Bart Byl on 1 Samuel 23.

Series: Waiting for the Kingdom (1 Samuel)

If he'd only been concerned for his own safety, the fugitive David would have stayed holed up in the Cave of Adullum. But a cry for help from the besieged town of Keilah moves him to lead his men to the rescue. David is a picture of King Jesus, who will always respond to his people's distress, even though they prove ungrateful. And those who follow Jesus, just like David's men, must also leave the cave on their chieftains missions of compassion.

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Bart Byl on Philippians 3:1–16.

When the risen Christ confronted Paul on the road to Damascus, it shattered everything he had built his life upon. It took him three years in Arabia to recuperate from his conversion and experience radical deconstruction of his old religious life. Paul invites us with him into a new kind of life of total identification with Christ in his death and resurrection.

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Bart Byl on Psalm 16.

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Bart Byl on Ephesians 3:14-19.

Series: Calling Down Blessing (Praying With Paul)

There's plenty of reasons to convince ourselves God doesn't love us—our own sin, troubles of life, doubts and accusations from the evil one. Imagine how your walk with God might change if you lived every day with a deep sense of the love of God for you in Christ. That's what Paul prays for the Ephesians, and what God invites us to pray for one another.

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Bart Byl on Philippians 1:4–6, 9–11.

Series: Calling Down Blessing (Praying With Paul)

Christians celebrate the finished work of Christ on the cross. But there is also a project he is still working on, and that is our personal transformation into his image. He is changing us by his Spirit in order to present us blameless before his Father. Are we fervently praying for ourselves, and for one another, that we would grow in love and holiness?

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Bart Byl on Colossians 1:9-12.

Series: Calling Down Blessing (Praying With Paul)

Following Jesus means joining an ensemble of actors performing for God's enjoyment. We submit ourselves to the director's will: but he hasn't given us the detailed script we might want. God's more interested in us being absorbed into our character than delivering rote lines, so he's assigned the Spirit as our acting coach to learn how to creatively live out the life of Jesus in our unique situations.

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Bart Byl on 1 Thessalonians 3:9–13.

Series: Calling Down Blessing (Praying With Paul)

Paul prayed prayers worthy of the kingdom: God-saturated, Christ-exalting, Spirit-infused prayers. His intercession for others began with thanksgiving, because for Paul no Christian was ordinary. What if we recognized others as participants in a cosmic drama of redemption, and rejoiced in God's present and future work in their lives?

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Bart Byl on Psalm 103:1–5.

We have the memory of goldfish when it comes to God's goodness in our lives, and this amnesia kills thankfulness, faith and hope. That's why “the Hebrew was called to walk backward into the future,” as Dennis Kinlaw puts it. In Psalm 103 we're given five wonderful reasons to exhort our souls to bless the Lord.

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Bart Byl on 1 Samuel 21–22.

Series: Waiting for the Kingdom (1 Samuel)

David is on the run, and in his panic he makes a questionable decision that brings disaster on a small town. Despite his mistakes, God makes sure David is fed and protected. We're also on a journey of faith. Sometimes it feels like we're all over the map, wandering the land, wrestling with our own fears, making bad judgments and accidentally hurting other people. But in the process God is also shaping us into men and women after his own hearts.

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Bart Byl on Isaiah 58.

Why doesn't God hear our prayers? Why isn't longed-for revival happening? Perhaps because of our indifference to injustice all around us. God is passionate about justice, and those who claim to know him ought to pursue righteousness and justice not just in their personal lives but in their society around them. He reminds his people, "No justice, no worship."

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