Central West End Church

You can’t know how to live unless you know what kind of story you’re in. In this passage, the apostle Paul introduces some of the most famous chapters in the Bible by giving us an overview of the Christian story, and inviting us into it.

What do we do about the darkness of this world? What does the future hold for this world? Those are huge, scary questions. But this passage gives us answers through this mysterious experience called the transfiguration of Jesus.

Love in the shadow of death. That’s a poetic way of describing life as we know it. But what if you could know a love that would never die? Someone you could love and be loved by forever? In the miracle of raising his friend from death to life, Jesus reveals how and who that love could be.

Even when life is at its best, there’s something about it that still leaves us disappointed. What if there was something that didn’t erase the disappointments of this world, but transformed your experience of them by giving you a taste of a future joy for which this present world is headed?

We think of our lives as a story. But every good story has a struggle, and our stories are no different. How do we face our struggle with evil? Even if you’re skeptical that you struggle with evil, this passage helps all of us.

When we refuse to see people for who they truly are, that blindness has destructive power in our relationships. This week Jesus shows us that if we are blind to who He truly is, then we can’t see others or even ourselves for who we truly are. Join us for another strange encounter with Jesus.

What would have to happen in our lives to realize something is destroying us? Sometimes the most loving thing someone could do for us is expose its true nature. That is what Jesus is doing in this passage.

What would have to happen in our lives to realize something is destroying us? Sometimes the most loving thing someone could do for us is expose its true nature. That is what Jesus is doing in this passage.

Is the most important thing in the world something everyone has to figure out for themselves? Or is it possible that there is one thing that is the most important thing for every person in every time and every place? This passage helps us with that question.

God never stops loving, even when his “hand“ is hidden. His children’s joy is to receive his love and give it generously to others, delighting in divine love and resting in the eternal embrace of the Lord God Almighty— Who was and is and is to come!