The beauty of how we speak of the Gospel is that our salvation isn’t by our work, it is by Jesus’ work for us. Because He died we find rest in Him. We live, we work, we raise families and when it all feels overwhelming Jesus says (in Matthew 11:28) “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Jesus will also tell us, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me…” Jesus is not saying, “Don’t work.” He’s saying, “Work with me and for me.” When we see what He did for us out of love, by working with and for Him we will be liberated. This is why the New Testament says that all we do is for the glory of God. We are to ultimately love of our work because we love Jesus and we do it all in a redeemed way. Our work first honors God and then others because Jesus did the ultimate work for us on the cross.

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No matter where we find ourselves, we trust that God is good and will bring His good to us. The focus of Psalm 126 is on God and what He has done and will do again. The Bible speaks of joy, not like we experience on our own, but the kind that is characterized by God. The whole Old Testament’s sacrificial system was put into place so we could be returned to relationship with God again, to the joy and hope and redemption we were meant to live in. It is why everything in the Bible points to the eventual coming of Jesus because God did not and does not leave us in our brokenness of sin and rebellion. Jesus says in John 15:11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. God brings us new life, life full of life and joy.

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Sarah sits down with Clarence to talk about life struggles and how he finds Joy in the midst of crazy busy work schedule, his wife temporarily living in another state, and experiencing the loss of their son. And Michael and Sarah discuss what Gospel reminders have brought them joy recently.

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One of the sad things about people who call themselves Christians, is that they are afraid of their worries and doubts. Too many people try to push any doubts out of their minds as if even having a doubt is a sin (as if it makes us not steadfast in our trust in Christ). Being steadfast doesn’t mean we don’t have questions, it means that we believe that ultimately we know (whether we fully understand it or not) who the ultimate answer truly is. Faith in God is not faith untroubled by anxiousness or doubt, it is a faith in spite of it. An elderly woman asked the great church reformer, Martin Luther, about faith though she has doubt, he said “tell me, when you recite the creeds, do you believe them?” She says “yes, most certainly,” his response was “then go in peace, you believe more and better than I.”

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This week, Michelle sits down with Allison and discusses what steadfastness has looked like in her life, and specifically the past couple of years of marriage and moving to rural Texas to be with dying father.

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The people making the ascent to worship God in these Psalms of Ascent endured multiple hardships. They walked and prayed what they did because they knew that God is a rescuer of those who cry out. We know that He is the God of the Passover, the God of the Exodus, and ultimately of Easter; the God of slavery, death, life, freedom. The cross is where the reality of our image bearing becomes a restored reality. Peterson writes, “If God is worth our attention at all, he must be a God we can look up to—a God we must look up to…The moment we look up to God (and not over at Him, or down on Him) we are in the posture of servitude.” As servants we serve Him as peacemakers, calling the world to understand not only who made them, but how they were made to live.

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