Scripture Talk by Grace Church

The birth of Jesus upends everything, and one man was chosen to be the herald of that: John the Baptist. John got his own herald: his father, Zechariah. This work of heraldry declares that John is indeed important, but it's because of what Christ will do and how he will witness to it. Zechariah's song is also a song of realized hope - the child that he had hoped for and the savior that he has been awaiting. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy show how this song can become our song as well.

A fig tree blooms. Summer is coming! We are so programmed to think of the end of the age as something terrible, but Christ describes it as momentary disruption followed by summer (not winter). We celebrate this kind of incoming age every year. Christ's life was its own apocalyptic event. It ended an age and brought in a new one. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, and Pastor Scott examine how we are better off in this age than we were before, and what that might mean for the age to come.

In the face off between Jesus and Pilot, both of them were rulers. Pilot represented the greatest earthly empire to date. Jesus represented a kingdom so out of this world that Pilot couldn't comprehend it. Through this conversation, Jesus makes clear which kingdom you want to be a part of. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy delve into the stark difference in kingdom and ruler.

All things (not just all good things) come to an end. We know that the Bible contains a lot about the End Times, but often, we misunderstand what they mean. We link them with disaster movies, where all of humanity is destroyed, but the end of all things, in Scripture, is always the chance for God to do something wonderful and new. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy look at Christ's prediction that the Temple will fall and seek the hope that it has for us.

What we need to believe is simple enough. God is real. God loves you. God gave us Christ who died for us. We can have salvation through that sacrifice. However, the next level question from there is far more challenging. Why did that sacrifice work? Why is that what gives us access to God's grace? This is where the Letter to the Hebrews comes in. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy dig through Hebrews' occasionally dense logic to get at the true nature of Christ.

We ran into some truly horrific technical issues with our first attempt to get this episode up online, but here it is in its originally intended form. Ruth is a headline figure in Scripture. She's in King David's family, which means she's in Christ's family. She's also a Moabite woman, who would have been as social reject by God's people at the time. What makes her a pillar of faith? It's her choices. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy look at how Ruth chooses God and how we can do the same.

Man cries out. Jesus hears him. Man gets healed. Man begins a journey following Christ. The Gospels contain a lot of healing miracles, and Mark's Gospel is particularly focused on them. This one's different, though. It tells us more about the healed than the healer. It shows us a model for our own Christian journey. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy examine how we should walk based on how this man walks.

We sing a lot about how we know God personally. How God walks with us, and talks with us, and tells us that we are God's own. Do we stop and think about who we are actually walking and talking with? That's the challenge of Job 38 - to take in the utter magnitude of God's greatness. God, in responding to Job, stretches out the true breadth of God's power. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, and Pastor Scott guide us all into to stare into the true nature of God.

The bits where Jesus talks about money are some of the most feared sayings in the Bible. Most Christians know them deep inside, and most Christians don't follow them to the extent demanded by Christ. It's one of the reason that we're so sensitive around church based money talk. The story in Mark 10, where a rich man walks away unable to give it all up, is certainly in that category of terrifying challenge. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy examine the inescapable nature of this Scripture.

Job is an ancient poem about an equally ancient question. Why do bad things happen to good people? The human brain loves the idea of, "do good, get good" and "do bad, get bad." However, our reality seldom lines up that cleanly. In a faith context, the question rests even more uncomfortably. If God is good, why do bad things happen to God's people? Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy dive into Job, who he is, and how he sets a faithful example of navigating a painful world.