Since God is the source of life, then walking away from Him can only lead to death. But walking with God always leads to life, which means we can face death without fear and anxiety. Today’s passage presents two very different strands of humanity. On the one hand, we see Cain’s line, which walked away from God and experienced death. On the other hand, we see Seth’s line, which walked with God and experienced life, even though most of them also died.
Genesis 3:1-24 - "The Fall"
To deny the reality of sin is to dismiss our need for a Savior. Sin is real, and so we really need a Savior. Today’s passage helps us understand the origin and nature of sin. Specifically, we are going to look at two aspects of sin: its characteristics and consequences.
Genesis 2:18-25 - "Created For Relationship: Part 2"
God created male and female for our good and for His glory, so we need to rediscover the beauty of how men and women complement each other. When we fail to recognize the God-gifted differences between men and women, we lose sight of God’s goodness.
Genesis 2:4-17 - "Created For Relationship: Part 1"
The Lord God is relational, so we can have a relationship with Him. In our passage, the Creator’s desire for a personal relationship with His creatures is evident in how He gives life, land, and law to mankind.
Genesis 1:6-2:3 - "The Purpose of Existence"
Today’s passage is a great reminder that God purposefully created us, and so we must look to Him and to His Word to discover our life’s true purpose. In our passage, we see three different facets of our purpose: we were created to reflect God’s glory, to receive God’s grace, and to rest in God’s goodness.
Genesis 1:1-25 - "God Is Great, God Is Good"
Genesis 1 should be a wonderful reminder of God’s greatness and goodness, and our need for gratitude and dependence. But we’ve all heard it so many times, that it quickly loses its significance, and our gratitude and dependence become entitlement and independence. But God IS great, and God IS good, so let’s give Him the glory He deserves.
Genesis 1:1 - "In The Beginning, God"
Without God, life is meaningless. Since all of reality is rooted in the Person of God, we must look to Him for meaning. The first line of Scripture introduces God as being above all, before all, and behind all.
Luke 24:50-53 - "A Blessed Beginning"
Christianity began with the blessing of Christ, and we must continue to abide in His blessing in order to worship, rejoice and praise as we should. Today’s passage reminds us of Christ’s blessing, out of which the Church is born.
Luke 24:36-49 - "Peace, Purpose + Power"
God has given us all that we need for life and godliness, so that “in Christ” we can live peacefully, purposefully, and powerfully for His glory. But all of this is contingent upon the reality of the Resurrection. In today’s passage, we are going to see how Jesus provides proof of life, which leads to purpose and power for living.
Luke 24:13-35 - "The Road to Emmaus"
If it were up to us, we’d fall into relational passivity in our relationship with God. But, thankfully, God pursues us and reveals Himself so that we can have a relationship with Him. And we see this vividly in the post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus. The Risen Lord pursues people, and calls us to respond in faith. In our passage, we see how Jesus engages two of His followers, and how He elicits a response of faith from them.
Luke 23:55--24:12 - "The Resurrection"
Christians and non-Christians alike struggle to understand the significance of the Resurrection. To put it simply, if it really happened, then we can really have hope in this life. In today’s passage, we see how the Resurrection confirms our beliefs and confronts our unbelief.
Luke 23:44-56 - "The Sacrificial Lamb"
When we fail to think about Jesus’ birth in light of His death, our Christmas celebration begins to lose some of the richest truths of the Christian faith. Together, the birth and death of Jesus paint a vivid portrait of God’s purposeful plan to save us from sin and death, and the extent to which we embrace these truths is the extent to which we will experience God’s grace and peace in Christ.
Luke 23:32-43 - "The Cross"
When we wonder what God is like, all we have to do is look to the Cross of Christ. It teaches us that God forgives, if we will simply turn to Jesus in faith. Today’s passage shows us God’s forgiving heart, and how we can turn to Jesus for forgiveness.
Luke 23:26-31 - "The Way to the Cross"
In this life, suffering is inevitable, so the issue isn’t whether we will suffer, but rather HOW we will choose to suffer. In our passage, we see two very different options: we can choose to suffer with Jesus, or we can suffer without Him.
Luke 22:63--23:25 - "The Trials of Jesus"
In today’s passage, we see two of the effects of human injustice: the innocent being abused and accused, and the guilty being excused. But in the midst of these grave injustices, God is working out His plan of redemption so that the very effects of human injustice would become the foundation stones of divine grace and mercy.
Luke 22:47-62 - "Rejecting Jesus"
We all have sinful natures, so we all have selfish tendencies. Most of the time, we just don’t understand how destructive these can be to our Christian calling. In today’s passage, Luke highlights the fact that selfish motives will lead us to reject Jesus, and so we must prayerfully consider our motives.
Luke 22:31-46 - "Difficulty + Dependence"
Today’s passage addresses the issue of our dependence on God. All too often, we think we can depend on ourselves. That’s why circumstances that reveal our weakness can actually become wonderful opportunities to experience God’s strength.
Luke 22:1-30 - "Intimacy With Christ: The Last Supper"
Jesus desires deep intimacy with us. He made it possible by sacrificing His body and blood. But we are a distracted people and distraction disrupts our intimacy with Christ. So why are we distracted? Luke shows us that, just like Jesus’s earliest disciples, we are distracted because we lack trust, understanding, and humility.
Luke 21:5-38 - "Clarity + Certainty in Christ"
Looking at the world without a Christian worldview leads to confusion and uncertainty. We begin to place our hope in earthly things, and run the risk of walking away from the faith when the going gets tough. But listening to Christ leads to clarity and certainty, so we should always look at life through a Christ-centered lens.
Luke 20:45--21:4 - "Keeping Up Appearances"
Today’s passage is a great reminder that the “glittery” external of our spiritual lives can mask over sin. Sometimes we cover over things like pride or greed by simply trying to look and act more spiritual. And this issue of spiritual integrity affects all of us in some way. But keeping up spiritual appearances keeps us from spiritual growth, so we need to abandon pretense and embrace the Spirit-enabled process of becoming like Christ. In today’s passage, we see Jesus heavily criticizing the mere appearance of spirituality and sacrifice.
