For many of us, there's something we wish we'd been doing all along to prepare for what is happening now. Whatever lessons we’re learning, now is the time to start putting them into practice.

In a season that's usually marked by all the signs of new life, it seems like more and more we're surrounded by death. It's enough to make you wonder, is God still in the business of life?

We often turn to the words of Jesus for comfort in difficult times, but what do we do when the words we read only make us more . . . uncomfortable. There's advice in the Bible that, when life is challenging, can leave us wondering, "what do I do with that?"

We avoid things we don’t like. But sometimes things come our way that we can’t avoid. When our circumstances deteriorate, what do we do when there’s nothing we can do?

Christians have never believed in a God who doesn’t allow bad things to happen to good people. Christians believe the worst possible thing happened to the best possible person.

When Jesus died, hope died along with him. No one was planning to keep this new movement going because, after all, it seemed Jesus wasn’t who he had claimed to be. Immediately following the crucifixion, there were no Christians because there was no Christ. But then something happened.

We all have embarrassing moments we can laugh about—later. There are shameful moments that we would give anything to undo. But while our pasts remind us, they don’t have to define us.

Many times, our faith deteriorates as our circumstances deteriorate. When that happens, our faith is quickly overcome by fear, and the future looks dark. The apostle Peter experienced this, and he temporarily fled his faith in Jesus.

Fear invites us to follow the path of self-preservation. However, if we follow that path long enough, we will neither preserve nor have anything to show for our lives. The original disciples of Jesus had the same tendencies at times. On one occasion, Jesus reminded them of what it means to follow him by saying four powerful words that still apply to his followers today.

From an early age, we learn quickly to look for loopholes in the rules. We try to figure out what we can get away with and still be okay. We tend to take this same mindset into our relationship with God, but it doesn’t work. When we opt for loopholes and workarounds, we find ourselves in a category no one wants to be in: hypocrites. Jesus calls us to move beyond loophole religion.