Refuge Audio Podcast

What will Heaven be like? Guest teacher Charlie Campbell lays out ten wonderful truths about the eternal home awaiting all who are redeemed through Jesus Christ.

Over and over, God has proven Himself faithful to give insight and understanding as we simply commit to wrestling with Him. Like Jacob in his actual wrestling match with the Lord, we can say, “I’m not going to let you go until You bless me” as we wrestle with Him through His word. We can say, “I’m not letting this passage go, Lord, until you bless me and give me insight and understanding.” And then, it can be our glory to search those things out as we wrestle with Him (see Proverbs 25:2). Watch our study of Matthew 17:24-27 as we wrestled with the Lord about the topics of death and…taxes?

What does it mean to be greatly used of God? How does Jesus view and define greatness? How does one become great in His Kingdom? These are the questions we asked as we considered the stark and serious statement Jesus made to the Apostles, who promptly argued afterward.

The only hope for lasting change in our country and communities is not found in our own intellect, abilities, or strategies, but only in Jesus. Our only aim is to bring people to Him and watch Him pour out His power in love by His Holy Spirit. This might seem irrelevant in light of the section of scripture we considered this past Sunday. But as we work our way through it, we see the importance of looking up instead of within—of looking to Jesus instead of anything else as we bring people to Him.

There are moments in the Gospels when we read of Jesus and His disciples on a mountain. These are typically profound yet temporary moments of intense emotional or spiritual experience. In those moments, we witness a profound sense of connection, joy, or revelation. We can also have those mountaintop experiences—times of solitude that bring clarity and inspiration. And if we are honest, we wouldn’t mind staying put and enjoying times of elation for as long as we could. But life wasn’t meant to be lived just on the mountain. We experience those moments to endure difficult times in the valley. 

The life of a believer isn’t just being born again to wait around in a spiritual diaper until He returns. We have work to do that we have been called to do—saving souls and making disciples. To participate with Him in this work, we must learn what it means to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.

Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good, for God was with Him. And yet, the scribes and the Pharisees from Jerusalem were constantly finding fault with Jesus. They were supposed to be devoted to Scripture, but at some point, they began to believe that their culture was more important—even than Scripture. We, too, are guilty of sanctifying our own preferences, or writing our own set of rules, or preserving our own culture at the expense of Scripture. And when we do that, we are in danger of the same exhortation from Jesus we read of in Matthew 15.