to the early Christian communities as key witnesses, leaders, or teachers. This would be especially true of any women named. Second, some try to link Damaris by marriage to Dionysius, the other convert mentioned in this story. Nowhere does it say that, and the author of Luke-Acts, being a stickler as he was, would have done so if it had been the case. And third, is that she is standing there listening to St. Paul speak before the Areopagus in the first place. The Areopagus was a place for centuries where the learned, the most respected in that region, the most powerful, would listen to and debate ideas, pronounce judgements over serious criminal matters, and wrestle with larger questions of science, philosophy, & religion. Damaris would have had to have been wealthy, intellectually gifted, powerful, or all of the above. So, there is a lot for us in this larger story about St. Paul, a bunch of Greek philosophers and judges, and Dionysius and Damaris. And we need to hear it too, especially amidst all that is happening in the world today. For starters, there the inscription on the altar that Paul saw and spoke about. One wonders who constructed it, and why? As I was thinking about that, I was struck by this one part of the Psalm we heard today. The Psalmist speaks of God as one, “Who holds our souls in life.” Think of that for a moment. What does it mean that God is one that “holds your soul in life?” There is such a sense of care, of nurturing, of love in that imagery – and most of all – of knowing. That God knows us. The thing is, we hear this not only in that Psalm, but throughout the scriptures of our faith. We hear that same message, or something like it – over and over and over again in many different ways. From Genesis 1 to the final chapter of the Revelation to John, our scriptures remind us that, as those Greek poets Paul quoted made clear – God created us, and in God we have our very being – God holds our soul in life with great love. This is why at the Easter Vigil and in Lessons & Carols we get texts that span the entire bible – to tell the story of God's relationship with us through time as a reminder that our God didn't begin loving us when Jesus was born, but he was born to us because God has loved us from the beginning of time. That God does indeed hold our souls in life…or really, in love. And that type of relationship, the one God has with all of creation, rooted in unconditional love – means that God knows us – knows us deeply – even if God is unknown to us. All of which brings me back to whoever built that altar. The thing is – it wasn't built because they thought God doesn't exist. Why bother? No, it was built because they could sense God's presence – could sense that there was something larger than themselves – they just didn't know how to name what they were feeling. This was a seeker – something we all have been, and hopefully still are, or we wouldn't be here right now. We don't stop seeking just because we walk in the doors of a church and sit in the pew. Or I sure hope not. It is practically in the DNA of the Episcopal Church to seek, to question, to wrestle with what we think we know. And seeking is as much about what is sought as it is about the one who is searching. The spiritual seeker wants to understand the Creative force they can sense in the world, but learns as much about themselves when they do. Understanding is about knowing – about seeing and being seen. And the truth is that we not only seek God that we may know God, but also that we may feel seen and known ourselves. So many people in the world today yearn to be seen – not looked past, ignored, or pushed aside. They want to be listened to, not because they think they have all the answers, but because in listening, we see them a bit more. That is why it is so important to lift up Damaris in this story. So many women in scripture get ignored or go unnamed – and even our lectionary cuts them out. But the patriarchy rooted in sexism isn't just a part of faith traditions like ours. Women all across time have been left out of our history books – their inventions, courageous acts, writings, or leadership unacknowledged – their names unknown. If we are to ever know God the way God yearns to be known, we cannot ignore or abuse what God creates, especially those made in God's image – the women as well as the men. For when we do, when we ignore and abuse the very soul God holds in life – we willingly do the same to God. Which brings me back to Damaris. She was noted by the author of Luke-Acts, and we should not make the mistake so many do and take no notice of her. We will remember Damaris today. We will say her name and tell her story. But there is something else going on in this story – something missing from our world today (not to mention the lectionary). Paul was doing as evangelists are meant to do – all of us really – he was talking about his faith. That's a good thing! Yet, the lesson we most need now though does not come from Paul. It comes from the Athenians, and begins in the part left out from the passage, which I mentioned earlier. Sure, some thought he was a “pretentious babbler,” which, if you read a lot of Paul's writings you might agree with them. And yet, they didn't throw stuff at him, push him aside, or arrest him for saying things they didn't like or understand (as we know happened to Paul in other places). What did they do? Well, this is why this earlier part is so important, and why I cannot figure out why it was left out – I mean, how can you understand the full scripture of you don't hear it? Just a reminder, this is how they responded: They said to Paul “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.” The text goes on to describe all of the people in that region, saying “Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.” And when they listened more to Paul in his speech before the Areopagus, they didn't throw him over a cliff for speaking about something they hadn't heard before – nor did most of them immediately accept what he said. In the final part of this story, again left out of the lectionary for today, they said instead “We will hear you again about this.” We should not be surprised by their response. Anyone who had to read Plato in school knows Socratic dialog, which originated in Ancient Greece long before Paul or Jesus were born. For that matter, anyone who reads some of the epistles of St. Paul see in them this method of question and answer to get to truth. Some scholars have pointed to striking similarities between Socrates in Athens and Paul in Athens – something the learned author of Luke-Acts may have been trying to bring to mind. But while interesting, especially if you enjoy trips down the philosophical rabbit hole, the most important part is in the invitation to dialog in the first place offered by the Athenians in the face of something they either did not know, or did not believe to be true. If only we today would do as these Athenians and the others in Athens at the time of Paul's travels are doing in this story. Instead, most people would just change the channel, walk away, yell and scream, or Gerry-mander them into silence. If you are in our government, you would arrest and indict them, or push to have them taken off the air. What would the world, or really – let's narrow that down…what might our country be like if we were to listen more to what we don't understand, invite those who offer different opinions to speak to us, or at the end of a contentious town hall say “We will hear you again about this.” If we think about it – listening is one of the ways we see others, one of the ways we say to them that they are known to us. One of the ways we become known to them too. And seeing someone, getting to know them a bit, is the first step toward loving them as we are called to do. It is also the first step toward knowing God. So as we leave here and head out into our own public squares – divided as they are – let us question as the Athenians what we hear from others, not to shut down, but so that we can better understand, see, and know – them, the truth, and the God who created it all. And let us hear of the resurrection of Christ and have our hearts moved in such a way as we become like Damaris – leaving this place to proclaim the good news in such a way that we cannot be pushed aside and be forgotten or ignored. For there are far too many yet for whom God is still unknown, who yearn to be known themselves, who dream of being seen and loved by One who would hold their soul in life. Amen. For the audio, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here (also available on Audible): Sermon Podcast https://christchurchepiscopal.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Sermon-May-10-2026-1.m4a The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge May 10, 2026 The Sixth Sunday of Easter 1st Reading – Acts 17:22-31 Psalm 66:7-18 2nd Reading – 1 Peter 3:13-22 Gospel – John 14:15-21

Dave Brisbin 5.10.26 God is love. What does that even mean? If we define love as nondual presence, consummate oneness, then the scriptures are trying to tell us that God is fully identified with each and every speck of creation. That God, us, everything are ultimately of one and the same substance. Love is the experience of that oneness, awareness of that identity. To be in love is to be relieved of any sense of self, the generator and container of the illusion of separateness. Judeo-Christian tradition demands this oneness of God, but God as one creates no end of conceptual problems for us living in a dualistic world of endless paradox. To explain the existence of evil, we split God into many gods, some good, some bad, or we post Satan to oppose God's goodness. We split God into three to explain God experienced also in human form and unseen spirit. We split God in two by calling him Father, implying a glaring feminine space left unoccupied. Does scripture imply any such unbalanced rift in God? Though God is always referred to linguistically as masculine, God is not always portrayed that way. God's wisdom, hockhmah, is a feminine word, and wisdom is portrayed as female throughout Hebrew scripture. Ruach, God's spirit, shekinah, presence, and malkutha, kingdom are also feminine words…making spirit, she, and kingdom, queendom. God is often anthropomorphized as female, both human and animal, offering nurturing affection in contrast to the impartial justice of the king. The Hebrew mind couldn't conceive of father without mother. Hebrew words for father and mother mean one who brings strength to the house and the glue that holds the family together—the blending of accomplishment, performance, structure with relationship, compassion, affection. Both necessary, complementary, a paradox that must never be resolved. God is the eternal oscillation between father and mother, and only in the oscillation do we find the perfect parent. Resolution is a return to duality, separation. God is nondual presence, the blurring of all attributes into one. To experience that oneness, the loss of all sense of separateness is to bathe in all of God.

Dave Brisbin 5.10.26 God is love. What does that even mean? If we define love as nondual presence, consummate oneness, then the scriptures are trying to tell us that God is fully identified with each and every speck of creation. That God, us, everything are ultimately of one and the same substance. Love is the experience of that oneness, awareness of that identity. To be in love is to be relieved of any sense of self, the generator and container of the illusion of separateness. Judeo-Christian tradition demands this oneness of God, but God as one creates no end of conceptual problems for us living in a dualistic world of endless paradox. To explain the existence of evil, we split God into many gods, some good, some bad, or we post Satan to oppose God's goodness. We split God into three to explain God experienced also in human form and unseen spirit. We split God in two by calling him Father, implying a glaring feminine space left unoccupied. Does scripture imply any such unbalanced rift in God? Though God is always referred to linguistically as masculine, God is not always portrayed that way. God's wisdom, hockhmah, is a feminine word, and wisdom is portrayed as female throughout Hebrew scripture. Ruach, God's spirit, shekinah, presence, and malkutha, kingdom are also feminine words…making spirit, she, and kingdom, queendom. God is often anthropomorphized as female, both human and animal, offering nurturing affection in contrast to the impartial justice of the king. The Hebrew mind couldn't conceive of father without mother. Hebrew words for father and mother mean one who brings strength to the house and the glue that holds the family together—the blending of accomplishment, performance, structure with relationship, compassion, affection. Both necessary, complementary, a paradox that must never be resolved. God is the eternal oscillation between father and mother, and only in the oscillation do we find the perfect parent. Resolution is a return to duality, separation. God is nondual presence, the blurring of all attributes into one. To experience that oneness, the loss of all sense of separateness is to bathe in all of God.

Anger is the one vice that almost always believes it's a virtue. We rage, we seethe, we simmer — and we're usually convinced we're completely justified. This Sunday we're taking a road trip through Scripture to look honestly at the fire inside us: what it's telling us, where it goes wrong, and what it looks like when it burns the way God intended. Anger Dr. Eric J. Gilchrest | May 10, 2026 Check out the weekly sermon here or on our SRBC podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. This Sunday we're exploring:Why the object of our anger tells us more about ourselves than the thing we're angry about When anger is righteous and when it is not, and how to tell the differenceWhat the Bible actually says about God's anger, and why the God who is "slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love" is not the same God many of us grew up fearingThe “HOT” diagnostic — three questions to ask when the fire rises: is the Heat of my anger proportionate, is the Object of my anger right, and is the the Time I've held onto anger appropriate?How social media has industrialized anger as a commodity to be bought and soldWe're exploring the following passages: Mark 3:1–6 · Genesis 4:3–7 · Exodus 34:6 · Psalm 30:5 · Micah 7:18 · Jonah 4:1–9 · Nehemiah 5:6–7 · Proverbs 16:32 · Matthew 5:21–22 · 1 John 3:15 · Ephesians 4:26–27 · Psalm 4:4 · James 1:19–20 · Romans 12:19 Like what you hear? We'd love to know.At South Run, we read every message personally. Whether you have a question, want to share how God is moving in your life, or are thinking about visiting in person, this is the place to start. If you click the link below, Pastor Eric will personally reach out to you. Listening online? Let us know. Sermon Transcript South Run Baptist Church | Springfield, VAPastor Eric GilchrestMark 3:1–6; Matthew 5:21–22; Exodus 34:6–9; Jonah 4May 10, 2026 — Mother's DayThis is a full sermon transcript from South Run Baptist Church in Springfield, Virginia. In this message, Pastor Eric Gilchrest preaches on anger and wrath as part of the ongoing "The Jesus Way" transformation series on the seven deadly sins. Drawing from Mark 3, Genesis 4, Exodus 34, Jonah 4, and Matthew 5, this sermon takes the congregation on a biblical tour of what Scripture says about anger — the difference between righteous and unrighteous anger, what Jesus' own anger reveals about the nature of God, and how to keep the fire in the fireplace. Announcements: Bridge Walkers and a Joint Service on May 31stGood morning, friends. It's good to be with you. Before we get started, there's just a couple things I want to say. There's something that I haven't alerted you to yet, but this is as good a time as any. So a few weeks ago, right before Easter, I was invited into a group of pastors who met over the course of two days, and there was an evening together. We stayed at a hotel. There was a grant connected to it. And it was a group of white pastors and a group of black pastors in the area here, in the Virginia, D.C., Maryland area. And the hope of this — it's a group called Bridge Walkers, which gets its name from the walk from Selma to Montgomery back in the 60s. And as somebody who lived right outside of Selma in Marion, Alabama, I know the scene well. In fact, I was there at the 50th anniversary of it in 2013, and it was a really powerful event. And so the meeting was one that I definitely wanted to participate in. And as we gathered together, we had some really frank discussions about race in the United States and in the church, and how we can be, as a church, agents of reconciliation.And so the fruit of this and the hope of where this all goes is for our churches of these pastors to do some things together over the coming year or two. And so the first of these is coming up May 31st, which happens to be the exact same day as the picnic. I did not get to pick this, it just kind of happened this way, which is in part why we are holding the picnic immediately after the service. And Jeff was right. I will be dressed for the part, and I need you to be dressed for the part too. The picnic will be fun. We'll have games. We'll drag stuff out. But then we wanted to give enough time for those of you who would like to attend this service to get home, maybe take a nap, or do whatever you do on your Sunday afternoons. And then at 6 p.m., it's up in Glen Arden, Maryland, we will have the first of these services together. I don't know what to expect, but I do expect that God will move, and I expect the Holy Spirit to be present, and I expect some of our preconceived notions to be challenged. I expect transformation is always beckoning us, and I am deeply hopeful for what might come out of this. So put that on your calendar. This is May 31st, just right around the corner, and it is 6 p.m. that evening.Happy Mother's Day: A Childhood Binder and a Mom Who Saw All of YouToday is Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to the mothers and the spiritual mothers in the room. I was trying to think of what to say at this point, and what came to mind was a collection of photos that I found from my childhood that my mom had gathered together. It was one of those binders that back in the 1998 time frame when I graduated from high school, that people would put photos into and they'd put words about what was happening at that time. And my mom was way into this. And so she chronicled my whole childhood from zero to 18 and then presented me with this big binder. And now as a father of an 18-year-old, I think about that a little differently.And I think about what it means to be a dad, only because I can't think about what it means to be a mom, because I'm not one. But I know this much on the receiving end of it all. I had a wonderful mom who looked after me in ways that I don't think I'll ever be able to fully appreciate. She saw every last bit of me and who I was, and she was there every step of the way, even if I didn't realize it. And so for all the moms in the room, I am grateful. We are all grateful. And for those of us who have moms who are still alive, may we reach out to them today and give them the thanks that they deserve.Let's begin with some prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray a special prayer of blessing over the mothers in this room today. Lord, the kind of love that you call us into, that agape love, a self-giving kind of love, I can think of no better human example than what mothers do on a day-to-day basis for their children. And so, God, may we all aspire to that. We give you thanks for them, and we give you praise for that kind of love, and may we be drawn into being those kinds of people too. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.The Jesus Way Series: Vanity, the Seven Deadly Sins, and Today's Stop — Anger All right, we are — if you don't know — we are on a road together, a path, right? And this began a few weeks ago. Well, I mean, it kind of began a long time ago, but we're on this transformation kick. But then since Easter, we've been walking in these two ways. And I've been trying to show you that there is this narrow way, right? It's the way that Jesus is drawing us into. It's narrow because fewer people choose it. It's a little hard. There's more friction to it. It requires something of you to be on it. But it is the way to life and to fullness of life and to eternal life. And this is what Jesus is trying to get us to do. But then there is this other way. There's this broad way. It's bigger and wider, and it's much easier to find yourself on it. And it's marked by a number of things. And so two weeks ago, we talked about vanity as one of the markers of this way. And it's easy to just kind of slide into vanity. And then today, we're talking about the broad way again. And I want to talk about anger. And I know it's Mother's Day. So apologies ahead of time for this. I do want you to know there was a toss-up between this and gluttony. And so I put gluttony on Father's Day. So, you know, you can get ready for that too. And I'll say, all of the analogies are aimed at the men in the room today. So all the stories — you know, like I'm looking at guys here — women, you get the day off. So you're welcome. All right, so just clarify a couple things up front. I originally had the name wrath for this sermon, and I was afraid that it might draw up like the wrong image for you. But here's the truth of the matter. The word anger and the word wrath — actually, it's the same thing. The roots of these are the same, like the down deep parts of it. They're just two different words for the same thing. The goal of what I want to accomplish in this sermon today is to really lean into the middle section of this rotten tree that stands before you. We've already touched on vanity, the far left, and we'll get to each of these branches at some point over the weeks here. And then just to remind you, at the base of all of this is your pride and your ego. It's kind of the thing that is the last thing that will die in this earth, right? Because if you could just simply root that part out, then it would take care of the rest. But pride is much trickier than simply just plucking it out like a weed. It has roots that go much deeper than you or I can really frankly imagine. So today we're just focusing on the middle one. We're talking about wrath or anger. And I have thoroughly enjoyed this. Maybe I enjoy it too much. I'm realizing this right now as I said that. I have like a thousand things I want to tell you, and I will only tell you maybe ten of those. And so if you think to yourself, well, Pastor Eric, I wish you had talked about this — I probably could have and maybe should have. But I'm glad that you're leaning in and you're really digging into what you need to know about anger and wrath. Also, it's a pitch to come to Sunday morning Bible study where we do go deeper for a whole hour on this topic. The goal of the sermon is, with the theme of roads and ways and all, to take you on a tour — like a driving tour of your Bible — and the things that it has to say about anger. Think of it this way. We've got a few key destinations I'm trying to get us to. And then as we go to those destinations, there's like bathroom stops I want to point us at, or maybe just a couple things that you should have in your view as we head to these main stops. First Stop — Mark 3:1–6: Jesus Gets Angry in the Synagogue The first stop is the one we read already, which is Mark chapter 3. And so I'd encourage you, please, open your scriptures, open your Bibles to Mark chapter 3 as we dig into what Jesus demonstrates for us about anger. Mark 3:1 to 6. Again, he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, come over here. And then he said to the Pharisees, he said, is it lawful? Does the law permit? Does your Bible tell me that it's okay to do good or harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill it? He's asking them, how do you read your Bible? What's the right thing to do here? But they were silent.And then he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, stretch out your hand. And he said, I'm going to teach you how to read your Bible. And I'm going to teach you what it looks like to keep the Sabbath. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. And the Pharisees went out and they immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him how to destroy him.There are two angry parties here. Jesus gets angry and clearly the Pharisees do as well as they seek to destroy him by the end. There are just a few things that I want to point to in this passage that will become important. And the goal as we make these stops on this journey together is to maybe build up a case of the kinds of things we can say about anger based on what we find in our scriptures. The first would be simply that Jesus does get angry. And it's actually okay for you to be angry too sometimes — with a huge caveat around it. Because anger is actually one — it's the only sin on the list of the seven deadly sins — that it's okay to, we'll say, participate in when it's not a sin. The sin looks a whole lot like the not-sin. It's the only one that looks like this. Knowing how to distinguish between the sinful version of anger and the righteous version of anger, it takes wisdom and it takes maturity. I don't recommend it to the littlest ones among us. It's a little bit like holding a knife. Like, you want to teach someone how to do this and to train them well, or they're going to do what? They're going to cut someone, maybe themselves. And anger is much the same way. And we need to learn how to use it in a controlled manner.But Jesus does get angry. And then I'll say this about his anger. If you read closely, what is he angry at? It's actually remarkably precise here in Mark. He's angry at their hardness of heart. He's not precisely angry at them, just generally, as if Pharisees are awful people or something like this. No, he's angry at something specific. The object that he's directing his anger at is their hardness. There's something in them. And he says there's something really wrong with that. And it provokes some anger in him.The other thing I'd say is that his anger is connected to justice, which is what anger is always connected to, by the way. Usually — well, actually both in the righteous form and the unrighteous form. When something's gone wrong in the world, righteous anger says, something's wrong with the world, and I want to fix it. When anger is unrighteous, usually you're saying, something's wrong with my world, and I want to fix that. The last thing I'd say about this passage is maybe the most important of them all, which is that if you really look closely at verse 5 there, it says this: he looked around at them with anger, grieved. Two emotions are sitting together — anger and grief. Anger and grief. How does one have anger and grief sitting side by side? Well, the only way is if you manage to find empathy for the one you are angry with. It's when moms and dads say it — and I promise they mean it, kids — when they say, this is harder for me than for you. Well, they mostly mean it. I feel grief over having to discipline. I feel grief because I want your world to be right. And Jesus here is feeling grief for the Pharisees, saying, I wish your hearts were not so hard. I could teach you a better way. I could teach you a way to life.Thumos and Orge: Two Greek Words for Anger in the New TestamentAll right, let's keep going on our journey here. Actually, let me pause one more minute. This is a good opportunity to introduce two words that appear in our New Testament. Both of them are words for anger, and they are thumos and orge. It's a hard G. We're still talking about the sin of anger here. Thumos and orge.I want you to think about anger as a fire. This is the metaphor for anger often. And fire, much like a knife, is something that can do damage or it can do good. Thumos is the damaging kind. It flames up quickly. It's the road rage. It's somebody getting upset, right? And it's named specifically in Galatians 5:20 and Ephesians 4:31, if you want to look those up. Galatians 5:20 is right next to the fruit of the Spirit. You know the fruit of the Spirit? These are the ones we love to talk about. But there's the fruit of the flesh right before it. And in this fruit of the flesh is thumos. It's that anger that rages up, right? This is what we're trying to avoid.But the one next to it is orge. And orge — sometimes it is unrighteous anger, it's not always righteous — but it is a controlled anger. It has some measure of control around it, as I say, a controlled burn, right? There are times where if there's a fire in your fireplace, that's a great thing, and it's controlled. But if that fire jumps out of your fireplace and is uncontrolled and creeps up the walls, now we've got a different kind of problem. Our goal today is to learn how to keep that fire in the fireplace.Pit Stop — Genesis 4:3–7: Cain's Anger and the Sin Crouching at the Door All right, we'll move on. We need to take a quick pit stop, however, on this journey and look at Genesis chapter 4, verses 3 to 7. This is the famous story of Cain and Abel. You probably know what happens to Abel and then maybe to Cain. Cain murders his brother. But before he does, we read a little bit about how this gets set up.In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he did not And so what happens? Well, Cain was very angry, and here we see the burning starts, right? The fire begins to burn. And Cain's face fell, and the Lord said to Cain — the question you should be asking yourself this morning — which is, why are you angry? Why are you angry? When you get angry, why? What is under that for you? It's a very good question. And why has your face fallen? And then he says — God says to him — if you do well, won't you be accepted? And if you do not do well, and here's the key, "sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must master it."And what is the sin here? The sin is anger, and it's burning in him. And he says, you must master it, you must keep this in the fireplace. And if you don't keep this in the fireplace, it's going to destroy everything. We know exactly what happens. The sin that was crouching does what? It leaps out of that fireplace, and Cain kills his brother. And we have the first murder in all of Scripture.Murder is a terrible sin. It's actually not one of the deadly sins, is it? It's not one of the seven. Because underneath murder — and Jesus teaches us this in Matthew 5 — underneath murder sits the thing that's in our heart. We call that anger. Second Stop — Exodus 34:6–9: God Reveals His Nature as Slow to AngerAll right, the next stop on our tour is Exodus chapter 34, verses 6 to 9. I would encourage you, go ahead and pull your Bibles there now. Exodus 34:6–9. This is where Moses is up on the mount, Mount Sinai. He's getting the Ten Commandments. But in this very important scene, God reveals his nature to him. And he tells us, and he reports to us, what kind of God he is.And I'll say God is angry at times. God can have wrath. I do not deny this, and I don't want to even diminish this in any way. But I'd encourage you as we read through this to recognize a very important fact — that even for God, maybe especially for God, who is perfection and the thing that we are trying to strive for — God's wrath and anger flows from his love. Love is the primary, and out of that flows his anger. You might wonder, well, Eric, how in the world does that work? That doesn't seem obvious to me at all. But I would point us back to maybe Mother's Day or the fathers in the room. When you get angry as a parent, like in a good way, a good angry, when you see your child being hurt by somebody and that mama bear rage wells up — why? Because you want to protect your child. An injustice has happened or is about to happen and you want to protect them. God is not dissimilar. He knows what is good for us. He knows when the world is off kilter. He knows when you are off kilter. And he knows that when it is and when you are, that this is destructive to you. And he wants to save you from your destruction. And we call this anger. And it's him maybe punishing or reaching out and trying to fix the situation. And sometimes — and parents know this — the discipline requires something harsh.So it goes like this in verse 6. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed. And this is what the Lord is saying about himself. "The Lord, Yahweh" — and he says it twice, Yahweh, Yahweh — "I am a God who is merciful and gracious, and I'm slow to anger." And there it is, right? I'm not quick to anger. I am slow to anger. I am gracious. I'm merciful. I'm slow to anger. I abound in this. The word here is hesed. It's a steadfast love. It is a love that never quits. It is like a mother's love — like, you can do all kinds of things, but your mom is just going to love you throughout and throughout and throughout. And this is what God is saying of his very self, that he has this kind of hesed love, a steadfast love, of faithfulness. And he keeps steadfast love for thousands. And more than that, he's forgiving. And he forgives all the kinds of words for sin that appear in your Old Testament. Sometimes we call it iniquity, sometimes transgression, and sometimes sin. And he says, I'm willing to forgive all of these things. He then does go into the fact that he is a just God, and there needs to be justice. And so he says he doesn't clear the guilty just by virtue of wiping it away. And he, in fact — and this needs some explanation, and fortunately this is going to have to wait for another day — he visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children so that the third and the fourth generation, they sometimes feel the effects of the father's sin. I think you know this to be true just if you look through your family history and you think about your father and his father and his father and the ways in which their failures have a way of creeping through a family line. I think that's what God is teaching us here.And so Moses quickly bows his head toward the earth and he worshiped and he said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, oh Lord, please let this God — let you, God, the one who is merciful and slow to anger — that is the God we need in our midst. Because we're a stiff-necked people and we need you to pardon our iniquity."This is a remarkable passage in its historical context. There are lots of gods in the ancient world, if you don't know. There's a group that's praying to a God named Asherah at this point. And that God happens to be really good at fertility matters. Or there's the folks who are crying out to Baal. And Baal is one of these like really fickle gods who may get angry with you and then doesn't. And you never know who you're going to get with Baal. Or if you fast forward in time, you might get the God of Mars, who is the God of war. And that's the God you're going to meet in the pages of history.But this God, Yahweh, is unlike all the other gods. There is no other God named in history, certainly at this point, who describes himself in the ways that our God describes himself. This description literally changes the course of history. Because we should look to our God, to this God, and say to ourselves, thanks be to God that you are the God who is all of these things, and especially the God who is slow to anger.This passage is, again, as I said, one of the most important in all of the Old Testament, and we know this with certainty because — I've just got a couple here, Psalm 30 and Micah 7 — but you could do a Google search later on how many passages from the Bible as a whole, but especially our Old Testament, appeal to and quote from Exodus 34, and you'll be amazed. The Bible repeats this part of the Bible over and over and over again. Psalm 103, Nehemiah 9, Psalm 86, Joel 2 — or the next stop on our journey, Jonah chapter 4.Third Stop — Jonah 4: HOT Anger and Everything Jonah Gets WrongLet's turn there together. Jonah chapter 4. Jonah is a troubled prophet. I would encourage you, whatever you do, do not look to Jonah as an exemplar. He will let you down. Jonah is one of these — actually he's the only prophet who I can really say that about. The whole book is an upside-down prophet. He's not doing what he should be doing, and he's doing what he should not be doing, and we see this ever so clearly in chapter 4 here.We'll read it. For the sake of time, I'm not going to spend nearly as much time in it, but what we see is an angry prophet. Now, prophets are actually often angry. You should know this. The other prophets are too. They're just angry, typically in the righteous kind of way, because again, if justice is the name of the game for anger — the prophets are looking out and they're seeing injustice and unrighteousness everywhere. And they're shouting at their people, you got to fix this. And they're angry with them. And they say, the world's not right, and it should be. And you need to be doing something about it. Jonah is angry as well, much like the prophets. But he is, we'll say, more self-centered than he should be. And so it goes like this. If you don't know the story of Jonah, the lead up to this point is that he has taken his word of disaster to the Ninevites, and he has said, you need to repent. And they said, okay, we will. And they did. And then God relents, and he does not destroy them. And Jonah is not pleased with this. Chapter 4, starting in verse 1: "It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry." There you go. It's just kind of on the face of it. He's displeased. He's angry. What's he angry about? That God was the merciful God. He wanted the war God, the wrath God. He wanted Mars. He wanted Baal. But instead, he got Yahweh. And he prayed to the Lord. And he said, "Oh Yahweh, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish." If you don't know that part of the story, he didn't even want to go to Nineveh at all, and so he fled. And so he says, this is why I left. I didn't want to come here. And then he just says it outright. "I knew you were a gracious God. You were merciful. You are slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster." He said, this is why I didn't want to come. I was looking for Mars. I was looking for the God of war. I wanted you to come in and destroy this whole place. And I knew, I knew you wouldn't do it.Jonah's upset. Does he have a righteous anger? Let's all say it together. No. No, he doesn't. He's showing us all the wrong ways. And he goes on: "Therefore now, Lord, please take my life from me." Twice he's going to ask for this — "for it's better for me to die than to live." And then God asks him the same question, or a similar question to the one Cain gets, right? Do you do well to be angry? Again, the question maybe you're being asked right now. Do you do well to be angry? And Jonah went out of the city, and he sits east of the city, makes a booth for himself there. He sat under the shade till he should see what would become of the city. And the Lord God appointed a plant to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head to save him from the discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of this plant. But when dawn came the next day, God appoints a worm that attacks the plant and it withers. And when the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that again he might die and said, it is better for me to die than to live. And God asks another time, do you do well to be angry for the plant? And Jonah says, yes. Wrong answer, Jonah. But he says, yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. And the Lord said — and here's the convicting part — he says, you're angry about all the wrong things. Your anger is an unrighteous anger. You're targeting the wrong targets. You are not upset about what I get upset about. Your anger is self-serving. This is what he's saying when he says in verse 10: "You pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. But shouldn't I have pity on Nineveh, a great city in which there are more than 120,000 souls? Shouldn't I care about that? Shouldn't I have pity on those people? And shouldn't you too, Jonah?"And then the story ends very abruptly. It's kind of one of these where you feel like maybe there's a missing chapter somewhere and someday we'll uncover it. But for today, this is what we get.Diagnosing Your Anger: The HOT Framework — Wrong Heat, Wrong Object, Wrong TimingThere's a few things from this that I want to kind of put into your cap to maybe help you remember something about anger that will help you diagnose it later on. I'm calling this HOT — H-O-T — hot, Jonah's hot anger. So there's the wrong heat, which is to say the wrong heat level. He gets too angry about the wrong things. His anger is the wrong intensity — he gets so angry about this plant. But he's not angry about the right things with regard to the people. And then the wrong object, right? The wrong object of his anger. So he's angry not about what is just or unjust. He's instead angry at God. He's angry at God's mercy and ultimately at the loss of this plant. He's very interested in this plant. And then lastly, the timing of it all is wrong. He stays angry for too long and it burns for too long. He's still upset about leaving Tarshish. He brings that back up, right? That was sitting somewhere in his heart that he didn't even want to go at all. And so he's mad at God for taking him out of Tarshish and his own land and heading over to Nineveh. And he's holding this grudge.But all of this speaks something to your anger and my anger, which is sometimes our anger is too hot for the situation. And when the kid spills the milk at the table and you blow up — is that the right heat level? No. No, it's not. The object of our anger — maybe you do blow up at the table, Dad. And you get angry with the kid in that moment. But that's not even the object of your anger. You're angry from work earlier that day where your boss said something to you that you didn't like. And now you're upset generally speaking, and then when the kid spills the milk, you yell at him. That is not the object of your anger. Don't take it out on him. Or the timing of it all — maybe you've been holding this grudge for years, and you've just been gathering it over time. This is why we need to forgive, and we need to reduce our resentments. And if we are going to walk this Jesus way, the way that leads to life, it is going to require some wisdom around all three of these things. Final Stop — Matthew 5:21–22: Jesus on Anger, Murder, and What's Sitting in Your HeartAll right, one more stop on the way. This one's Matthew 5:21 and 22. This is Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. This is perhaps the passage maybe I should have preached from, so I am. "You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry" — and there Jesus is just calling it out for us, even if you've got anger in your heart — "will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire."There's a lot in this passage. A lot can be said, so I'll just keep it simple. If anger is sitting at the root of this and it's sitting in our hearts, there are any number of fruit that can come out of that anger. Sometimes it's murder. I hope that's not the case for any of us. But sometimes it's just calling someone, you fool, you idiot. Or maybe it's just the rolling of your eyes at that person you think is an idiot. Or maybe it's you online. Maybe it's what you're saying in the comment box, right? To say, you don't know what you're talking about. And it's a self-righteous kind of anger. And it sits there and it burns.And here's what I'd say about all this. There is a destruction that is happening. Jesus calls this the way of destruction for a reason. Because you are aiming at God, believe it or not, when your anger is unrighteous. Because you are saying, the world is not as it should be, and I don't trust God to fix it. So I am going to fix it myself. And then the damage you're doing is all around you too. This one's a little more obvious — if you walk through the world and you're an angry person, constantly throwing barbs at other people, you are affecting them. You are changing the climate of the room when you just simply walk into it. But then also, what may be missed is that you — you are destroying yourself from the inside out.And it may actually feel good to be angry. I learned this. I didn't realize. I am a non-confrontational person by nature. I don't like conflict. But I have learned over the years some people love conflict. They actually like the fight. To them, it feels good. It feels like you're alive. But what's happening in that situation, and really any situation where anger is burning within you, is that from the inside out, you are being hollowed out. Three Antidotes to Anger: Soft Answers, Lament, and HopeThere are some antidotes to anger, and I will keep these brief, and three. One, Proverbs 15:1 tells us that a soft answer turns away wrath. Jesus teaches us the gentle way, the gentleness, gentle startups. This is always the first step forward. Anger might come way down the road, right? But you need to be slow to it. Number two, lament. Learn to grieve like Jesus grieves in Mark 3. Learn to grieve even alongside your anger. And I would encourage us mere mortals — unlike Jesus, us mere mortals — we should probably start with grief and allow the anger to follow, because it's going to be a much more trustworthy form of anger if we do. And the last thing is hope. Hope. You see, the angry person, as they rage at God — Jonah, as he rages at God — ultimately is saying, I don't trust you, God. I don't trust your way to be the right way. But we need to be people of hope and people of faith who trust that even though it seems like the world is all cattywampus — and it is, like it's all upside down — we hope and we trust that the God of the universe is fixing all the things. And we play our part. And we live as people who expect the unrighteous to receive their due reward and for the wrongs to be made right again. And that we only have control over ourselves and our hearts. And so we better take control of them, lest that fire jump out of the fireplace and begin to burn the house down all around us. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, you are a passionate God. We are to be passionate people. And some of the angriest among us can show us something about what it means to have passion. But God, it can be dangerous to hold that fire. And so, Lord, we ask for your wisdom. We ask for people who will gather around us and be honest with us about the nature of our anger — whether it's the slow-burning anger that leaps out of the fireplace eventually, or whether it's the kind that just flares up all the time. God, you are teaching us a better way, a narrow way, a way that leads to life. May we walk with you down that. Lord, we pray this in your holy name. Amen.‍ ‍South Run Baptist Church | 8712 Selger Drive, Springfield, VA 22153 | Sunday Worship at 11am Serving Springfield, Burke, West Springfield, Lorton, Alexandria, Fort Belvoir, and Franconia, Virginia. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Question: What are we specially taught by these words, "before me" in the First Commandment? Answer: These words "before me" in the First Commandment, teach us, That God who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other God. Study Reformed theology with a free resource bundle from Ligonier Ministries: https://grow.ligonier.org/ A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Donate: https://gift.ligonier.org/1267/westminster If this podcast has been a blessing to you, try these other podcasts from Ligonier: Renewing Your Mind: https://renewingyourmind.org/ 5 Minutes in Church History: https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/ Ask Ligonier: https://ask.ligonier.org/podcast Open Book: https://openbookpodcast.com/ Simply Put: https://simplyputpodcast.com/

That God is not distant, but our shepherd, is a huge gift that we don't take advantage of. Let us use our intelligence to realize that we should be smarter than sheep and follow our shepherd.

You and I aren't neutral towards God …We are either worshipping Him or rebelling against Him. That's the honest truth that Paul preaches to those in Athens in Acts 17:16–34. Athens, as we know, was as the intellectual capital of the world… thinkers, philosophers, culture-shapers everywhere. And when Paul arrived into this city, he:1) studies the culture.2) understands the people.3) And then drops truth right in the middle of it.Preaching:

James Brumwell shares a message on how we are all called to be a part of what God is doing in our local community and beyond. That God uses our small offerings and multiplies them for his glory.

In this message, we continue our Romans part II series by studying Romans 9, and learning about God's sovereignty in salvation. God is sovereign in the process of salvation, and He invites us to be part of the process. First, we must have an active burden for the lost; for those who don't know Christ. We can grow in our burden for the lost by praying for them, and by preparing ourselves to help them grow their faith. Second, we must have the knowledge of these truths about salvation: 1. That God initiates salvation (vs. 9-13). 2. God gives mercy (vs. 14-18). 3. God does everything for His glory (vs. 19-24). 4. God gives salvation (vs. 25-33). Sometimes it can be hard to see these truths because of our own arrogance, but we study the Word of God so that we can think rightly about the ways of God. You have been chosen and saved by God Almighty, and we can respond to these truths by simply coming to Christ. Each week, Paradigm sermons are posted on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts!

Youth Pastor Cason Brownell continues our series on Jeremiah.We're all surrounded by voices telling us we're fine. That everything's going to work out. That God isn't really that concerned with what we're doing. Smooth words. Easy promises of peace when there is no peace.Jeremiah saw it. The false prophets were telling people exactly what they wanted to hear. And it was destroying them. But this message isn't just about ancient Judah. It's about the voices we listen to today. The ones in our feeds, in our circles, and maybe even in our own heads.But right in the middle of all that noise, God makes a promise of a better Shepherd, a real peace, and a righteousness we could never earn.This isn't just about false prophets. It's about all of us. The quiet compromises we make, and the invitation to come back.Thank you for listening to this message from Northwest Hills Community Church in Corvallis, Oregon, on April 12, 2026, at 9:30am. You can find us online at ⁠nwhills.com⁠.Key Moments(00:00) Welcome(01:08) Message: False Peace, People-Pleasing, and the Promise of the Righteous Branch(04:13) A Nation That Forgot Who It Belonged To(07:09) When Leaders Say "Peace" But There Is No Peace(10:44) The Same Problem, A Different Century(15:30) The Cost of Playing It Safe(20:15) Faithful Over Liked(25:49) God's Promise in the Middle of the Mess(29:57) Stop Reporting From Outside the Locker Room

So, what motivates us to speak up, while the culture is trying to silence our voice? What enables us to push past our fear of offending someone to let them know what Jesus has done for us?  There is only one answer: it is our love for Jesus. We speak up because we love Jesus.Main Points:1. It's as simple as this: If we love Jesus, we will obey his command to make disciples. If we love Jesus, we will look for opportunities to tell others of His saving grace. We should not feel afraid or intimidated. We have been given the Holy Spirit for this very purpose, to empower us to be a witness.2. And remember, the gospel is good news. The truth that Jesus died for our sins and rose again is good news. That God would offer us grace, mercy, and forgiveness is good news. The promise of eternal life is good news. Why would we keep this good news from anyone?3. Our love for Jesus, must overcome our fear of offending people. Why do we assume they will be offended anyway? We don't know, but perhaps the Holy Spirit has been working in their heart and they are perfectly ready to hear the good news about Jesus. Today's Scripture Verses:Romans 10:14 - “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”2 Corinthians 5:14-15 - “For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”John 14:23 - “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.”1 Peter 3:15 - “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”Quick Links:Donate to support this podcastLeave a review on Apple PodcastsGet a copy of The 5 Minute Discipleship JournalConnect on SocialJoin The 5 Minute Discipleship Facebook Group

The Bible tells us (Ephesians Chapter 1) That God has already made His incredible great power, His resurrection power, available to each and every person who believes in Jesus. So today, were going to take a look at what happens, when we lay hold of that power. Join Berni, as he takes a look at the power that God has already given you, from a different perspective. Support the show: https://christianityworks.com/channels/adp/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are back in the book of Philippians, chapter 1. Aswe study through these verses, we are trusting that God will encourage you andhelp you learn how to have that joy that never goes away—that joy that Jesussaid, “I give unto you.” His very joy that we can enjoy every day. Butthere are some things we need to know and some things we need to practicebefore we can say Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christwhich strengthens me.” Often, I have heard people quote that verse, andthen when they face tough situations, they wonder why they can't do all thingsthrough Christ. “I am struggling. I am ready to quit.” And some of them dothrow in the towel. Why is that? It is because they do not practice Philippianschapters 1, 2, and 3. When you practice those three chapters, then you can alsosay with confidence, “My God shall supply all my needs according to Hisriches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Weare looking at some things we need to know and practice if we are going to havethat life of joy and complete what God has begun in our hearts and lives. Todaywe are looking at verse 6. Verse 6 is my life's verse. I heard Dr. JerryFalwell say, in my very first weeks at Liberty University—back then LynchburgBaptist College—that his life verse was Philippians 1:6. He used that verse,his life verse, whenever he signed his name in a Bible for someone. When he signedmy Bible for me, he wrote Philippians 1:6 under it. I thought, “Goodness, thatis good enough for him, that is good enough for me.” I am so glad I wasencouraged to take that verse as a life verse. For these past 55 years thisverse has given me encouragement to “keep on, keeping on”, despite mycircumstances or challenges that might be greatly discouraging me and making mewant to quit! Bythe way, my life chapter is 2 Corinthians 4, just in case you are wondering.You can read that, and maybe we will look at it one day. But today, Philippians1:6. Our thought is this: God finishes what He starts. This has to beone of the most encouraging verses in all of Scripture. Let us read it again: “Beingconfident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you willcomplete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” What a great promise. NowPaul has just talked, in verses 3, 4, and 5, about praying for them andremembering them with great joy. He spoke of their fellowship—their partnershipin the gospel—from the first day he met them until now. It was somethingcontinuous, something still ongoing. Then he says, “being confident”—nothoping, not wishing, but absolutely certain of this truth. And what is thattruth? That God always finishes what He starts. Oneof the verses I love to go back to in the Old Testament is Psalm 138:8. Itsays, “The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD,endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands”. God will perfectthat which concerns me. Now think about how this applies personally. When youtrusted Christ, God began a work in your life. It was not your idea—it was His.It was not your power—it was His grace. This is the good news. God does notabandon His work halfway through. We start projects and leave them unfinished.I am ashamed of how many times that has been true in my own life. We makecommitments, and sometimes we follow through—but sometimes we do not. But,my friend, God is not like us. The God who began a work in us will continuethat work. Even when you do not feel like you are growing, even when you arestruggling, even when you feel like you have taken five steps backward and arenot getting anywhere in your Christian life—God is still at work. You see, myfriend, your spiritual growth is not based on your perfection. It is based onGod's faithfulness. I once heard a great preacher this statement: “Don'tdespair. But if you do despair, work on in despair.” Why? Not because you feellike it, but because God is faithful, and He always will be faithful.

Welcome to The Daily, where we study the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, every day. Our shout-out today goes to Jacob Salaba from Farmington, MN. Thanks for your partnership in Project23. We cannot do this without donors like you. Our text today is 1 Corinthians 10:10-11. ...nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. — 1 Corinthians 10:10-11 Grumbling isn't harmless. It's rebellion with a religious tone. Israel didn't grumble because God was absent. They grumbled because God wasn't doing things their way. They had been rescued from slavery. Sustained in the wilderness. Led by God's presence. And still, their mouths turned against the very God who saved them. Grumbling is what entitlement sounds like when it's disappointed. It assumes God owes us. Comfort. Speed. Clarity. Ease. And when he doesn't deliver on our timeline, complaint fills the gap. Paul doesn't soften this. He says some of them were "destroyed by the Destroyer." That language is meant to get our attention. Grumbling wasn't treated as venting. It was treated as defiance. Why? Because complaining doesn't just express frustration—it questions God's leadership. It implies that we know better. That God has mismanaged our lives. That his plan needs revision. Grumbling is a form of spiritual forgetfulness. It forgets where God has brought us from. It minimizes grace already extended. And it magnifies discomfort so obedience becomes unreasonable. Paul reminds the church that these things were written down for us—especially for those living with greater awareness and access to truth. Spiritual maturity is revealed by how we trust when life is hard. Grumbling may feel justified. But it corrodes faith, poisons community, and hardens the heart. Rebellion doesn't always raise a fist. Sometimes, it just grumbles. So stop grumbling verbal or not. DO THIS: Pay attention to your words this week. Notice where complaint is replacing trust. Confess grumbling quickly and replace it with gratitude. ASK THIS: Where have I been vocal about frustration instead of faithful in trust? What circumstances am I quietly accusing God over? How can gratitude reshape my response to hardship? PRAY THIS: Lord, guard my mouth and my heart. Forgive me for the ways I've complained instead of trusted. Teach me to respond to difficulty with faith, gratitude, and obedience. Amen. PLAY THIS: "Blessed Be Your Name"

Welcome to The Daily, where we study the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, every day. Our shout-out today goes to Bill Shine from Surprise, AZ. Thanks for your partnership in Project23. We cannot do this without donors like you. Our text today is 1 Corinthians 10:8-9. We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents — 1 Corinthians 10:8-9 At some point, "spiritual freedom" stops asking the right question. It pushes too far. Instead of asking, "Does this honor God?" the question quietly shifts to something far more dangerous: "How far can I go?" That question assumes grace is elastic. That God's patience can be stretched without consequence. Paul says otherwise. Israel didn't fall because they lacked God's grace. They fell because they tested God's grace. They crossed lines assuming protection would follow. They treated God's mercy like a buffer instead of a boundary. And Scripture records the result without softening it—judgment came swiftly. The "twenty-three thousand" Paul mentions are not some abstract statistic. They were Israelites who fell in the wilderness after giving themselves to sexual immorality and idolatry with the Moabites (Numbers 25). What began as indulgence quickly became defiance, and God's judgment followed. Paul mentions that number to make the warning concrete—not theoretical. Paul reminds the church at Corinth that Israel took deliberate steps in assuming that God would tolerate what he had already warned against. Grace was never meant to be abused. But our presumptions push against it. Testing God is not courageous. It's selfishness and desire for control. It's deciding how close you can get to the edge without falling—and calling it freedom. Grace is not a boundary to be tested. God's patience is real, but it is not permission. His mercy is deep, but it is not indifferent. Love does not indulge in anything that destroys us. Paul is trying to sober the church up. Because redeemed people can still drift from trust to entitlement. And entitlement always leads to consequences. Grace saves. Grace warns. Grace disciplines. Grace is not entitlement. DO THIS: Identify one area where you may be pushing boundaries instead of trusting obedience. Stop asking how far you can go—and start asking what faithfulness looks like. ASK THIS: Where have I treated God's patience as permission? What lines might I be inching toward instead of stepping away from? How can trust replace testing in my obedience? PRAY THIS: Lord, forgive me for testing what you have already made clear. Teach me to trust your word without pushing against it. Let grace lead me to reverence, not entitlement. Amen. PLAY THIS: "O Come to the Altar"

So who actually killed Jesus. Many would say that He was killed to satisfy God's demand for justice. That God need the death of His Son to enable Him to forgive mankind. As a result we have been taught that in essence God killed Jesus. However, what is the Biblical evidence? We will continue in this series and look at the Epistles and see what they say as to why Jesus died. We take a close look at what it means to come and give his life as a ransom. To whom is that ransom paid. Come and join us on this engaging dialogue. The PDF document is available at www.rediscoveringgod.ca#Ian Hartley#Warren Kat#Sascha Steenbergen#Rediscovering God

"God is, God Will"Today Pastor Brad Teaches from Micah 7:8-20In our final Micah sermon, Pastor Brad details the final teaching that Micah gives in order to survive any disparaging storm, trial, or tribulation. That God is, and that God always will be our salvation. YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/MIxXxLvJB_YThank you for joining us today! Please connect with us by filling out a communication card here: www.lakewoodlcop.com/connectPlease access the bulletin to view all the announcements please check out the bulletin here: www.lakewoodlcop.com/resources

Sometimes, when life looks dangerous and dark – we need a place of refuge. Fortunately, as things turn out, God's Word talks an awful lot about the refuge He has for us.   God's Refuge I want you to imagine that you are out one night, walking along a dark and lonely street and all of a sudden you see some drunk and unruly men coming towards you. They are swearing and they look to be wielding knives. You take a quick look around and there is not another soul in this street and just then, you see a house to your left – you look in the window and you see a family sitting down to dinner. What do you do? Well, I know what I'd be doing – I'd duck in and knock on that front door and as quickly as I could, I'd ask if I could step inside until those men disappeared. Wouldn't you do that too? Now there is a name for that – it's called "seeking refuge". It's not a sign of weakness; it's doesn't mean that somehow we are a loser. It just means that in that dark and dangerous place, we need to be somewhere safe; we need a refuge. The problem is that in this world, when we are going through difficult times; dark times, so often there doesn't seem to be a refuge to be found. "Refuge" is a word that appears over and over and over again in the Bible. In fact, just in the Psalms it is used forty eight times and forty six of those times, the refuge that God is talking about is God Himself. Have a listen to just a few of those in Psalm 36, verse 7. It says: How priceless is Your unfailing love, God. Both the high and the low among men find refuge in the shadow of Your wings. Psalm 62, verses 7 and 8: My salvation and my honour depend on God. He is my mighty rock and my refuge. Trust in Him at all times, people – pour out your hearts to Him for God is our refuge. And Psalm 119, verse 114: You are my refuge and my shield. I have put my hope in Your Word. I'd like to spend a bit of time today looking at this idea of "refuge" because when we are going through those tough times; those dark and dangerous parts of our lives, a refuge is exactly what we need. Over these last few weeks we have been working our way through a series that I've called "Dark Night, Bright Light". And it's been based of a Psalm written by King David; Psalm 34. It's a Psalm that David writes with the wisdom of hindsight because he's been in lots and lots of dark and dangerous places through his life. And in this Psalm he praises God because what he has discovered is that, at the end of all those dark times, God delivered him. God came through no matter how grim or how dark or how dangerous it appeared at the time. That's great stuff! And if you have some time, I really encourage you to get aside and have a good read of Psalm 34 and just discover for yourself the things that David learned in those dark times. But it is one thing for David to tell you and me what happened in his experience – "WOW!" says David, "I discovered that God delivered me every time." And it's so easy for you and me to respond, "Well, that's fine for you, Davo, that's brilliant – glad that God came through for you but right now, I'm out here in that dark place and I'm petrified. The fact that God showed up for you doesn't help me much right now." And that would be a pretty natural human response. When we send out an SOS to God, it may well be that God will come through sometime but what about the meantime? Well, have a listen to the end of this Psalm of David's – Psalm 34, we are going to look at verses 19 to 22 because in the very last verse of this Psalm, God answers that question. Let's pick it up at verse 19 – if you have a Bible please go and grab it; let's do this together. Psalm 34, verse 19: Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers us from them all. He protects all our bones; not one of them will be broken. Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems His servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in Him. There it is, that word "refuge" – it means to flee to Him for protection. Now we understand that in a physical sense – that's what we started the programme off with today; that little story and that makes sense. But when something in life is scary; when we have been diagnosed with cancer or our finances have fallen in a heap or our marriage is falling apart or one of our kids is on drugs, what does it mean to take refuge in God then? Good question because here's what happens when we take refuge – we feel safe. The fear is gone – that's the point of refuge. Along the journey, through a dark place in life we want to know that we are safe. And that story that I just shared with you at the beginning of the programme – you know, you are walking along that dark street and you see these drunken youths with knives coming at you and you duck into a house and you knock on the door and you seek refuge and you go in through that front door with the family – the whole point of that is, once you do that and you go through that door and that door is closed, you feel safe. The way that God best explains this, through any part of the Bible, is through a passage that I come back to again and again and again and again. The Apostle Paul wrote this about a thousand years after King David wrote Psalm 34. Paul is locked away in a Roman dungeon on death row and he writes these words in Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7: Don't be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, put your request to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard you hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Don't be anxious about anything. What man by worrying or what woman by worrying can add one hour to the length of their lives. Don't be anxious about anything. Take it to God, put your trust in God, pour your heart out to Him – in fact that's the other meaning of that word "refuge". To put your trust in someone or something; to rely on them; to resort to them – out there in a dark place, put my trust in God. Just go to Him, pour it out in front of Him and then He does something; He fills us with peace. Don't be anxious about anything but take your prayers to God, present your request to Him and the peace of God which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. See, when it's dark and dangerous, God's peace doesn't make sense, but when we take things to Him; when we take our concerns and our fears to Him; when we present our requests to God; when we put our trust in Him, that's taking refuge in Him. And His peace defies any human reckoning or logic – the only way I can describe it – because I have been in that dark place, time and time and time again – is it's like a light. Darkness is scary – God comes in and shines His bright light; the light that you just know is Him and the darkness isn't scary any more. You just know He will deliver us – Dark night, bright light.   A Just God If you were able to join us last week on the programme, you may recall that we talked about the afflictions of the righteous – the fact that so often bad things happen to good people. A lot of the times it seems unfair – sometimes evil appears to triumph in this world. Sometimes someone who lies and cheats and stabs people in the back seems to be the centre of attention; they get all the applause and the promotions and the accolades. And maybe we are just living our lives, quietly, day by day for the Lord and we miss out or we are the victims of injustice and not only is there pain to deal with in all of that, but there is the injustice of it all. We have this built in sense of justice and when we are at the receiving end of injustice – WOW that really gets us. Now, obviously, King David had been through that. It is something he writes a lot about in the Psalms and in particular, in this Psalm. Have a listen again – in Psalm 34, verse 19: Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers us from them all. He protects all our bones, not one of them will be broken. Evil will slay the wicked and the foes of the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems His servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in Him. I particularly want to focus, just for a moment, on verse 21. Let's have another read: Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned. You know what that tells me? That God is a just God – He sees everything that goes on; every act, good or bad and in this world there are wicked people. Sometimes what they do shrouds us in darkness. Africa is a continent that is very much on my heart – almost a billion people, many living in the poorest of conditions; many starving. And then you see the wicked profiting from their misery or fighting for power or wealth with wars and riots and innocent people being killed and food and aid being stolen and misappropriated. I know that there are so many people today, listening to this programme right across Africa and you've seen atrocities; you've seen greed; you've seen riots; you've seen people being exploited in the most horrible ways and this guy from Australia has the hide to get on the radio and talk about a God of love and a God of justice. For much of my life I ignored God; I was against Him and not for Him. The Bible is full of this word "wicked" – when I look back and describe myself as wicked – yea, probably – I was selfish; I was self seeking and you know, as I look back on that, God didn't stop me once from doing what was wrong. He never bound my hands or struck my down or held me back because He gave me a free will. And often my wickedness; my wrongs hurt other people. But again God didn't stop me, not once – He let me decide for myself to be for Him or against Him. He never slew me and that's the reality of this world. God gives us a free choice – that's why there are wars; that's why there are riots; that's why there are over twenty million slaves still in the world today; that's why there are millions of refugees in this world because God gives us a free choice. And, yes, sometimes the wicked will appear to triumph but a day of reckoning is coming – a day is coming where the wicked will have to give an account and the Lord will deal with them. God is a God of justice - David writes about that in Psalm 11, verse 6. If you have a Bible, grab it and open it there; Psalm 11, verse 6. He puts it like this: On the wicked He will rain fiery coals and burning sulphur; a scorching wind will be their lot. For the Lord is righteous; He loves justice; upright men will see His face. It is such a hard thing to come to grips with but one of the things that you and I need to know is that when we are on the receiving end of wickedness, He is our refuge. See, we don't always see justice prevail on this earth. Did you know that in the twentieth century, more Christians were killed or martyred for their faith than in the previous nineteen centuries since Christ was on this earth all put together? That's a fact! And no matter what situation we are in, how dark or how dire; how unfair or how many wicked people surround us, sometimes to hurt us and pull us down, David learned this: Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned but the Lord redeems His servants. No one will be condemned who takes refuge in Him. Now you may well say to me, "Berni, how does that help me here and now?" And my answer is this: We who place our trust in Jesus Christ; we have a certain hope for the future. The decision to save us from the wicked today, tomorrow, next week, next month is entirely God's decision – His will; His purposes. Jesus wasn't saved from the wicked! He was obedient to God and allowed Himself to be nailed to that cross. He died, He suffered but He rose again and then ... then He was delivered; then He had victory. You see, Jesus went to God in that Garden of Gethsemane and said: Lord, if there is any way You can take this suffering away from Me, do it! But not My will, let Your will be done. It's the same for you and me. Sometimes God chooses to give us that victory – today, tomorrow, next week, maybe in our lifetime – other days we will have to wait until we stand before Him to see the justice. But then … then we will have victory for all eternity and that is a very long time.   The Weaver As we come towards the end of our time together today, I want to share a poem – it's a really special poem that perhaps you have heard before – it's a wonderful poem that I carry around in my head and my heart. I don't know who wrote it; it's fairly old – it's called 'The Weaver.' Just have a listen: My life is but a weaving between my Lord and me I cannot choose the colours as He weaveth steadily Sometimes He chooses dark threads and I in foolish pride Forget He sees the upper and I, the underside. Not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly Shall God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why The dark threads were as needful in the weaver's skilful hand As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He hath planned. Isn't it so true that when we are in the trenches of life, it can be so hard to get a handle on God's bigger purposes and even though He will reveal some of it along the way, much of it we won't know until that day that we stand before Him in glory. Truly, I look at some of the things I have gone through in my life and you know when you are going through them, they hurt so much, it's so hard to see that God has a bigger picture and a bigger plan. And even afterwards, you look back on some of them and think, "Well, why hasn't God fixed that? Why hasn't He gone back and addressed that? Why did I have to go through that?" You know the sort of stuff I'm talking about – we all have those but God doesn't always explain Himself. Job is an amazing Book. Job was a wonderful and righteous man of God. This is a book in the Old Testament; comes just before the Book of Psalms. It's the story of how the devil goes to God and says, "Look at this Job – you have pampered him all his life. What if he starts to lose everything, he won't honour you then" and God said this to the devil "Well, go for it". And the devil takes away Job's possessions, takes away his health, takes away his family, takes away his friends, takes away everything. God lets the devil rob him of the lot, even though he was such a righteous man. And Job went through so much pain and so much suffering over the years and over and over he asks God "Why? Why did you let this happen to me? I'm a righteous man; I have lived my life just for you; I couldn't have done any better." And God's basic response – and you can read the whole thing in Job chapter 38 and onwards – God says, "Well, Job, you are not God. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Where were you when I made the stars or the land or the ocean?" In other words God's saying, "Job, I'm the sovereign God and I'm not going to tell you. My ways aren't your ways and My thoughts are so much higher than your thoughts." God says to Job, "I don't have to explain Myself to you" and so often that's the way. Things happen to us and we just have to humble ourselves and say, "You know something, God? I don't know why – I don't know why You are letting me go through this but I'm just going to trust You." And that's what Job did – Job remained faithful to God all through his years of suffering. And let me now read you just the last few verses of the Book of Job – this is how the story ends – Job chapter 42, beginning at verse 10: After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted him and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys and he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemima, the second he named Keziah and the third Kerenhappuch. Nowhere in all the land were found women as beautiful as Job's daughters and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this Job lived a hundred and forty years – he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation and so he died, old and full of years. In other words, Job went through some really dark times and Job's dark times lasted a long time. And at the end, after Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and He gave him twice as much as he had before. Job was given by God double for his trouble, as it were. See, sometimes God does that. Sometimes we see things turn around in our lifetime on this earth and we go through dark times and they only last for a short while and God turns them around and we look back and say, "You know, God, I wouldn't go through that again for anything and I would wish that time on my worst enemy, but thank You so much for delivering me." But other times … other times, we will have to wait until we stand in glory before God. The question is this, when we come right down to it – are we prepared to stand completely alone on this earth for Christ sake; to honour Him; to humble ourselves before Him? Because God is looking for those sorts of people – people prepared to take up their cross to follow Him. Jesus promised that we would have tribulation – He promised dark times and He is looking for people who will just trust in His light in those dark times. And those people, He will shine His bright light into their dark places; He will take their fear away with His perfect love; He will comfort them and hold them and protect them – those who would be prepared to lose their lives in order to gain them. Because unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a single seed but if it dies, it produces many seeds and if we love our life we will lose it but those who are prepared to lose their lives in this world, will keep them for eternal life. "Whoever serves Me," said Jesus, "must follow Me and where I am, there My servant will be too and My Father will honour the one who serves Me." That's the promise of God – to follow Jesus means to suffer like Him. But the promise of God is that He will honour us. Whoever serves Me must follow Me and where I am, there my servant will also be and My Father will honour the one who serves Me. God will honour us; He will make His face to shine upon us; He will be our bright light amidst the darkest night.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “There is a price to pay for speaking the truth. There is a bigger price for living a lie.”~Cornel West, philosopher, theologian and activist “Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”~Mark Twain (1835-1910), from his 1897 travelogue Following the Equator “Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about ‘man's search for God.' To me, as I then was, they might as well have talked about the mouse's search for the cat.”~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), writer, professor, and literary scholar “The Bible is the perpetual motion of the spirit, an ocean of meaning, its waves beating against man's abrupt and steep shortcomings, its echo reaching into the blind alleys of his wrestling with despair.”~Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), Polish-born rabbi-theologian in God in Search of Man “The pharisee within usurps my true self whenever I prefer appearances to reality, whenever I am afraid of God, whenever I surrender the control of my soul to rules rather than risk living in union with Jesus, when I choose to look good and not be good, when I prefer appearances to reality.”~Brennan Manning (1934-2013), author and former priest “There is a vast difference between self-conviction and Holy Spirit-conviction. When God convicts, He gets specific with us about our sin… He uses specific Scriptures. And His kindness toward us leads to a hopeful conclusion of repentance and dependence. Self-conviction, and the conviction of the enemy, on the other hand, is wide-ranging, condemning, and defeatist. It leads back to self: ‘Try harder and do better' … It will lead us right back where we started – awash in guilt and condemnation.”~Christine Hoover, author and speaker “If Jesus is a wonderful Savior in every way except where we are the most hypocritical, then He is no Savior for us.”~Ray Ortlund, author and minister “God's righteousness compels him... to have to judge the guilty. But then he offers forgiveness and says ‘I will not judge you according to your works.' So... he sends his Son... so that now when he calls you his own... he has not compromised his righteousness.”~Jackie Hill Perry, poet, writer, and hip-hop artistSERMON PASSAGERomans 3:1-9 (ESV)Romans 2 17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” 25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. 28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.Romans 3 1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3 What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words,        and prevail when you are judged.” 5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7 But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just. 9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin….

This is a message of good news. That God the Father has chosen us to be his children. And as His children, we have hope. Hope that we are conforming into the image of Jesus Christ!1 John 3: 1-3

Question: What do we pray for in the sixth petition? Answer: In the sixth petition, which is, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," we pray, That God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted. Study Reformed theology with a free resource bundle from Ligonier Ministries: https://grow.ligonier.org/ A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Donate: https://gift.ligonier.org/1267/westminster If this podcast has been a blessing to you, try these other podcasts from Ligonier: Renewing Your Mind: https://renewingyourmind.org/ 5 Minutes in Church History: https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/ Ask Ligonier: https://ask.ligonier.org/podcast Open Book: https://openbookpodcast.com/ Simply Put: https://simplyputpodcast.com/

Question: What do we pray for in the fifth petition? Answer: In the fifth petition, which is, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," we pray, That God, for Christ's sake, would freely pardon all our sins; which we are able to be rather encouraged to ask, because by his grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others. Study Reformed theology with a free resource bundle from Ligonier Ministries: https://grow.ligonier.org/ A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Donate: https://gift.ligonier.org/1267/westminster If this podcast has been a blessing to you, try these other podcasts from Ligonier: Renewing Your Mind: https://renewingyourmind.org/ 5 Minutes in Church History: https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/ Ask Ligonier: https://ask.ligonier.org/podcast Open Book: https://openbookpodcast.com/ Simply Put: https://simplyputpodcast.com/

Question: What do we pray for in the third petition? Answer: In the third petition, which is, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven," we pray, That God, by his grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey, and submit to his will in all things, as the angels do in heaven. Study Reformed theology with a free resource bundle from Ligonier Ministries: https://grow.ligonier.org/ A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Donate: https://gift.ligonier.org/1267/westminster If this podcast has been a blessing to you, try these other podcasts from Ligonier: Renewing Your Mind: https://renewingyourmind.org/ 5 Minutes in Church History: https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/ Ask Ligonier: https://ask.ligonier.org/podcast Open Book: https://openbookpodcast.com/ Simply Put: https://simplyputpodcast.com/

Question: What do we pray for in the first petition? Answer: In the first petition, which is, "Hallowed be thy name," we pray, That God would enable us and others to glorify him in all that whereby he maketh himself known; and that he would dispose all things to his own glory. Study Reformed theology with a free resource bundle from Ligonier Ministries: https://grow.ligonier.org/ A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Donate: https://gift.ligonier.org/1267/westminster If this podcast has been a blessing to you, try these other podcasts from Ligonier: Renewing Your Mind: https://renewingyourmind.org/ 5 Minutes in Church History: https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/ Ask Ligonier: https://ask.ligonier.org/podcast Open Book: https://openbookpodcast.com/ Simply Put: https://simplyputpodcast.com/

A sermon preached by Rev. Wanda Bynum-Duckett with Foundry UMC January 18, 2026. “Piece Us Together” series.   Isaiah 61: 1-8 [a]The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,     because the Lord has anointed me; He has sent me to bring good news to the afflicted,     to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives,     release to the prisoners, 2 To announce a year of favor from the Lord     and a day of vindication by our God; To comfort all who mourn; 3     to place on those who mourn in Zion     a diadem instead of ashes, To give them oil of gladness instead of mourning,     a glorious mantle instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of justice,     the planting of the Lord to show his glory. 4 They shall rebuild the ancient ruins,     the former wastes they shall raise up And restore the desolate cities,     devastations of generation upon generation. 5 Strangers shall stand ready to pasture your flocks,     foreigners shall be your farmers and vinedressers. 6 [b]You yourselves shall be called “Priests of the Lord,”     “Ministers of our God” you shall be called. You shall eat the wealth of the nations     and in their riches you will boast. 7 Because their shame was twofold[c]     and disgrace was proclaimed their portion, They will possess twofold in their own land;     everlasting joy shall be theirs.   As your pastor has been leading you in the brilliance of a sermon series entitled  Piece Us Together, I've been wrestling with the notion that life is to a great extent a series of choices…pieces, deposits, decisions made by us (and others connected to us) that when congruent, consistent and courageously aligned with God's Spirit, can not only be called good choices, but can bear the designation of GOD CHOICES. We know those moments when the Spirit speaks and we actually listen, and we do or resist doing or saying a thing, moving in a certain direction or keeping still, and we know in our knower that it wasn't us, it was GOD. Some choices we know we can't take credit for. We didn't have enough information or wisdom or fortitude on our own and yet sometimes you just know: that was God's leading - even ordaining - a particular path or decision. So my wrestling isn't about whether those kinds of choices are possible, it's more about how we might more intentionally posture ourselves to make them. What are the foundational pieces, the underlying preparation for making God choices? In some situations, seasons, and circumstances, it can be difficult to know what good is, let alone where GOD is. Especially when it seems like everyone is screaming and streaming their rightness, even assigning to it the name and the will of GOD, how do we individually and collectively choose rightly, even GODLY.    I picked up this little knick-knack at a thrift store in Greenville, North Carolina – my mother's hometown – and it simply says, “Make good choices.” So I chose to buy it for a whopping 99 cents. I believe that purchase was a God choice because ever since, this statement, this mantra that has become so popular, has had me wrestling. It sounds good, but it also raises a challenge: how do we know? Hindsight can sometimes be 20/20, sometimes we can look back with satisfaction and say that was a good choice, or we can look back with regret and say this or that was a bad move, but how do we really know the ultimate goodness of a choice, with our limited retroactive vision, and with a future yet unfolding before us?  Sometimes options are so plentiful that the gift of choice (God's free will) feels like a burden. And yet for some, life is such that options are few and choices become a luxury. Sometimes the choice is between what we might call two evils, and the struggle is to discern which is less so. Like a choice of whether to steal or starve, or a choice of whether to go to work and risk being kidnapped from a parking lot or staying home and facing the certainty of no income at all. And every morning when my daughter sends my seven-year-old grandson and my 13-year-old granddaughter to school with lunch, and a kiss, and a prayer that no shooter, no bully, no weapon formed against them will prosper, she also sends them off with these words: Make good choices. And so it is from pre-K to reWirement…how do we know which is which? Some decisions are negligible like sushi or soul food, and God bless you if you have access to both. Some choices are weightier and defining of the trajectory of not only our own lives, but the lives of others… like ballot choices. Anybody rethinking these days how much every vote matters? Consider choices like whether to respond to the sign our unhoused sibling is holding at the traffic light, or to roll up our car windows when we dare to drive through that neighborhood…that is if we even dare choose to drive through that neighborhood. After all, that's what beltways are for, right? To avoid the discourse and dilemmas of Samaria? The bible gives us some help, doesn't it? Choose ye this day who you will serve. (Joshua 24:15) Spoiler alert, choose GOD! Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and God's righteousness. (Matthew 6:33) The bible helps us to know that, God's word is a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our pathway (Psalm 119:105), and meanwhile there are some people who believe - or at least say - that they are following a path illumined by God's word even as they CHOOSE to be, or to follow a path that looks more like darkness than light.  The bible is helpful in many ways, even as it lets us know that there is a way that seems right to a man, or a woman or a human, but its end is not life, but death. (Proverbs 14:12) To put it more simply, just because we place a cross on a path, a way, or a choice, does not mean it's a GOD choice, because our nation's history tells us that some have carried their crosses and others have burned them.  The bible helps us with our discernment, but it does not take away the need for that discernment. The scriptures give us examples of heroes and sheroes and they-roes whose choices are stamped with God's approval. Conversely, but equally as helpful, the bible also offers us examples of choices that we can see from our pews were not God choices. Choices like: Barrabas over Jesus, to wash our hands amidst the bloodshed in our communities, and to entertain the conversation of a snake. Yet in the moment, in the mission field, on our jobs - if we are so blessed in this administration to have and keep a job - and even in the church, we have struggled (often with the best of intentions) to make the good choice, the GOD choice. Good people are also capable of bad choices. So how do we know, and even when we know, how do we move in the direction of what we know is good and what is GOD? This Human Relations Sunday, on the eve of a day when we honor the life, work, and ministry of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, JR, it's a good time to have this conversation. Because the pieces, the choices, the decisions, the moves that Dr. King made, we can look at now and say that they were good, and even that they were GOD, but can we also agree that were hard, and they did not reflect the usual metrics of success. They were not financial choices that led to wealth. They were not safe choices that led to longevity. They were not choices that led to comfort for him or his family. As a young scholar and theologian out of Boston University, the world was Dr. King's oyster. He spoke well, he married well, he could have lived well by most standards even for the time, with the cushion of education, and perhaps some ability to escape the ravages and brutality of life as a black man in the Jim Crow south, or – if he chose - the more liberal and more subtly racist north. But like so many other freedom fighters, peacemakers, and GOD-choosers, King chose differently. He used his gifts and his anointing, not to live a successful life but, to live and ultimately give a life that was good. How and why did he choose as he chose, live as he lived, and die as he died. With four fatherless children, a weeping widow, bomb threats from his enemies, and the voices of his friends saying wait for justice to arrive slowly, when the scripture calls for it to roll down like mighty waters.  What's the framework for such a life? Where's the groundwork and the foundation for making those kinds of God choices? And, considering where we are now, some might even argue what's the point? Because the task of evil is to overwhelm us, and numb us so that we give up and give in. But we are those who understand that only light confounds darkness and only love drives out hate. (Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1957 sermon entitled Loving Your Enemies) We are those who must keep the work of Dr. King and other GOD-choosers from unraveling, because it's becoming quite clear that the very fabric of our nation is really more loosely stitched together than we realized, and the fuller we get of ourselves, the more likely we are to come apart at the very (s.e.e.m.s.).  Well, this morning I want to offer a few ideas for your consideration as we seek to piece together our choices, our contributions to a tapestry of goodness and God-ness. These ideas do not form a magic bullet, or fast-working formula, but offer a bit of profiling of two prophetic God choosers: Dr. King and the Prophet Isaiah. In our scripture reading, Isaiah is making a profound declaration that I would imagine sounded a bit grandiose, perhaps even arrogant or delusional for Isaiah to declare, “the Spirit of the LORD is upon ME.” But Friends, this is not mere self-confidence. Isaiah is not pontificating his own opinions or positioning himself for re-election. He is not operating under the advisement of any renegade dictator, partisan pundit, or complacent church. This is not ego, or hubris. This is clarity of call. Isaiah is clear from whom his call comes, and he is clear about those to whom he is called. We have all perhaps witnessed the reduction of the work of prophecy to fortune telling, and sometimes misguided proclamations wrapped in boldness of the flesh. But the real work of prophecy lies in the clearly motivated execution of a call that comes from God to speak and act with truth and justice. Isaiah has seen the Lord high and lifted up. (Isaiah 6:1) He has heard the Lord's call and answered, Here I Am, send me. (Isaiah 6:8) And out of this connection and experience with God comes clarity! It's the kind of clarity that Dr. King testified to, declaring, “I've been to the mountaintop…I just want to do God's will.” (Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, JR.'s 1968 speech, I've Been to the Mountaintop) And the good news for us is that clarity of call and the capacity to see GOD is not limited to a pulpit, or an appointment, or a title. It is the God-given opportunity for all of us who purport to be God's people to discover, discern and be deployed for the mission from whom and to whom we are called. You want to see Jesus? Look in the eyes of your neighbor. You want to see the Lord? Recognize that we are all made in God's image. You want to have a mountaintop experience? Spend some time in the valley with those who are hurting and get some clarity! Maybe that's what my little plaque is trying to say. Maybe choices become a whole lot easier and godlier when we have clarity about who is calling us and why.  We may feel inadequate, like Isaiah did when he was first called. We may face opposition from our peers and elders as Dr. King did. But clarity will help us show up anyhow, even if its stammering like Moses, running like Jonah, wrestling like Jacob, weeping at a tomb like Mary or Coretta, staying seated like Rosa, speaking out like Father Oscar Romero, running for office like Kamala, speaking truth to power like Jasmine, singing like Mahalia and our choir today, speaking on NPR like Ginger, and marching like Martin. Afraid? Yes, sometimes. Called? Absolutely! God is compelling us to offer our piece to the work for such a time as this, whether our call is to teach, or speak, or organize, or march or pray or sing or write, or cook a meal, or wipe a tear, or serve in the church and in the community. Know that separation of church and state does not require us to be isolated or silenced or detached from the world. The church is a place of worship and equipping; the church is no place to hide. And the good news is that the anointing - the clear call to make God choices - is not only for those we call Reverend, or Doctor, or prophet, or priest, but the book of Joel helps us to know that GOD pours out God's spirit on ALL FLESH! (Joel 2:28), to dream like Martin, and to proclaim like Isaiah a new and hopeful reality of rebuilt ruins, restored cities and everlasting joy. The powerful thing about clarity of call is that it grounds us with the ability to make GOD choices. It is the foundational YES that makes everything else clearer.  Listen to the clarity of Isaiah's call. He's not anointed just to be anointed, but it is to bring good news in bad times, to bind up the wounds of the hurting, to comfort those who mourn. Praise God that the call is a call of hope, of captives set free and chains broken. The audacity, the unmitigated gall and the amazing and dangerous opportunity for GOD-choosers like Isaiah, like Martin, like all of us to participate in a holy exchange of beauty for ashes, oil for tears, and the bible says a glorious mantle instead of a faint spirit.  Secondly, foundational to the capacity to make God choices is consciousness of context: knowing what the people and the times call for, with the bible in one hand, media device in the other. Isaiah was well aware of the self-indulgence and wickedness of the powerful, and the turning away of Judah's collective heart from God. Dr. King may have been studying in Boston, but he was preparing for Selma, Birmingham, Memphis and Washington. He was well-versed in the dehumanization of Jim Crow, the economic echoes of chattel slavery, and the need for change. There was an urgency that called him to a movement and a moment. Our call - and the choices that flow from that call- likewise connect to our time and context in pivotal moments where our choices matter in ways that lead to life or death, both literally and figuratively.  These are Kairos moments, not mere hours on a clock or dates on a calendar, but these are times for decisions and God-inspired choices when we need to know the difference between being disrespectful, and having one's life disrespected and taken too soon. These are times when we need to call out the difference between feigned self-defense and excessive and homicidal force. These are times when our immigrant siblings are experiencing the similarly motivated and equally evil kidnapping that once populated the slave trade around the globe. These are times and moments when hard-fought liberties are being dismantled, when fear rules the day, and politics plague the culture. These are the times that ought to try our souls and inform and inspire our choices…like whether to speak up or opt out of the conversation, to step up or to stand by as we take steps back to parts of our history of which we ought to be ashamed. This is the context in which we must choose to love our neighbors, all of them…locally, globally, radically and unapologetically. Not me first, but Humanity first. Love first. Justice First. Peace first. This is not merely a time to reminisce about Isaiah's call, or to romanticize about Martin's dream. This is not Isaiah's Judah or Martin's south. Although the parallels with the past are present, and the pieces are connected for sure, this is our time, and these choices are on US! And finally, to make GOD choices, not only would we do well to be grounded by clarity of call, and consciousness of context, but we also need courage beyond consequences. Every choice comes with some consequence. Even, and especially GOD choices. Sometimes those consequences look like discouragement, isolation, ridicule, black-listing, or even danger. Neither the clarity of our call, nor the consciousness of our context, exempt us from the need for courage. Isaiah's courage called him to speak truth to fou kings over his lifetime, and we know that even the subtlest of pleas for justice and mercy to leadership that is not so inclined can have major consequences. Martin advocated and demonstrated for peace - not violence - as the way to bring about change and it earned him a Nobel Peace Prize. But he didn't live to see his children pick up the mantle for justice, or his birthday become a national holiday, or a black man become President of the United States. Are we not tired of Good dying young? But death does not have the final say, nor does hatred, nor does violence, and - the sacred text reminds us - nor do kings or kingdoms. (Daniel 2:44) I heard a song that I believe says, Every storm runs out of rain. Every lie runs out of gas. There is a GOD who chose us, who chose love, who chose the cup of Calvary so that we might choose to be clear, and conscious, and courageous as well. That God has the final say. Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, chose to weep, walk, heal and speak truth in perilous times. And one Sabbath day he stood in the synagogue to teach, and he found the words of the prophet Isaiah and said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon ME! Because GOD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) Then Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant (the word is now in our hands), and the people stared at him. The audacity, the unmitigated gall! Isn't this just Joseph's son. Didn't they know that God uses and chooses those others deem unlikely and even unworthy? Our Jesus declared, TODAY…. this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” My friends TODAY is the time to live and to choose in alignment with the fulfilment of the gospel of peace. TODAY is not just to reminisce, or to recite the speeches and choices of the prophets of old, but TODAY is the time for making GOD choices of our own, to answer the call God has on our lives, to do and bring our piece to the work. And we too shall be called priests of the Lord, ministers of our God, and everlasting joy will be our witness, because God is not just good. God is GOD! God bless you.

Session: 1 Date of First Use: March 1, 2026 Title: God Is Holy The Point: God is set apart from everything else and deserves our worship. Life Connection: Every culture has some religious element, but each culture makes God in its own image. That god tends not to be too different from the people who worship it; there is nothing unique about their god. We desperately need a God who is beyond us and beyond our ability to fully explain or understand. That God has revealed Himself. He is holy—completely separate from His creation—yet He calls us to know Him and walk with Him.  Session Passage: Psalm 99:1-9 

We take a look at Matthew 6:13, a portion of The Lord's Prayer. "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."  However, we read in James 1:13 "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;" So are these two verses contracting each other? Or are we misunderstanding something. So let's look at the original words used in this Scripture.      1.    Peirazō - verb meaning to test/try or tempt - two very different meanings     2.     Peirasmos - noun meaning testing/trail or temptation - again, two very different meanings How can I know the difference? Identity: who is doing the test or the tempt. The devil tempts us into going against God's word and will. God tests us - will we follow Him and do His will? Motive: who is doing the testing or tempting. The devil's motive in tempting us is to destroy us.  God tests us to strengthen, guide and uphold us. When we are facing Peirazō (temptation or test) we can look at that experience in two ways.      1.    The devil tempting us to go against what we believe, what Jesus desires, what the Scriptures teach and what the Holy Spirit reveals OR     2.    That God is using a temptation to test us, to strengthen us, to cause us to rely on Him more and more, to look to Him and to call upon Him in the day of trouble. Testing and temptation go together in the Bible - they are the same word, but the identity of who is Peirazō"ing" us is the key.  Are we going to listen to the one who wants to destroy us - the devil - or will we listen to the One who has saved us and desires to help and save us. 1 Corinthians 10:13 "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." In God is strength, and even when we fall and fail we are assured of finding and receiving His forgiveness through our faith in Christ and will be given the power to start over again.  "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" - what we are praying is - "Lord, let us not fall into the devil's temptations but deliver us from the evil one and help us find our strength in you. Deliver us from what is evil and from the evil one. Deliver us from the power of the devil and help us to hold onto Your strength and power so that when we face trials we can face them with confidence because our eyes are on You!" Now What? Learn about God at https://www.awakeusnow.com EVERYTHING we offer is FREE. View live or on demand: https://www.awakeusnow.com/tuesday-bible-class For more check out the series, "What's the Answer"  https://www.awakeusnow.com/whats-the-answer Join us Sundays  https://www.awakeusnow.com/sunday-service Watch via our app. Text HELLO to 888-364-4483 to download our app.

We'll learn that God is good through an amazing miracle Jesus performed when He fed thousands of people with just five loaves of bread and two fish. This true story from the Bible shows that Jesus has God's power, cares deeply for people, and meets our greatest need—to be saved from sin.

Welcome back to Gnostic Insights. Today is part three of my book report on David Bentley Hart's book called That All Shall Be Saved, Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation. The past two weeks we covered the beginning of his book, the Introduction. I'm going to begin this section by reading out of his final remarks, because he does a good job of simplifying his arguments here at the end of the book. So we'll start with that. Hart says on page 201, It may offend against our egalitarian principles today, but it was commonly assumed among the very educated of the early church that the better part of humanity was something of a hapless rabble who could be made to behave responsibly only by the most terrifying coercions of their imaginations. Belief in universal salvation may have been far more widespread in the first four or five centuries of Christian history than it was in all the centuries that followed, but it was never, as a rule, encouraged in any general way by those in authority in the church. Maybe there are great many among us who can be convinced to be good only through the threat of endless torture at the hands of an indefatigably vindictive god. Even so much as hint that the purifying flames of the age to come will at last be extinguished, and perhaps a good number of us will begin to think like the mafioso who refuses to turn state's evidence because he is sure he can do the time. Bravado is, after all, the chief virtue of the incorrigibly stupid. He goes on to say, I have never had much respect for the notion of the blind leap of faith, even when that leap is made in the direction of something beautiful and ennobling. I certainly cannot respect it when it is made in the direction of something intrinsically loathsome and degrading. And I believe that this is precisely what the Infernalist position, no matter what form it takes, necessarily involves. And to remind you, if you didn't hear the past two episodes, Infernalist refers to the notion that there is an unending hell of pain and torture for the unregenerate or the unrepentant. Further down page 202, Hart says, I honestly, perhaps guilelessly, believe that the doctrine of eternal hell is prima facie nonsensical for the simple reason that it cannot even be stated in Christian theological terms without a descent into equivocity, which is equivocation, so precipitous and total that nothing but edifying gibberish remains. To say that, on the one hand, God is infinitely good, perfectly just, and inexhaustibly loving, and that, on the other, he has created a world under such terms as oblige him either to impose or to permit the imposition of eternal misery on finite rational beings is simply to embrace a complete contradiction. All becomes mystery, but only in the sense that it requires a very mysterious ability to believe impossible things. [Jumping down the page, he says,] Can we imagine logically, I mean not merely intuitively, that someone still in torment after a trillion ages, or then a trillion trillion, or then a trillion vigintillion, is in any meaningful sense the same agent who contracted some measurable quantity of personal guilt in that tiny, ever more vanishingly insubstantial gleam of an instant that constituted his or her terrestrial life? And can we do this even while realizing that, at that point, his or her sufferings have, in a sense, only just begun, and, in fact, will always have only just begun? What extraordinary violence we must do both to our reason and to our moral intelligence, not to mention simple good taste, to make this horrid notion seem palatable to ourselves. And all because we have somehow, foolishly, allowed ourselves to be convinced that this is what we must believe. Really, could we truly believe it all apart from either profound personal fear or profound personal cruelty? Which is why, again, I do not believe that most Christians truly believe what they believe they believe. So, what he's saying here, what I've been talking to you about, is the idea that God, the God Above All Gods, what we call the Father in Gnosticism, would condemn people to everlasting torment, everlasting torment, with no other goal than to punish, because they're never going to get out of it. That's what everlasting means. And so it's just punishment for the sake of punishment, and that that great, unlimitable God would impose this punishment on little, limited, finite beings who only lived a brief millisecond of time in the great span of time of God. That God would create these people for the purpose, basically, of condemning them to everlasting torment. You see, that is not even rational. It doesn't make any sense. Not if you believe God is good. It's impossible. Now, if you think that God is evil, well, then that's not God, is it? By definition, if you believe that God is cruel and vindictive and unreasonable, well, that's not the God Above All Gods. And this should come as relief to those of you who think you can't believe in God, because God is so cruel and vindictive. Perhaps you were raised in an extremely cruel household with extremely vindictive parents, or schoolteachers, or somebody got to you and, in the name of God, inflicted cruelty upon you. Then you have come to accidentally transpose their human cruelty onto God, because they told you to. But that's not God, by definition, you see? And when I say, by definition, that means, like, cold is not hot, by definition. Cold is cold. And if you're going to start arguing, oh no, cold is hot, well, then you're not talking about cold, you're talking about hot. Do you see what I mean? And if you have been rejecting God, the God Above All Gods, because you have this view of God as merciless and vindictive, cruel, illogical, unfair, unjust, take comfort, because that's not God you're talking about. Now, it may be the small g god of this world. It could be the guy whose best friend is Satan, because remember, that is a small g god of confusion. And its main job is to cause you to forget that you come from transcendent goodness, that you come from above, from the God Above All Gods, and that you do have freedom. You do have free will. You are meant to inherit joy. You are to do good works, and to be happy, and to be in love, and to love everybody else. Don't let some evil archon, or evil Demiurge, or evil human, redefine God in such a way that you reject God, because that's the mistake. That's a categorical error. And that's why I say, take comfort, have joy, receive the love that was meant for you. Throwing out the baby with the bath water means to reject the Good because you can't sort it out from the bad. Refusing to accept God or Christ because you reject the flawed Christian Church is an example of throwing out the baby with the bath water. Okay, back to the book. On page 205, Hart says, It was not always thus. Let me at least shamelessly idealize the distant past for a moment. In its dawn, the gospel was a proclamation principally of a divine victory that had been won over death and sin, and over the spiritual powers of rebellion against the big G God that dwells on high, and here below, and under the earth. It announced itself truly as the good tidings of a campaign of divine rescue on the part of a loving God, who by the sending of his Son into the world, and even into the kingdom of death, had liberated his creatures from slavery to a false and merciless master, and had opened a way into the kingdom of heaven, in which all of creation would be glorified by the direct presence of big G God, [or the Father, as we call him in Gnosticism]. And by the way, this paragraph that I just read about early Christianity, is entirely consistent with this Valentinian Christianity that I share with you here. That is the entire purpose of we second-order creatures being sent down here below, to bring the good tidings of life and love and liberty to the fallen Demiurge, and now subsequently to all of the people who have been hoodwinked by the Demiurge and Satan into believing in the false god that does not incorporate love. Hart goes on to say, It was above all a joyous proclamation and a call to a lost people to find their true home at last, in their father's house. It did not initially make its appeal to human hearts by forcing them to revert to some childish or bestial cruelty latent in their natures. Rather, it sought to awaken them to a new form of life, one whose premise was charity. Nor was it a religion offering only a psychological salve for individual anxieties regarding personal salvation. It was a summons to a new and corporate way of life, salvation by entry into a community of love. Nothing as yet was fixed except the certainty that Jesus was now Lord over all things and would ultimately yield all things up to the Father, so that God might be all in all. Now we're going to go back into the earlier part of the book to explain some of these concepts in more depth. Hart has broken his book into four meditations, or four subjects we could call it. The first meditation is, who is God? The second meditation is, what is judgment? The third meditation is, what is a person? And the fourth meditation is, what is freedom? A reflection on the rational will. So in the first meditation, who is God? Hart explains to us that, The moral destiny of creation and the moral nature of God are absolutely inseparable. As the transcendent good beyond all things, God is also the transcendental end that makes every single action of any rational nature possible. Moreover, the end toward which He acts must be His own goodness, for He is Himself the beginning and end of all things. This is not to deny that, in addition to the primary causality of God's act of creation, there are innumerable forms of secondary causality operative within the creative order. But none of these can exceed or escape the one end toward which the first cause directs all things. And so what he is saying here is that the first causality is the expression of God's goodness, the purity of God reaching out through the Son and into the Fullness of God—emanating. That is the principal causality. That is the prime mover of all things, what we call the base state of consciousness, the matrix. But then there is a secondary causality that takes place subsequent to that. And I guess the first act of secondary causality was probably the fall, in that it was the first act of will prompted by ego that apparently deviated from God's original plan, although the Tripartite Tractate does say we shouldn't blame Logos because the fall was the cause of the cosmos which was destined to come about. But whereas the Father is the prime mover and remains shielded in purity and fullness and goodness—you see, all the love emanates from the Father, evil doesn't swim back upstream. It's all emanating from the Father, and it's all good. But we do have secondary causality down here in the created cosmos, primarily due to the actions of the Demiurge and the never-ending war that runs amuck down here. Hart says, page 70, First, as God's act of creation is free, constrained by neither necessity nor ignorance, all contingent ends are intentionally enfolded within his decision. And second, precisely because God in himself is absolute, absolved, that is, of every pathos of the contingent, every affect of the sort that a finite substance has the power to visit upon another, his moral venture in creating is infinite. One way or another, after all, all causes are logically reducible to their first cause. This is no more than a logical truism. In either case, all consequence are, either as actualities or merely possibilities, contingent upon the primordial antecedent, apart from which they could not exist. In other words, all the things that happen down here in the cosmos couldn't have happened without God giving it the first start, without the Father giving it the initial emanation. He goes on to say, And naturally, the rationale of a first cause, its definition, in the most etymologically exact meaning of that term, is the final cause that prompts it, the end toward which it acts. If, then, that first cause is an infinitely free act emerging from infinite wisdom, all those consequence are intentionally entailed, again, either as actualities or as possibilities within that first act. And so the final end to that act tends is its whole moral truth. The traditional definition of evil as a privation of the good, lacking any essence of its own, in other words, what we would call in Gnosticism, evil is the shadow of the good. Evil is the shadow of Logos. It's not a thing in itself. It's the absence of the love and the light of the Father. It is also an assertion that when we say God is good, we are speaking of Him not only relative to his creation, but as he is in himself. All comes from God, and so evil cannot be a thing that comes from anywhere. Evil is, in every case, merely the defect whereby a substantial good is lost, belied, or resisted. For in every sense, being is act, and God, in his simplicity and infinite freedom, is what he does. He could not be the creator of anything substantially evil without evil also being part of the definition of who he essentially is, for he alone is the wellspring of all that exists. Jumping down the page on 71, Hart says, “God goes forth in all beings, and in all beings returns to himself.” That's how I describe as we all carry the Fullness of God within our being, and within every cell of our being. And since we are carrying the Fullness of God within us, we will have to return to the Fullness of God ultimately. We can't be lost in everlasting torment, because we are the Fullness of God, and God cannot torment itself. Hart says, God has no need of the world. He creates it not because he is dependent upon it, but because its dependency on him is a fitting expression of the bounty of his goodness. Doesn't that remind you of, in the beginning, the Father was alone, and he admired his goodness and beauty and love. He was full of love and beauty, and gave birth, so to speak—He emanated the Son. And the Son and the Father gave glory to one another. And in that giving of glory to one another, then the Son emanated the Fullness. And then in giving glory to one another in the Fullness and to the Son, the Fullness emanates us, the second order of powers. And it's all because you can't love without having an object to love, even if it's only in your own mind. Love requires an object of devotion, and giving glory is the reciprocal of love. We give glory because we were first loved. It's a fitting expression of the bounty of goodness, as Hart puts it. Then he goes on to say, This, however, also means that within the story of creation, viewed from its final cause, there can be no residue of the pardonably tragic, no irrecuperable or irreconcilable remainder left behind at the end of the tale. For if there were, this irreconcilable excess would also be something God has directly caused. Now, in our Gnostic gospel, there is a remnant “left behind at the end of the tale.” And that is the shadowy archons that were never a part of the original creation because they did not come from the “first cause” discussed earlier. The shadows of the Demiurge did not come from the Fullness or the fallen Aeon, but are only the absence of the qualities of that Aeon, this is why they are referred to as shadows. They are figments that do not have a reality outside of the Deficiency. Therefore, they have no home to return to in the Fullness of God. They are not from the Fullness. And he talks a bit about Hegel's system and dismisses it, and I'm not going to go into it. Hart says, The story Christians tell is of creation as God's sovereign act of love, neither adding to nor qualifying His eternal nature. And so it is also a story that leaves no room for an ultimate distinction between the universal truth of reason and the moral meaning of the particular, or for any distinction between the moral meaning of the particular and the moral nature of God. Only by insisting upon the universality of God's mercy could Paul, in Romans 11.32, liberate himself from the fear that the particularity of that mercy would prove to be an ultimate injustice, and that in judging His creatures, God would reveal Himself not as the good God of faithfulness and love, but as an inconstant God who can shatter His own covenants at will. Hart reminds us that down through the centuries, Christians have again and again subscribed to formulations of their faith that clearly reduce a host of cardinal Christian theological usages, most especially moral predicates like good, merciful, just, benevolent, loving, to utter equivocity, and that by association, reduce their entire grammar of Christian belief to meaninglessness. [On the next page, 75, he says], consider, to begin with the mildest of moral difficulties, how many Christians down the centuries have had to reconcile their consciences to the repellent notion that all humans are at conception already guilty of a transgression that condemns them justly to eternal separation from God and eternal suffering, and that in this doctrine's extreme form, every newborn infant belongs to a massa damnata, hateful in God's eyes from the first moment of existence. Hart loves to throw in Latin. Massa damnata obviously means that the masses would be damned. The very notion of an inherited guilt is a logical absurdity, rather on the order of a square circle. All that the doctrine can truly be taken to assert, speaking logically, is that God willfully imputes to innocent creatures a guilt they can never have really contracted out of what, from any sane perspective, can only be called malice. But this is just the beginning of the problem. For one broad, venerable stream of tradition, God, on the basis of this imputation, consigns the vast majority of the race to perpetual torment, including infants who die unbaptized. And may I point out that in Gnostic Christianity there is no inherited guilt at all because the Fall was not caused by the first humans, Adam and Eve, but occurred at the Aeonic level. Christianity carries a remnant of that understanding forward when it refers to “fallen angels,” but it does not connect the dots to realize their culpability in original sin. And then the theology of grace grows grimmer, for according to the great Augustinian tradition, since we are somehow born meriting not only death but eternal torment, we are enjoined to see and praise a laudable generosity in God's narrow choice to elect a small remnant for salvation, before and apart from any consideration of their concrete merits or demerits, and this further choice either to predestine or infallibly to surrender the vast remainder to everlasting misery. So it is that, for many Christians down the years, the rationale of evangelization has been a desperate race to save as many souls as possible from God. The time has really gotten away from us, and we've only touched the first meditation, so I hope you are enjoying this theology. It's theology, and I know that's difficult slog, but I'm sharing with you these thoughts because they comprise basically the sum total of Christian theology for the past 2,000 years, and it has gone through changes here and there. David Bentley Hart is a scholar of Eastern Orthodoxy and a scholar of religion and philosopher and so forth, and I think that he has very clear sight. So we'll pick this up one more time next week, and I promise we'll wrap it up. Onward and upward! God bless us all! This book gathers the essential insights of gnosis into a clear, approachable form. Gnosis can be as simple or as intricate as you choose to make it, but its heart is always accessible. A Simple Explanation guides you through the often tangled vocabulary and shifting landscapes of Gnostic thought, offering a path that is both illuminating and easy to follow. The glossary alone is a treasure—an indispensable reference for anyone exploring ancient Christian mysticism, the Nag Hammadi texts, or the deeper layers of spiritual philosophy. Now available in paperback, hardback, Kindle, and audiobook editions through amazon and your local booksellers.

In this episode, we reflect on the tender and often misunderstood topic of forgiveness, what it is, what it isn't, and why it's central to finding freedom in Christ. We talk honestly about how resentment and unforgiveness can quietly build in the heart, often as an attempt to protect ourselves from further pain. We also acknowledge how difficult forgiveness can be, what to do with the cry of our hearts when we have been wounded, and how to entrust it to God when we don't yet feel capable of forgiving. Friends, forgiveness does not strip us of our identity, it affirms who we are in Christ. Even in the deepest places of hurt, we find hope because of the loving presence of a God who never abandons us in our pain.   Heather's One Thing - Greatness of the Lord by Brooke Ligertwood Heather's Other One Thing - The Franciscan University Community  Sister Miriam's One Thing - Heather's Battle Cry Playlist Michelle's One Thing - Congratulations to Indiana University for winning the championship! Michelle's Other One Thing - The Correspondent by Virginia Evans   Other Resources Mentioned:  Forgiving as Unity with Christ: A Journey for Healing Resentment and Relationships by Dr. Robert Enright   Announcement: Our 2026 Lenten book study will be "The Way of Trust and Love" by Fr. Jacques Philippe. Scepter Publishers has offered 15% off with the code ABIDE15. They also offer an ebook version as well. We will announce more information about the study in the coming weeks!   Journal Questions: What are the unhealed places of your heart? Are you angry, sad, or frustrated at the wrong you've endured? How have I experienced shame about the wrongs I've endured or my own unforgiveness? How has this affected my health, wellbeing, or energy? How do I replay or obsess over the conflict I experienced?  How have I given into constant comparison in my unforgiveness? What major changes have occurred in my life because of the injustice I've experienced and how have they affected me? Has this experience led to a more negative worldview? How has my sense of self changed? Am I seeing myself as worthless?   Discussion Questions: How have you been sweeping things under the rug and calling it forgiveness? What deeper feelings lie beneath your resentment? Where in your life do you need to repent and take personal responsibility? Who has modeled repentance and forgiveness well in your life? How does your heart react to conflict and wrongdoing in relationships?   Quotes to Ponder: "Ultimately, we can really forgive people only because Christ rose from the dead; his Resurrection is the guarantee that God can cure every wrong and every hurt." (Fr. Jacques Philippe, Interior Freedom) Resentment attacks our vital forces and does us much harm. When someone has made us suffer, our tendency is to keep the memory of the wrong alive in our minds, like a "bill" we will produce in due time to demand settlement. Those accumulated bills end up poisoning our lives. It is wiser to cancel every debt, as the Gospel invites us to. In return, we will be forgiven everything, and our hearts will be set free, whereas nurturing resentment toward others closes us to the positive things they could contribute to us." (Fr. Jacques Philippe, Interior Freedom) Scripture for Lectio: "Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!"" (Matthew 18:21-22)   Sponsor - Blessed is She: "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus didn't ask this because He was uncertain of His identity. He asked because we often are. The disciples had walked with Him. They had seen the miracles. They had heard the teaching. And still, when the question was asked, many hesitated. Because proximity to Jesus does not automatically mean intimacy.  So often, our understanding of God is shaped by what we've absorbed over time—what we were taught, what we experienced, what others modeled for us. And without noticing, we begin to believe stories that aren't true.That God is distant. That He is easily disappointed. That love must be earned. That holiness requires perfection. But Jesus does not leave us guessing. He tells us who He is: I am the Light of the World. I am the Bread of Life. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life... Join Blessed is She this Lent to journey with Jesus to Jerusalem in Who Do You Say That I Am? by Debra Herbeck.  This Lenten devotional walks through the "I AM" statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John and is written to lead you out of assumptions and into encounter.  This Lent, let Jesus speak for Himself. And let that truth reshape the way you live. Whether you've been walking with Jesus for years or you just met Him, drink even more deeply of the truths of who Jesus says He is in Who Do You Say That I Am? Get your women's and kid's devotionals at blessedisshe.net/lent. Blessed is She is a Catholic women's community for any woman who wants to radically follow Jesus through a vibrantly Catholic life every single day.  We create beautiful and accessible resources (like this year's Lent devotional), products, and experiences to deepen prayer and foster community, both online and in person. We invite you into this community, no matter where you are on your walk with Christ. You belong here. Subscribe to our *free* daily emails to pray with the daily Mass readings and women all over the world at blessedisshe.net/subscribe and order the brand new Blessed is She Catholic journaling Bible at blessedisshe.net/shop.   Timestamps: 00:00 Blessed is She 01:30 Intro 02:16 Welcome 03:25 Scripture Verse and Quotes to Ponder 06:13 Repentance Leads to Freedom 07:53 Forgiveness is Hard 09:41 How Do I Forgive When I Don't Have the Capacity? 13:27 Modeling Repentance in Our Lives 17:35 Being Honest with Ourselves Can Be Painful 24:28 Sitting in the Pain and Setting Boundaries 29:34 Reflection Questions on Forgiveness 38:03 One Things

Today, Pastor Jack teaches that David, through Jonathan's help and guidance is not just thinking of his own survival. That God's covenant still stands for David as future king of Israel, and to live beyond his current circumstances with a sense of purpose.

St. Isaac the Syrian is not offering speculation about the afterlife. He is unveiling the inner logic of existence itself, now and forever. He begins, characteristically, not with heaven, but with humility—because for him humility is not a moral ornament but the measure of reality. You do not know humility, he says, by what you think of yourself when you are alone. You know it only when your self-image is wounded. If accusation disturbs you, if injustice burns you inwardly, then humility has not yet reached the marrow. This is not condemnation but diagnosis. Humility, for Isaac, is not self-accusation performed in safety; it is the quiet endurance of being diminished without revolt. Only such a heart can bear God. From this point, Isaac lifts the veil on Christ's words about the “many mansions” of the Father's house. He dismantles our spatial and competitive imagination. Heaven is not a collection of separate dwellings, not a hierarchy of visible comparisons. There is one dwelling, one place, one vision, one light. God is not divided. Beatitude is not parceled out. The diversity lies not in God's gift but in our capacity to receive it. Isaac reaches for images of profound simplicity. The sun shines equally upon all, yet each person receives its light according to the health of his eyes. A single lamp illumines an entire house, yet its light is experienced differently depending on where one stands. The source is undivided. The radiance is simple. What differs is the vessel. Heaven, then, is not the multiplication of rewards but the full revelation of what the soul has become capable of receiving. This is where Isaac's teaching becomes both consoling and terrifying. Consoling, because there is no envy in the Kingdom. No one with a lesser measure will see the greater measure of another. There will be no sorrow born of comparison, no awareness of loss, no inner accusation that another has been given more. Each soul will delight fully in what it has been made able to contain. God will not be experienced as deprivation by anyone who is in Him. But it is terrifying because Isaac makes clear that this capacity is not arbitrary. It is formed. It is disciplined. It is shaped through humility, suffering, obedience, and purification of the heart. The same divine light that gives joy to one will reveal limitation to another. The difference is not external but interior. Heaven does not change us at the threshold; it unveils us. Isaac goes further. He insists that the world to come will not operate by a different logic than this one. The structure of reality is already set. Knowledge beyond sense, perception beyond images, understanding beyond words—these already exist in seed form. Ignorance remains for a time, but it is not eternal. There is an appointed moment when ignorance is abolished and the mysteries that are now guarded by silence are revealed. Silence, here, is not absence but reverence. God is not fully disclosed to the undisciplined mind. Finally, Isaac draws a stark boundary. There is no middle realm. A person belongs either wholly to the realm above or wholly to the realm below. Yet even within each realm, there are degrees. This is not contradiction but coherence. Union or separation is absolute; experience within each state is varied. One is either turned toward God or away from Him, but the depth of that turning—or that refusal—determines the quality of one's existence. What Isaac is pressing upon us is this: life is the slow formation of our capacity for God. Salvation is not merely forgiveness; it is vision. Judgment is not an external sentence; it is the unveiling of what the soul can bear. Humility is not preparation for heaven—it is already participation in its light. And the tragedy of sin is not punishment imposed from without, but the shrinking of the heart's ability to receive the One who gives Himself entirely. In St. Isaac's vision, God remains eternally simple, undivided, and radiant. The question that decides everything is not how much God gives, but how much we have allowed ourselves to be healed, emptied, and enlarged to receive Him. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:04:59 susan: Hi I'm trying to transition from liturgy or hours on the phone to the 4 volume books.  Can anone tell me what week we are currently in?  tx 00:05:20 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Humility Real? - how heart reacts when another wounds us Is our understanding of the Kingdom and its light childish or rooted in mature faith Do we desire the kingdom or look for an in-between state Do we teach others before we are healed? Enemy is subtle - vainglorious to focus on sin or temptation. Should focus on virtue. Resolve and labor tied together Virtue must be practiced otherwise we are like a fledgling without feathers Humility, fervor, tears can be lost through negligence Affliction should ultimately give way to hope. Should not seek ways to avoid the cross Begin with courage.  Don't divide the soul but trust God absolutely 00:17:12 David Swiderski, WI: https://www.usccb.org/resources/2026cal.pdf 00:18:49 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 172, # 11, first paragraph 00:40:28 Ben: Anna; It seems to me that since Charity isn't something that we lose in heaven, that the glory of each soul will somehow communicate it's self to each other soul in such a way that we will each delight in the glory of the other. 00:41:40 Elizabeth Richards: It is so hard to invest and trust fully when our experience human relationships always disappoint (for me). It was easier when I was younger! 00:42:40 Elizabeth Richards: It I can be hard not to be protective in my relationship with God 00:44:05 Elizabeth Richards: The paradox is that I need Christ's strength & grace to have a vulnerable relationship with Him! 00:47:26 David Swiderski, WI: Youth is a struggle of acquiring- knowledge, career, house, family and growing older sometimes is a struggle of learning to let go until there is nothing of us to cling to but God.. (A saying from my Grandfather)  He also said more concisely we come into this world and leave the same way no teeth, bald and in diapers. 00:50:26 Nypaver Clan: Father, Do you have a good, detailed examination of conscience from the Desert Fathers? 00:50:33 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: Replying to "Youth is a struggle ..." Do any of the Saints approach the circuitous routes of  the spiritual life and vocation with a holy sense of humor??? 00:50:58 Maureen Cunningham: Sometimes it feels like That God is treating me the same as my adversary s 01:01:20 Angela Bellamy: Is the joy simultaneous with the sorrow entangled forever? or will the joy win? 01:01:59 Art: Going back to paragraph 12 where Isaac speaks of “each according to the clarity of his eyesight” this reminds me of something from the margin of the Roman missal.  It says, “They will receive grace [at Mass] in the measure of their faith and devotion, visible to God alone.”  So it's as if at mass we are already experiencing this part of heaven.  There we are all in the same place, one abode, one place, one dwelling, yet each seeing “each according to the clarity of his eyesight” and absent any feelings of envy toward any other. 01:04:43 David Swiderski, WI: https://saintnicholas-oca.org/files/catechetical-resources/Self-Examination-before-Confession-From-Way-of-a-Pilgrim.pdf 01:19:47 Nypaver Clan: Father, you're awesome!

Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE:Genesis 27-28; Psalm 4 and Luke 11 Click HERE to give! Get Free App Here! One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on the Daily Radio Bible, a daily Bible‑in‑a‑year podcast with 20‑minute Scripture readings, Christ‑centered devotion, and guided prayer.This daily Bible reading and devotional invites you to live as a citizen of Jesus' kingdom, reconciled, renewed, and deeply loved. TODAY'S EPISODE: Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible podcast! In today's episode, dated January 11th, Hunter, your Bible Reading Coach and brother, guides us through a rich journey in Scripture, diving into Genesis chapters 27 and 28, Psalm 4, and Luke chapter 11. As always, Hunter invites us to keep things simple: spending time in God's Word, letting it shape and transform us, with the ultimate goal of experiencing the love of Jesus. This episode traces the dramatic story of Jacob and Esau, the struggle for blessing and birthright, and God's faithfulness in Jacob's life—even as he journeys away from home. We hear David's cry for help in Psalm 4, and receive Jesus' wisdom in Luke, including His teaching on prayer, the goodness of God as our Father, warnings against religious hypocrisy, and encouragement to seek God persistently. Through heartfelt reflections, Hunter challenges the lies of separation and legalism, pointing us to a God who is close, present, and loving—not distant or angry. The episode closes with prayer, practical encouragement, and an invitation to deeper engagement with Scripture every day. So, whether you're new or a longtime listener, settle in and let today's Scriptures and reflections draw you closer to Jesus—the One who offers unconditional love and the gift of Himself, the Holy Spirit. Let's walk together, step by step, in this daily journey of faith! TODAY'S DEVOTION: He's angry. These teachers are a bunch of fakes. He's angry because these teachers of His Word ought to be offering people something real, something true. He's angry because they're a bunch of religious, self-righteous, self-serving hypocrites, and Jesus is none too happy about it. They're telling lies about God, and the main one is a lie of separation. God is separate, he's distant, and he's angry. He's angry until you perform the right religious duties, until you wash your hands the right way, until you wash your cup in just the right way, until you give the right amount of everything that you own in just the right way. Even the herbs in your garden and a thousand other things like this were all used as a way of ensuring that you knew that God was separate from you, that he was angry with you. And this message of separation served these guys well. They leveraged it for coercion and control, for power, prestige, and money. They used this lie to become important in the eyes of those with power. They liked to walk around with their flowing robes in the marketplaces. They liked when important people, powerful people, recognized them and honored them. All the while the people suffer. Jesus looked at this and declared it hogwash. He called them hypocrites, snakes, vipers. In effect, Jesus says, you say that you speak for God, but you don't know God. If you knew God, you would know his justice, not yours, which is so rarely just. You would know his love—his love which declares that God is not separate. Rather, God is here. He is with us, and God is for all people. He is wanting his people and his priests who use his name to tell the truth, to demonstrate the love and justice of God, to live in the reality of the God who is with us, the God who is their present king, because it's true and the world so desperately needs it. If you read the Bible and you're left with a God who is separate, distant, petty, and angry, more concerned with how much turmeric you tithe than he is about you loving your neighbor and knowing that you are loved, then you've been sold a lie and you have completely missed the point of who he is. Because the point of his word is to show us that God is for us, not against us. That God is good. That God is not petty, but abounding in grace and mercy. That God is present and he is full of love. This was the message of all the prophets. God. God is with you, people. Wake up. Wake up to the God who is with you. He's angry that religion has become a way to crush people's spirits with unbearable religious demands rather than something that sets them free and makes them new. Jesus begins this reading in Luke by telling us that God is something completely different than what the Pharisees are selling. Jesus says God's not like that. God is good. When you ask him for good things, he doesn't give you scorpions and snakes. He's a good father. Don't let circumstances and the seeming delay in God's response to your need dissuade you from the truth of his kindness. Like the man who's knocking and seeking and asking for bread, God comes through. So keep asking, keep knocking, keep seeking. God's not angry with you. Don't let others or the circumstances prevent you from knowing the kind of father that you really have. Your Father knows what it's like to give his children good gifts. Earthly fathers know what it's like to do that. How much more will our good Father give good gifts if we ask for them? Jesus is angry at the evil in this world that keeps people from knowing and experiencing his loving kindness. God's not angry with you. What's the gift the good Father is giving? He's giving himself. He's giving the Holy Spirit. How much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? He is offering himself to be with us and in us. Pray that God will renew your mind so that you will no longer see your Father as separate from you and angry with you, but rather as good and kind. He wants to give you everything. May your soul, may my soul, may we know this well today. That's my prayer. May it be so. TODAY'S PRAYERS: Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose  through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.   Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.   And now Lord,  make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon.  Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope.  Where there is darkness, light.  And where there is sadness,  Joy.  Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.  For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life.  Amen And now as our Lord has taught us we are bold to pray... Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image. And nourishing us with spiritual food, now send us forth as forgiven people, healed and renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world, and continue in the risen life of Christ.  Amen.  OUR WEBSITE: www.dailyradiobible.com We are reading through the New Living Translation.   Leave us a voicemail HERE: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible Subscribe to us at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dailyradiobible/featured OTHER PODCASTS: Listen with Apple Podcast DAILY BIBLE FOR KIDS DAILY PSALMS DAILY PROVERBS DAILY LECTIONARY DAILY CHRONOLOGICAL  

The foundational belief is that God exists and everything that is made and can be made is made by him and through him. This means·      This world belongs to God and we are it's stewards·      Our lives are created by God and we all are accountable to him.·      That all people no matter who they worship are actually made by our God.·      That God then is the ultimate source and reliable one of all creation, time, matter, identity, etc.

Today we start with a bit of China/Venezuela news, followed by my conversation with Luke, the Podcast Ninja (see notes below), and lastly a few minutes on how to pray for China this week (esp. Yugan)! Welcome to China Compass on the Fight Laugh Feast network! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. Follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I share a new Chinese city/county to pray for every day. Send any questions/comments to chinacompass@privacyport.com. Everything else can be easily found at PrayGiveGo.us! Also, I’m now on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/c/chinacompass), which not only allows for donations, but also conveniently lets me sort podcast episodes into various collections. Now Available on Amazon (+ free PDF): The Millionaire Missionary (BordenofYale.com) Venezuelan Oil & China: Four Things to Know https://asia.nikkei.com/business/energy/venezuelan-oil-and-china-4-things-to-know How to Pray for Venezuela (via Mr. Marquez) For churches and pastors to be used by God and bring words of encouragement to the lives of believers, as many are fearful and unsure of what to do during these times of tension. For peace, and a peaceful transition in Venezuela, without innocent victims. For believers to trust not in man, but in Jesus Christ, and remember that His kingdom is above any human kingdom. That God may protect His church, the evangelists, pastors, and those who visit the sick in Venezuela, as armed groups are intimidating citizens 24 hrs a day in many parts of the country. Conversation with the Podcast Ninja I met with the Podcast Ninja again the other day to catch up on our respective hunting seasons, basketball teams, and Indiana’s best-in-the-country college football team. We took some time to discuss the blessings (and possible pitfalls) of praying for the persecuted. After our conversation which was recorded in the middle of the week, I came back and updated everyone on a couple of things that were discussed… The hunt was fun, but no meat! The Podcast Ninja informed me that he did talk to his kids about Hebrews 13:3 at dinner Indiana University rolls over Oregon (gave me a chance to watch Thunder comeback) Now let's take a look at this coming week's Pray for China (PrayforChina.us) cities… https://chinacall.substack.com/p/pray-for-china-jan-12-18-2026 Thank you for listening! Subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform! Well, I've finally set up Patreon for those who are interested. There’s also a Paypal link at PrayforChina.us if you’d like to give to our China ministry. Last but not least, for (almost) everything else we’re doing visit PrayGiveGo.us. Luke 10, vs 2: the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few, therefore ask the Lord for more. Talk again soon!

Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: Genesis 15-17; Luke 6 Click HERE to give! Get Free App Here! One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on 'The Daily Radio Bible' for a daily 20-minute spiritual journey. Engage with scripture readings, heartfelt devotionals, and collective prayers that draw you into the heart of God's love. Embark on this year-long voyage through the Bible, and let each day's passage uplift and inspire you. TODAY'S EPISODE: Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible! In today's episode, we mark the sixth day of our journey through the Scriptures together—a journey designed not just to read the Bible, but to let it shape our hearts and point us toward Jesus. Hunter warmly welcomes both newcomers and longtime listeners, reminding us this is a space to keep things simple and consistent, joining sisters and brothers around the globe to be transformed by the God who is love. In this episode, we dive into Genesis 15 through 17, exploring God's promises to Abram and the unfolding story of faith, doubt, and amazing grace. We hear about the covenant God makes, the struggles Abram and Sarai face, and the birth of Ishmael. Then, we turn to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 6, where Jesus challenges us with radical teachings—inviting His followers to love their enemies, act compassionately, and build their lives on the solid foundation of His words. Through prayer, reflection, and encouragement, Hunter reminds us that God is far better than we can imagine, and that as we discover this truth, we're invited to be people marked by love, generosity, and compassion. Join us as we continue building habits that nourish the soul, deepen our faith, and help us live as instruments of God's peace in the world. Let's journey together into the heart of God! TODAY'S DEVOTION: He is so much better than we think. God comes to Abraham and promises him things that are almost too good to be true: to make him the father of many nations, to bless all the people of the world through him, to give him the land of Canaan. And yet, to Abraham, this promise seems too much, almost unbelievable. So Abraham and Sarai come up with their own version, trying to make God's promise more "possible" by taking matters into their own hands with a surrogate son. Isn't that what we do? We often limit what we think God can do; we imagine a version of God and his goodness that fits into our own expectations and fears. We settle for what we believe is reasonable, what seems achievable, rather than trusting in the immense, extravagant goodness of God. But God is so much better than we dare to think. Jesus is the proof of that. As Hunter points out, Jesus describes a way of life that is greater than what most would even dare to attempt: loving your enemies, doing good to those who hate you, blessing those who curse you, and praying for those who hurt you. These are not humanly reasonable reactions—these are divine ways of living, God's ways, the way of the kingdom. If you do these things, Jesus says, you are truly acting as children of God. Why? Because God himself is kind to the unthankful and even to the wicked. He is compassionate. That is who he is. And yet, how often do we scale that version of God down? We put limitations on his love, his kindness, his grace, as if he can only be good to those who perform, behave, or believe just right. But Jesus pushes us to imagine God as better than anything we have dared to believe. The God Jesus reveals is bigger, better, and more loving than our imaginations, anxieties, or fears have allowed. When we let this truth soak in at the beginning of this year, when we dare to believe that God is as good as Jesus shows us, something happens: we begin to live differently. We begin to love our enemies. We begin to do good to others, even when it doesn't benefit us. We begin to live as children of the Most High, reflecting his character into the world. That's a prayer that Hunter has for his own soul, for his family, and for you too: that we would begin to imagine, trust, and live into the extraordinary goodness of God. That God is more than we've hoped, and his love is more than enough for us. May it be so. TODAY'S PRAYERS: Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose  through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.   Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.   And now Lord,  make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon.  Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope.  Where there is darkness, light.  And where there is sadness,  Joy.  Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.  For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life.  Amen And now as our Lord has taught us we are bold to pray... Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image. And nourishing us with spiritual food, now send us forth as forgiven people, healed and renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world, and continue in the risen life of Christ.  Amen.  OUR WEBSITE: www.dailyradiobible.com We are reading through the New Living Translation.   Leave us a voicemail HERE: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible Subscribe to us at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dailyradiobible/featured OTHER PODCASTS: Listen with Apple Podcast DAILY BIBLE FOR KIDS DAILY PSALMS DAILY PROVERBS DAILY LECTIONARY DAILY CHRONOLOGICAL  

Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: Genesis 9-11; Luke 4 Click HERE to give! Get Free App Here! One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on 'The Daily Radio Bible' for a daily 20-minute spiritual journey. Engage with scripture readings, heartfelt devotionals, and collective prayers that draw you into the heart of God's love. Embark on this year-long voyage through the Bible, and let each day's passage uplift and inspire you. TODAY'S EPISODE: Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible, where we journey through scripture together, drawing closer to the heart of God. In today's episode, host Hunter invites us into the fourth day of the new year's reading plan, reminding us that the pages of the Bible point us to the living Word—Jesus, who brings life and abundance. We dive into Genesis chapters 9 through 11, exploring God's covenant with Noah, the beginnings of nations after the flood, and the story of the Tower of Babel. Our reading continues in Luke 4, where Jesus, filled with the Spirit, faces temptation in the wilderness and launches His ministry with a message of hope for everyone—inside and outside the expected boundaries. As Hunter reflects on these scriptures, we are challenged to open our hearts wider, recognizing that God's love and grace reach beyond the borders we set. Today is an invitation to see God's favor poured out on the unexpected, to pray for all people, and to participate in the healing, freedom, and joy that Jesus proclaims. Let's step forward together, grounded in the assurance that we are deeply loved—no doubt about it. TODAY'S DEVOTION: He's outside the bounds and borders of where we expect him to be. He is present with those that we think are disqualified from his care, his healing and his love. They're from places like Zarephath in Sidon, or from the land of Syria, gentile lands, borderlands among people that are our enemies, people that we think are enemies of God, people we think are headed for destruction. And yet here's Jesus preaching His first sermon in a church service and proclaiming that God is with them too. That God's favor, His healing, his mercy, his grace is with those people too. This made no sense to his listeners. It offended their religious sensibilities to the core. So much so that Luke tells us that they tried to kill him afterwards. But Jesus will not be stopped. He will not be silenced, and his message will continue to be proclaimed. Jesus comes to show us that God is not a tribal deity. No, he is the God of all tribes. He is the God of all the earth. And his love for the world and its people is reaching into places that our religious minds and our offended minds say are outside the bounds of God's grace. So let's beware of drawing borders around God's love and his grace. Let's look carefully at how Jesus begins His ministry here in his very first sermon. And let us understand well what the Spirit of God is saying to his people. The good News is for the poor. Captives are released, the blind are seeing, the oppressed are set free. And the time of the Lord's favor has come. And Jesus says that that favor has come to everyone, inside and outside of whatever borders we have constructed. And that is good news for all of us. And the prayer of my own heart today is that I will participate with him in seeing and proclaiming and experiencing the favor and love of God in my own life and in the lives of all people. That's the prayer that I have for my own soul. That's the prayer that I have for my family, for my wife and my daughters and my son. And that's the prayer that I have for you. May it be so.   TODAY'S PRAYERS: Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose  through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.   Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.   And now Lord,  make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon.  Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope.  Where there is darkness, light.  And where there is sadness,  Joy.  Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.  For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life.  Amen And now as our Lord has taught us we are bold to pray... Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image. And nourishing us with spiritual food, now send us forth as forgiven people, healed and renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world, and continue in the risen life of Christ.  Amen.  OUR WEBSITE: www.dailyradiobible.com We are reading through the New Living Translation.   Leave us a voicemail HERE: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible Subscribe to us at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dailyradiobible/featured OTHER PODCASTS: Listen with Apple Podcast DAILY BIBLE FOR KIDS DAILY PSALMS DAILY PROVERBS DAILY LECTIONARY DAILY CHRONOLOGICAL  

The foundational belief is that God exists and everything that is made and can be made is made by him and through him. This means·      This world belongs to God and we are it's stewards·      Our lives are created by God and we all are accountable to him.·      That all people no matter who they worship are actually made by our God.·      That God then is the ultimate source and reliable one of all creation, time, matter, identity, etc.

Do you feel like you're just getting through the day? Like you're surviving instead of truly living? Maybe you feel stuck, exhausted, or quietly wondering if things will ever get better. If that's you, this episode is for you. Today, we're talking about wonder—and how rediscovering it can bring life, joy, and hope back into places that feel dark or stagnant.  As we move through the Christmas season and toward a new year, I felt God impress this word wonder on my heart. Wonder isn't just a feeling—it's a posture. It's the belief that there is more than what we see right now. That God is still working. That surprises, redemption, and beauty are still possible, even after long seasons of pain. In this episode, I unpack what wonder really is, why it matters so much, and how losing it slowly drains the life out of us. We talk about how a lack of wonder can leave us feeling flat, hopeless, and resigned—like this is “as good as it gets.” But that is not God's story for your life. I truly believe God wants to restore wonder in your heart—this Christmas season and beyond. You are not forgotten. You are not stuck forever. And even if it feels silent right now, God is still working behind the scenes. love, Brittany    Ready to become a peaceful wife and Mama? Sign Up for the Pain to Peace Academy HERE. Come say hi and join the Morning Mama Facebook Group! I would love to hear your story and know your name.    ALL THE LINKS FOR ALL THE THINGS! Morning Mama Website Pain to Peace Academy Morning Mama Facebook Group Follow Us on Instagram Find a Restoration Therapist Come say hi by emailing hello@morningmamapodcast.com

Question: What are we specially taught by these words, "before me" in the First Commandment? Answer: These words "before me" in the First Commandment, teach us, That God who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other God. Study Reformed theology with a free resource bundle from Ligonier Ministries: https://grow.ligonier.org/ A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Donate: https://gift.ligonier.org/1267/westminster If this podcast has been a blessing to you, try these other podcasts from Ligonier: Renewing Your Mind: https://renewingyourmind.org/ 5 Minutes in Church History: https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/ Ask Ligonier: https://ask.ligonier.org/podcast Open Book: https://openbookpodcast.com/ Simply Put: https://simplyputpodcast.com/