How much religious activity would it take to make up for the parts of life we still withhold from God? In Isaiah 1, Israel brings a multitude of sacrifices, gathers for solemn assemblies, and makes many prayers—yet God addresses his people as Sodom and Gomorrah and says their worship has become a burden to him.

It’s great to know about how amazing Jesus is and wonderful to find out that the angels are incredibly powerful creations He made, too. But, where does that leave us?

We’ve all charged after something we thought would finally set things right, only to watch it cost us everything we hoped to protect. That’s the dumb-ox pattern God confronts in Isaiah 1 when he asks his people, “Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel?”

It’s great to know about how amazing Jesus is and wonderful to find out that the angels are incredibly powerful creations He made, too. But, where does that leave us?

An ox knows who feeds it; a donkey knows its master’s crib. But what about God’s people — including us? We forget.

A vaccination can leave you feeling wretched for a week, tempting you to wish you could undo it and try again later. That’s the kind of pressure that hits when the gospel goes out in Acts 14—Paul and Barnabas meet rising opposition in Iconium, and the question becomes how we press ahead without quitting or compromising.

It’s great to know about how amazing Jesus is and wonderful to find out that the angels are incredibly powerful creations He made, too. But, where does that leave us?

We know if a business or sports team rebuild, there is a lot of uncertainty. So what about when God rebuilds the whole universe?

When things go badly, it’s easy to assume God’s favor has lifted—and that assumption runs deep enough that entire churches have been built on promising the opposite. Yet in Acts 13, the disciples who have just heard the gospel find themselves filled with joy and the Holy Spirit at precisely the moment Paul and Barnabas are driven out of the district, which raises a question worth sitting with: what if hardship isn’t the absence of God’s blessing at all?