Family Chapel

The Word of God is indispensable to a thriving life. And yet, we often treat God’s Word as either optional or a boring obligation. Rather than dismissing God's Word, how can we rightly engage with God’s Word? James calls us to rightly engage with God's Word by hearing God's Word and by doing God's Word.

While everyone goes through trials in life, not everyone grows through those trials. Here in our passage, James shows how we can better navigate our trials so that they don't morph into destructive temptations. If we want to come out the other side better rather than bitter, we need to guard our hearts and we need to guide our eyes.

The Christian life is a dynamic life that involves growth. As such, Christians are called to walk on the path to maturity. In our passage, James shows us what the path to maturity involves. It involves embracing trials as opportunities for growth, praying for wisdom in faith, and finding one's identity in the Gospel.

God offers a final word of encouragement to His people by promising them hope. And the hope that God offers is the establishing of His Kingdom through the Messiah. Zerubbabel serves as a confirmation and a preview of the King who is to come - Jesus Christ. And through our passage, we see that what we need in order to thrive in seasons of uncertainty and difficulty is hope. And for us, this biblical hope is guaranteed, it is eschatological, and it is Christ-centered.

We are continuing our Haggai Series looking at Haggai 2:10-19. In the previous two weeks, we learned that thriving in "less than ideal" circumstances calls for right priorities (worshipping God) and obedience (obeying God). This week, we will learn the third aspect, which was purity (right heart towards God). Even when the Israelites were doing their external duties, their work was defiled as their hearts were not right. So as they were called to rebuild the temple, the call was to also check their hearts and relationship towards God. In the end, there is a message of hope and grace, as God promises to bless them even though they were a defiled people.

After the Israelites respond to God's call to rebuild the Temple, initial excitement soon gives way deep discouragement. Like the Israelites, we too may experience the difficulties of obedience. But as God's people, we should live in obedience to God because there are some important blessings that only come through obedience. Obedience brings the blessing of God's presence. Obedience brings the blessing of God's provision. And obedience brings the blessing of unexpected fruit.

After returning from exile in Babylon, the Israelites were initially filled with excitement to be back. But their excitement quickly gave way to apathy, and decades later, the Temple still remained in ruins. In their failure to prioritize worship, God sends the prophet Haggai to re-issue the call to rebuild the Temple. Worship is to be a priority among the people of God. And a life empty of worship actually leads to a life filled with frustration. Therefore, we should seek to make worship a priority as we seek to live a thriving life.

As Christians, we feel the tension of having both earthly citizenship and heavenly citizenship. We are in the world, but not of the world. So, what does it look like to rightly engage with our world? How can we thrive with civic health? Well, rather than isolating ourselves from the world or assimilating ourselves to the world, thriving with civic health means actively seeking to bring comprehensive renewal to the city by pursuing its common good. And as disciples of Christ, we can do so by practicing proximity, preaching the Gospel, and pressing on in hope.

This Sunday we will look at "Thriving with Financial Health". Rather than looking at it from a pure "get your finances in check" point of view (albeit important), I wanted to give weight to the topic the way the Bible addresses it, which is mainly an issue of the heart. We will first explore the warnings and dangers the Bible presents in regards to the love of money. Then we will learn that thriving financially is not so much how many zeros we have in our bank account, but rather in radical generosity and faithful stewardship as an expression of faith that in Christ, we have gained everything.

Work is undoubtedly a very important part of our lives. Most of us will spend on average about 100,000 hours of our lives doing work. But our work is more than just our job or our career, but it is our calling. Historically, Christians have understood that it was God who called them to do certain work. And if we are called by God, then our vocation flows out of our discipleship to Jesus. Based on a biblical theology of work, thriving with our vocational health means doing our work well to bring glory to God and good to our neighbors, as we bring together our competency, conviction, and compassion.