In seasons of trial, what should we ask God for? For the next six weeks, we will consider what Paul asks. Today, from Philippians 1, Dave considers prayer in light of God's unchanging faithfulness. If God has always been good, prayer is not asking him to change himself. Prayer is mostly about asking God to change us.

One of the most challenging parts of sheltering-in-place has been finding rest. Whether you're overworked or without work, rest time often leaves us dissatisfied. But as Christians, it is our joyful duty to pursue rest. In Isaiah 55, we find three biblical principles to help us get there.

In crisis, God is looking to test our faith and give us greater life in Christ. But Satan has his own aims, wanting to turn testing into temptation. How do we understand the difference? What do we do? C.J. contrasts our impulse to hide, fight, and blame in the face of sin with gospel's invitation to expose, flee and own our sin.

Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is confidence in the unseen. That means that faith depends on a robust imagination, which sees God at work and hears his voice and feels his presence in our life. Dave unpacks the importance of imagination, especially in crisis, and then calls us to exercise imagination with gratitude.

There is a street-level mythology around Jesus and his Resurrection in San Francisco: that it was a late creation of Constantine, that Jesus never really died, that his disciples just wanted it to be true. C.J. tells us why Jesus bodily resurrection is the most reasonable explanation for the historical facts.

Experts are telling us that many thousands of people are about to die all at once. What does the Bible say about death? How will we offer hope in the face of such tragedy? The Bible teaches us that death is inevitable, tragic, scary, and the result of sin. This is hard news, but it’s also the only explanation for death that we can be saved from. Every other explanation for death leaves us hopeless. Listen how Jesus not only identifies with our experience of death but how he saves us by dying for us!

This week, from Exodus 15, C.J. reflects on the Biblical reality of the wilderness and how it applies to this current moment. How might Jesus be inviting you into this wilderness to offer you a freedom far beyond what you can imagine. Are you tempted, as the Israelites were, to return to a yoke of slavery in Egypt because you are not content with these present circumstances?

Across history and even today, Christians have disagreed a lot about what it means to be a Christian. One slogan that helps us navigate these differences is: "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, freedom; in all things, love." But what is essential and non-essential? These two stories from Luke 9 help us with the answer.

When Jesus finds the disciples arguing about who among them is the greatest, he reminds them that his kingdom is not like anything they're used to. To be great, you must be the least, and you can't get more "least" than receiving a child.

When the disciples return from preaching the gospel and performing miracles throughout Judea, they want to spend some time resting with Jesus. Jesus' idea of rest, however, was different from theirs.